Aldi can help parents to distract their children from Fortnite

British supermarket chain Aldi has launched a fun action called Teatime Takedown. It encourages parents to apply for a particular number, if the child misses the family dinner again, unable to break away from the video game.

It works the following way: the parent sends the child’s nickname in the game to the store, selects the date and time. At the appointed time, Aldi adds a squad of professional players to the game, and they continuously look for the child’s profile in the match and “kill” him. If the child decides to enter a new match, the Aldi team will find him and takedown him there again. There is no revival in Fortnite: you either have to wait for the end of the match if the player plays in the team, or look for a new match. 

There is always a lot of hype around Fortnite. The game has been repeatedly accused of addiction comparable to drugs, and not only the parents of young gamers did it, but the girls and wives of adult men - some couples even point at Fortnite as the reason for the divorce.

Last year, journalists wrote about several cases where an excessive passion for the game led the child to sad consequences. For example, parents had to send their 9-year-old daughter (note: Fortnite has PEGI 12 restriction) to a psychiatric clinic because of mental problems caused by playing the game. According to the psychologist who works with that girl, her parents didn’t notice the signs of addiction to the last. Although over the past three months she: 

• secretly woke up at night to play till morning
• refused to go to the toilet, so as not to miss what is happening on the screen
• hit her father in the face when he tried to take the Xbox away
• fell asleep at school because of games at night

It is worth noting that, despite numerous articles about children-gamers who suffered from Fortnite, only a tiny percentage of all Fortnite fans suffer from this addiction. But even this small part of the game’s audience is enough to attract attention when the total number of players exceeds 200 million users.

Apparently, the company decided this way help parents who can’t find the right method of the upbringing for a child in love with the game. However, the gaming community instantly responded to the company's video and, you know, not in a very positive way.

What are your thoughts on this Teatime thing?