A Canadian law firm called Calex Légal is preparing a class action lawsuit against Fortnite developer Epic Games, claiming that they knowingly made the video game too addictive.
According to Techspot, the lawsuit claims that people who play Fortnite experience a dopamine release in their brain similar to when taking drugs, like cocaine.
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A Calex Légal attorney named Alessandra Esposito Chartrand expressed the focus of the class action lawsuit: "Epic Games, when they created Fortnite, for years and years, hired psychologists - they really dug into the human brain and they really made the effort to make it as addictive as possible. They knowingly put on the market a very, very addictive game which was also geared toward youth."
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Behind the lawsuit are the parents of two children, age 10 and 15, who say their kids are addicted to Fortnite. The lawsuit also sites a 2015 class-action lawsuit against tobacco companies, which found that the companies did not take the necessary steps to warn users about health issues that arise from smoking. Now Epic Games is being pressed with the same claim, that they do not warn players of how addictive the game apparently is.
Earlier this year The World Health Organization recognized "video game addiction" as an official mental health disorder. It is defined as “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that “takes precedence over other interests and daily activities."
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