You mentioned playing multiple games across your childhood. I did too, and I have fond memories of dozens of them and various styles (platformers, puzzles, FPS, RPG, etc). My son, left to choose, will just play Fortnite. It feels a bit like an adult only watching Marvel movies and ignoring brilliant movies made in other genres, with other pacing, from other cultures. Or eating fries and drinking Coke while ignoring every other cuisine. Bit of a monoculture.

I've played a fair bit of Fortnite Duos with him (or Squads), and don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the design and so on. It's a fun, clever game. The juicing I'm talking about is the chests, and the skins, and rolling in the latest movie co-marketing. And the way it is all stimulus and barely story.

I had periods of time where I played nothing but a single game, though those were never more than a few months. Definitely seems like it would be good for your son to broaden his gaming horizons somewhat.

Re: "Juicing" - I saw the word and immediately assumed you were using the definition from this classic gamedev talk, well worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg

Yes, I also focused on single games at times, but like you it was for a month or two. He's played almost nothing but Fortnite for two years. He only plays Minecraft or Goat Simulator because I don't let his younger siblings play/watch Fortnite, and he only played a Star Wars flightsim game because I occasionally say he's allowed to play games but only if it's not Fortnite.

Meanwhile, I can recall dozens of really memorable games I played while growing up. And into adulthood, there have been fantastic games with storylines comparable to all-time classic movies. Imagine missing GTA V, Last of Us, Red Dead, HZD and so on because you only ever played multiplayer CoD for years on end; huge shame, IMO.

And yes, I know that video - we tried to use that thinking with a game we developed. I was thinking of juicing beyond visual gameplay. Chests that act like gambling scratchies, etc.

I think the major draw to games like Fortnite that was not around when I (or possibly you) were a kid is the social element. Playing an awesome, gripping story single player game gets them zero social points. Joining a friend and bragging you have the latest movie co-marketing thing in Fortnite gets social points.

I think this is what it was for me. I played a huge variety of games growing up, and it was multiplayer, specifically multiplayer that built stronger ties to socialize that became the biggest draw. Warcraft 3 was a blast online with friends, but Starcraft I could join a clan and always have friends online to play with.