Written by: Rohan Kumar
As the pandemic hit the globe last year and everyone was forced to stay in their homes, the video gaming industry took off as most people found gaming to be one of the options to keep busy. So much so that even the World Health Organization encouraged video gaming as an activity to help stay safe yet to be socially connected with others.
Video games like Among Us and Valorant (read: Quarantine games) couldn’t have gone unheard of to us, as most of us played them or at least considered playing them with those pestering friends of ours. Among Us, which made more friendships go kaput than it created, went on to be the most downloaded mobile game of 2020. Though it topped the charts for 2020, there exists another famous title that sank in the rubble of politics and criticism.
PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) is one of the most successful online games of recent times. Battle Royale games such as PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends — wherein typically a hundred players fight on an island to be the last team — have blown up and placed consistently on the video gaming industry’s top charts.
Originally a PC game, the mobile version of PUBG was launched in cooperation with Chinese publisher Tencent Games in early 2018. Word about the game spread fast, and the game took India by storm, soon to be titled the ‘Best Mobile Game’ of 2018.
PUBG Mobile, though launched, later on, surpassed the PC version (in terms of average active players) by a landslide. It even became the top Esports game and revolutionized Esports in India.
Image source: Businessofapps
According to reports, over 73% of total PUBG players were playing the mobile version of the game. It became so popular that PC Streamers ditched PUBG PC and started using emulators to run the PC game’s Mobile version to play it on their PC — that was what gave them the numbers.
Until the recent and final ban, India accounted for over 50% of players of PUBG Mobile, keeping aside the ‘Game for peace’ (a ‘censored’ version of the game for Chinese players)
Why did PUBG have such a breakthrough in India, such that even the Prime Minister was recognizant of the distraction it caused to students?
The answer lies in several influencing factors, which led the game to its fame.
• Device availability: Smartphones are more accessible to most of the Indian population than gaming consoles and PCs, and hence mobile gaming has become the most prevalent.
• Game availability: PUBG Mobile is free-to-play, unlike the paid PC and console versions. Also, it was launched at a time when there was no other competition, giving it a critical edge in the mobile gaming market.
• Hardware versatility: PUBG mobile was swiftly optimized and updated to run smoothly on low-end devices and become accessible to those with a lower budget phone. (Later on, a separate light version was also launched)
• Quality & Theme: Keeping aside the casual games, more significant game releases like this one were not seen before on mobile devices. The ability to pick up your phone, and compete against a hundred players at once to come out on top is the driving factor for the gaming youth.
All of this, combined with the fact that Reliance Jio had just transformed mobile connectivity across India just prior to the game’s launch, gave PUBGM the key to its success. Students, shopkeepers, farmers, celebrities — everyone with willingness and a smartphone was playing the game.
Image source : The Bindu Times on Instagram
The revolutionizing factor and what made it outdo a mobile game was the addition of in-game voice chat, which does more than allowing teammates to coordinate during the matches. It gives a way to better connect with friends, or make new ones instead. As a whole, the game became a good medium to socialize.
On the downside, the game has been suggested to be distracting and addictive. There also have been numerous unfortunate events- involving loss of life, behind the game.
The game does have an addictive nature, which can be attributed to obtaining a groundless sense of achievement from scoring against enemy teams and winning. Also, the presence of a ranking system- wherein better performance in the game gives more points; and more points promote to a higher league- makes the player fully invested in the game while pursuing higher leagues.
This system was gradually, but not initially, introduced to PUBGM. However, this does not make it any different from other online competitive games.
So what was it with PUBG Mobile, anyway? The fact that it was highly engaging yet so easily accessible.
Unlike kids usually having to ask their parents to buy or use gaming devices, all they would require now was their parents’ smartphone or better yet, their own.
The ability to play on a personal and portable device meant that misuse was imminent. If you recall correctly, two years ago, you would’ve surely seen kids in groups of fours, sitting on benches with their eyes glued to their phones and one of them shouting, “Jaldi revive de!” (Revive me fast!). They were the kids sitting away from home to get their daily dose of the famed game. Either that, well, or they could just be in disguise while actually posting an advertisement to sell you on the dark web.
To be able to play freely and out of bounds is what the problem is. It can also be said that as PUBG Mobile brought sudden access to core video gaming throughout the country, many parents did not comprehend the newly formed gaming habits of their children, which let their addictions develop unchecked.
It is why our younglings’ studies got affected, or they started to lose their minds behind the game.
In this regard, it is vital to spread awareness about healthy gaming habits and to maintain them. One should be aware of and look for the early signs of video gaming addiction, whether in themselves or their loved ones, and act as early as possible. Those too young should be strictly monitored or not allowed to play at all since they cannot decide the best for themselves.
In the case of PUBG Mobile, it has managed to draw more than its fair share of criticism.
Image source: Rohan Kumar
While it’s far from having graphic content, calls for bans have been long called owing to the game ‘promoting violence’ amongst children and teens.
But if we were really to go on a witch-hunt after video games actually depicting violence, our beloved Call of Duty series as we recall it today would have been condemned out of existence.
Therefore, is banning or censoring everything really the solution? If so, our primary focus should be on completely taking down social media, owing to being the most significant medium of cyber-bullying and harassment, while also having unfiltered content unsafe for viewing for children — of a violent or sexual nature. All of this is aside from the direct implications of social media associated with sabotaging mental health.
However, if Instagram alone was banned here and now, then it would tend to have a lot more adverse effects for you than beneficial ones.
Hence, a cancel-culture can hardly ever be the solution. The onus is on us and our guardians to ensure that we use all platforms responsibly, to reap all the benefits while attempting to avoid all dangers as far as possible: always recognizing when to quit, and when not to join at all.
In India, however, PUBG continued to draw flak and during the ongoing border standoff with China, the Indian government placed the final nail in the coffin on September 2, 2020, when PUBG Mobile was banned along with 117 other apps connected to Chinese developers.
There were speculations of a comeback after PUBG corporation announced the withdrawal of rights from Tencent games for the Indian franchise- Instead, the South Korean company would itself take on all publishing responsibility in the country while also offering to work with the government to find a solution. Parent company Krafton had also announced a separate version of the game for India in November last year.
However, nine months on, as in April 2021, there has been no actual release, but there do seem to have been some developments towards this release, with increasing speculations about a launch at a future date.
Some waited patiently for what would be a made-in-India version of the game, ‘FAU-G’, but it was a massive letdown for everyone as soon as it launched earlier this year.
In the recent weeks, multiple professional PUBGM gamers dropped hints towards the return soon, which is in contrast to the response received to an RTI query back in January from the Government of India, quoting “No formal dialogue with PUBG/Krafton is held by the Ministry’’. The subject of the return of the game still remains a hot topic.
The overall positive effects of the ban can be illustrated from the helpful infographic shown below :
Correct. As can be seen, the ban hardly did any good. It actually just scratched the surface of the problem. The moment PUBG was banned, the downloads of the competitor games shot up. People jumped to get alternatives, while others continue to play the original game on VPNs or versions of the game from other countries instead.
For once, let’s talk about the bright side of video gaming.
• Action video gamers have better eye-hand coordination and visuomotor skills. Playing open-world games improve visual-spatial thinking, and attentional skills.
• As every game has its own challenge, excluding the exceptions, it requires problem-solving ability and critical thinking. Experiments have indicated an increase in cognition in professional gamers. Video games have also been shown to encourage creative thinking.
• Communicating in online games helps make social connections, and offers a fun yet safe way to interact with strangers. Video games themselves can offer a good topic of discussion and bonding
• Most importantly, video games help reduce stress and hostile feelings and help improve a person’s mood. Specifically designed therapeutic games can help with mental disorders.
Now as far as PUBG Mobile goes, it may or may not make a comeback, probably as the Global version, or probably as a new Indian one. It may not get clearance at all, maybe it will. Even if it does return to India, I don’t plan to have it again. We’re now ahead of the peak days of the game. The days when everyone was just playing the game for the fun of trying it out, and not to score higher for the competition’s sake. The days when everyone across all cities was only talking about the game; when it was still new, fresh, and simple — and not desperately over-upgraded for keeping it alive. The days when it was the Best Mobile game of India. It was a game of an era.
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