PUBG addiction: game developers’ fault or bad parenting?
While some government authorities are pondering on whether to ban the online multiplayer first person shooter game PUBG (PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds) on android platform, the Gujarat government has already done so. Anyone caught playing PUBG in Gujarat will now be arrested and taken into custody. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is painfully true that now you can be arrested for playing a game that has been gaining fame not just in India but all over the world. No other governing authority in the world has incited such a ban on PUBG except the Gujarat government. So here is a question to ponder upon, how is it PUBG’s fault that students are not able to control themselves and more importantly that the parents cannot discipline their children? There are too many games in the android platform or Google Play Store for one to count. Why not ban all those games as well?
Here is the harsh reality that everyone must come to realize before making such ridiculous statements like a game is ruining their child’s life. While India is facing a digital boom in terms of smartphones and data plans, the broadband and laptop/PC market has increased only somewhat. Parents are now willing to buy their children low-end budget smartphones rather than buying them a laptop or PC because it would be more costly. Since many children belonging to the lower middle class and middle-class have not played a game of this level, they have now become crazy and addicted to PUBG as it is probably the first FPS (first-person shooter) game to have come on android platform. FPS games prior to PUBG have all been played either on PCs or on consoles, two gadgets that majority of the Indian kids have not had their hands on because of the poor lifestyle they live compared to the western lifestyle where kids are gifted consoles once they become six or seven-year-old. In other words, PUBG is the first FPS game that majority of the kids got their hands on, so it was only a matter of time that they would become crazy and “addicted” to the game. Even before PUBG came into light, adults were already complaining on how kids do not play outdoor games anymore and prefer to be engaged on smartphones all the time. So, who is at fault over here? Is it really PUBG that is merely an online gaming platform like many other games or is it the parents that have pampered their kids too much that they have now gone out of control and have become brats?
There have been a plethora of FPS games that have made their mark in the gaming industry before PUBG did and they never faced such a backlash. The only reason PUBG is facing so much of flak and only in India, is that because it is the first FPS game to have been made available in android platform. So before blaming the game and game developers, parents should point the finger at themselves for the way they are raising their children given their respective circumstances. There has been news regarding suicide of kids occurring because they were denied to play PUBG or their phone was snatched away from their parents. Are you going to blame the PUBG developers for forcing the kids to take such an extreme action if their parents suddenly act all strict and violent after pampering their kids as though they were infants all along up to that respective day? An ending note to all parents: instead of blaming a game for what really seems to be your fault, you should perhaps consider using that time and energy to think of ways to stop this pampering in a smooth yet effective way.
