Youth Talk

If you, unlike me, haven’t been living under a rock, chances are that you’ve heard of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), an online battle royale first-person shooting game.

It was developed by Brendan Greene, who’s now employed by Korean game developer, Bluehole.

For me, the very first time I heard of it was only a week ago, despite the game having been around for more than two years now!

It was in one of my classes when I first learned of the game when we students were shown a video of a street interview conducted in India asking people what they thought about what was then several regions’ request for a ban on the game, in an effort to quash the increasing number of peoples spending increasing amounts of time playing PUBG Mobile.

As of today, the game has been banned in the state of Gujarat, and around 21 people, most of them students, have been arrested. Those accused have since been released on bail.

That’s right, many officials in India, believe the game to be so adverse it warrants a ban. One even claimed it to be a ‘demon in every house’.

Personally, and judging from the game trailer as well, I fully understand why it has garnered so much acclaim and would readily welcome a chance to try out the game for myself.

It’s quite realistic looking and I’ve learned that several more factors account for the game’s success: its ‘multiplayer’ feature is part of its attraction as is its chat feature and more importantly, genre.

Sure, the game’s supposedly ‘addictive’ nature can prove detrimental if abused, but I bet far more people are benefitting from it than not.

There are many who fear the game is negatively affecting studies, and this forms the basis for the ban, but surely students in India could use an outlet to de-stress?

I suppose those officials who seem to have taken real offence to the increased number of people playing it can rest assured – on Saturday, PUBG Mobile rolled out a time limit for its players in India, where after having reached a total playing time of six hours, they are locked out of the game until they play again the next day – and move onto more pressing issues.

We were shown that street interview in class to discuss whether such ban should be implemented here in the kingdom. I think not.