Pune: “Because of you, I got killed!” yelled a player to the other as breaking down yet another friendship. Blame it on PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds), a game that was launched in March 2018 and took the entire gaming community by storm. The game was so enticing that it saw maximum downloading and playing it for hours so much so that it took control of the players’ lives socially and professionally.
“Many office workers were found playing during important conferences leading to heated arguments. Furthermore, it had a huge impact on interpersonal relations turning friends and teammates into bitter rivals,” said a woman entrepreneur on a condition of anonymity.
“The game designed to build connections with players around the world often turned awry on the home turf when two friends in the same team blamed each other. The lines started to blur and the virtual battleground eventually turned into a real battleground,” said Arvind Kanate, a teacher.
For Sunder Gariya (21), a student of mass communication, a simple misfire got his classmate killed. She then yelled at him on the next day in front of the class after which they stopped speaking to each other for three days. Another player, Gaurav Rathi (24), working at Amazon, couldn’t save his cousin brother in the middle of a shootout and this led to a quarrel. “We both blamed that the other couldn’t play or didn’t know the best strategy,” he said. Although they made up, they stopped playing with each other.
Akhil Nayar (20) a dancer by profession, had a huge spat with his friend over PUBG which quickly turned extremely sour. “He blocked me on WhatsApp and even stopped taking my calls. I know if I meet him again, he will surely kill me,” added Nair.
It has also created a rift between the PUBG playing and non-PUBG playing friends. While some are being pestered to jump on the bandwagon, others have completely cut off ties from those spending too much time on the game. Tanvi Gudipudi (20) from MIT Institute of Design, recounted how her friends who had no interest in PUBG would see the rest all on their phones and would walk away disappointed, without saying anything. “I was really hyped for the game but my roommate absolutely hated it. So, I downloaded it in secret and when she found out, she stormed off and we weren’t on speaking terms for nearly a week!” she said.
Dr Bhooshan Shukla, a psychiatrist, said, “The reaction out of this game is like how adults on social media react and fight with users who they haven’t even seen ever. In every couple of months, we find a new game is launched which takes over the children and youngsters. For this, parents need to draw a digital strategy at home, wherein it’s not mandatory for the child to catch up on every latest trend. While teenagers who are in the hostel, they can take up the responsibility to stop something which affects their personality and relations.”
