On September 2, the Indian government decided to ban another 118 Chinese-linked mobile applications, including PUBG-Mobile. This is the third wave of bans that have been issued by the government.
Here’s why I am not okay with this move.
Firstly, the ban is a really huge loss for the gaming and e-sports community in India. The mobile gaming community has expressed its disappointment and I fully understand where that stems from.
A lot of young, talented individuals had invested a lot of time and effort to reach new heights in the game, including tournaments held internationally. They represented India at a global platform through PUBG-M.
What has actually really disturbed and irked me is how there are so many people rejoicing the ban, and it reflects how truly little people understand, or even want to understand, about the world of gaming.
The ignorance is reflected with people trolling anyone mourning the PUBG-M ban with ignorant and petty jokes. The argument then devolves to people trying to assert that mobile gaming is ‘not real gaming’.
Well, I beg to differ. How I see it is that mobile gaming is inclusive in nature – it is accessible to people across the spectrum as long as they have access to a mobile phone and internet. On the other hand, PC gaming is not all that affordable and accessible.
Personally, I have met some incredibly talented people on the gaming platform that have not only taken the game seriously but have also, to an extent, planned a career with it. What breaks my heart is the fact that they are losing the opportunity.
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I remember how popular the word ‘grind’ was in the game and how each player would respect and relate to the other’s struggle in reaching top tiers of the PUBG community. Some of these people had set aside their education, invested a lot of money and a great deal of patience to learn, improve and perfect their gameplay.
For a lot of us who were frustrated and lonely in quarantine, PUBG connected us to people. I personally used it as a stress buster from all the chaos this pandemic has thrown up and I met an overwhelming amount of people who joined the game during lockdown.
They can still find an alternative but what about those who pursued this game professionally?
A lot of gamers who used YouTube to share the knowledge of the game will also be affected. Professional Gamers like Sc0utOP, MortaL, VipeR, ClutchGod etc will now have a hard time recovering from this, especially after having contributed so much to the gaming and e-sports community in India.
What surprises me more is the fact that PUBG-Mobile, a Korean app which is distributed by Tencent (a Chinese company), was banned even as ‘Call of Duty-Mobile’, which is distributed by the same company, is still available.
Suchandana Patoa is a liberal arts student who is constantly learning from changing perspectives of life.