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BANGALORE: India does not have a lot of history with popular computer games, unlike the United States and Japan. But now, one of the industry's titles to kill or be killed has become a hit – and the reaction of the country's traditionalists is fierce.
PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds are a Hunger Games type competition where 100 players face each other with machine guns and assault rifles until there is only one player left. only player standing.
After China's Tencent Holdings introduced a mobile version of the death match that is free to play, it has become the most popular smartphone game in the world, with fans ranging from the United States to Russia to the United States. Malaysia.
Nowhere has gambling resistance been so similar to India. Many cities banned PUBG, as is well known, and West Indian police arrested 10 college students for playing. The National Commission of the Rights of the Child has recommended to ban gambling because of its violent nature.
One of the largest Hindi newspapers in India said PUBG was an "epidemic" turning children into "manorogi" or psychopaths. "There are dangerous consequences for this game," warned the Navbharat Times in an editorial on March 20. "Many children have lost their mental balance."
Computer games have outraged parents and politicians for at least 20 years since Grand Theft Auto first let players tamper with drugs, hunt prostitutes and kill strangers to steal their car.
Last year, China experienced its most serious crackdown on gambling, blocking the approval of new titles and strengthening the control of addiction and adverse health effects.
The difference with India is the speed with which the country landed in the strange digital world without laws or morals. He jumped two decades of debate and adjustment, bringing the era of modern gaming in a few months.
Rural communities that have never had a PC or game console have received a smartphone in recent years – and wireless service has become affordable for almost everyone after last year's price war.
With half a billion Internet users looking for entertainment, PUBG has triggered a frenzy. A student competition in the southern city of Hyderabad received 250,000 registrations from more than 1,000 colleges.
A team left with a prize of 1.5 million rupees (22,000 USD) among the best players of PUBG, just days before the arrests of this month.
Aryaman Joshi, 13, played at PUBG for a few hours each day and says that all his friends play too. "It's a bit violent and there are a lot of shots, so boys like me like that," he said. His mother, Gulshan Walia, says he wants to take a realistic approach to Aryaman's game.
This type of demand suggests India's potential as a gaming market. It's tiny today and generates a tiny turnover of 290 million US dollars. But it is already the second largest smartphone market after China and the fastest growing.
"PUBG blew up the online gaming market and demonstrated that India was a very attractive market," said Lokesh Suji, president of the Gurgaon-based Indian Sports Federation (Esports).
As long as the authorities do not smother it first. Local politicians, parents and teachers expressed outrage over PUBG, arguing that the game would incite violence and divert students from their academics.
They accused the game of being bullied, robbed and, in one case in Mumbai, of a teenager's suicide. A local minister went so far as to call it a "demon in every house."
At a public meeting last month, a worried mother complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about her son's reliance on mobile games. "Is that the PUBG?" Modi replied. An 11-year-old has even filed a lawsuit in a court in Mumbai for a ban on the sport.
The South Korean company Bluehole Inc., which created the original PC PUBG and then partnered with Tencent for the mobile version, took a cautious approach.
The company said it was reviewing the legal basis of the bans in different cities and would consult with the authorities to find a solution. "We are working on setting up a healthy gambling system in India to promote a balanced and responsible game, including limiting the playing time of underage players," the company said.
As the game is so new in India, there is no regulatory policy in place. However, Tencent currently prohibits players under 13 in China from playing PUBG and imposes restrictions such as real name registrations. In Germany, players under 16 are limited.
A clinic to break down digital addictions, run by the country's National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience in Bangalore, is recording several cases of PUBG addiction each week.
An 11 year old PUBG player recently entered the clinic with his parents who lamented that he wants to leave school to become a professional PUBG player.
Dr. Manoj Sharma, who runs the clinic, says game makers need to take on more responsibility. "There should be a ban on minor players," he said. "The addiction has reached unprecedented proportions."
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