Every season there is a movie, or a toy or perhaps even a book or a game that catches the fancy of
the masses or a segment of the population. The ‘Twilight’ series was a
phenomenon that created much excitement. These days, it is yet another online
game that is generating attention.
The rather innocuous sounding PUBG game has caught the fancy of
pre-teens, teens and youngsters all over the world. This game is a classic with
the winner being the last man standing. It all starts with 100 players on an 8
x 8 km island. There are three modes of play: solo, duo and squad, with the
latter letting you team up with three other players for a team of four. Each is
a little different with various pros and cons, the big pro of team-play being
that have people to support you, revive you and bring an element of
co-operative tactics to the game. This level of action and involvement may seem
fun but what has all this resulted in? The results have been quite shocking.
The violence in the game has had serious effects.
A year ago in Delhi, a 19-year-old man was arrested for
allegedly killing his parents and sister and investigations later revealed he
was addicted to the online battle game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds). A
senior Delhi police officer revealed that Suraj alias Sarnam Verma killed his
father Mithilesh, mother Siya and sister in the early hours and later ransacked
the house to make it look like a case of robbery. He was arrested the same
evening. While family members told police that they found Suraj to be a “quiet
and nice” fellow, his neighbours said there were frequent quarrels in the
family over his behaviour. The game encouraged a change in his behaviour.
A couple of days ago, a sixteen-year-old died from a cardiac
arrest after playing for six hours straight. On May 28, Furkhan Qureshi, a
12th-grader from the town of Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh, suffered a cardiac
arrest after he spent six hours straight fighting for his chicken dinner on the
popular mobile gaming app PUBG.
His father, Harun Rashid Qureshi, said, “Furkhan started playing
the game right after lunch and it continued for over six hours. Just before he
collapsed, he became very agitated and started shouting at other players.” His
sister Fiza Qureshi, who was right next to him when this happened, said, “My
brother was playing PUBG with some of his friends.” The doctor on the case
revealed the boy had shown no previous signs of heart ailment. He appealed to
children to stay away from the game as such dramatic surges in excitement could
cause cardiac arrest.
In Goa, the situation is not lagging behind. Psychiatrist Priya
Sanzigiri, who is based in Panjim, says that it was not unusual for her to
receive at least two cases every week or in a fortnight of addiction to this
online game.
Vinod Vernekar plays the game once or twice a week for a
duration of half an hour. The game, he agrees, is very addictive and with
teammates present online, it is very easy to spend time playing for hours. He
says that he came across this game a year and a half ago and he knew young boys
who were addicted to the game and played six hours a day. Their lives were
focussed on returning home from college and playing the game online. Many of
the young boys no longer going out and indulge in physical activities, he
reveals. There are also working professionals who are serious players of the
game. He says that the lure of the game is in the possibility of death at any
moment of time and the encouragement of the team members whose tactics can and
will help you too. That, he says, is very addictive for these young boys.
For Shenoy, a young junior college student who plays the game
every day in the evening after completing his tuitions, the experience of
having to tackle new situations and the possibility of being killed any moment
make for a very exciting proposition. He used to be a very enthusiastic
football player but after an accident, he had to spend time in bed and he
looked at other options to entertain himself and has never looked back after
going online.
Dr Priya Sanzgiri says that the pressure from peers is very
strong and the kids do not want to feel left out. “Earlier it was Pokemon and
now it is PUBG. This peer pressure is the same on children as well as adults.
Once you do it, you will repeat it.” She however emphasises that there is no
personality type amongst children that would be more attracted to such games.
Parents, she says, have to encourage children to get out in the physical world.
They can perhaps allow an hour of online gaming because she says it would be
impossible to make them stop now. This would bring a sense of balance.
She deals with at least two cases in the 13-14-year group every
fortnight and it is worrying. Their parents, she says, are sick with worry
because grades are falling and they can see their children change in front of
them. The WHO recently sparked debate by declaring gaming disorders on its list
of diseases, with many feeling it isn’t a fair decision. But it’s important to
acknowledge that even though not all games are dangerous, some can be seriously
addictive in a fatal way.
Salim Sheikh is a restaurateur in Panjim and plays the game to
bust his stress levels. He plays every day for an hour and believes if young
people get addicted to it, they could pay a heavy price. He says, “It is a game
and should be treated as such. Nothing more, nothing less.” But for every
Salim, there is a Govind Patoa, a communication professional, who knows of kids
who are addicted to it and yet plays it every day without fail. Since a game is
of thirty minutes duration if the person is not killed, many kids, he says, get
very good and play for six hours. It is not possible to play beyond that timeline.
Games
can be an entertaining avenue. One of the reasons PUBG is so popular is because
it doesn’t need any jarring controllers or connecting wires, just a mobile
connection. But because it’s easy to access, it’s also easy to get carried away
in the world where you parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons,
enough to lose oneself. So, while there’s already talks of blanket banning this
game, one of the first areas that should be addressed is how to exercise
caution and control towards the newest addiction.
