Chaitanya Sambyal
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, popularly known as “PUBG”, is an online multiplayer Battle Royale game; developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. Bluehole studio is now named as ‘Krafton Game Union’. If you play Pubg or if you’ve ever played the game, you’ll probably know how the game initiates. 100 players enter the game. The player or the squad then lands on the island with a parachute. They are empty handed when they land but then they have to loot for gun, grenades and other objects. Other players are also searching for the right weapons. It’s not just the enemies you have to contend with, the play area of the game also shrinks, forcing the players to occasionally sprint to a new section of the map. The main objective of the game is to kill the enemies and survive till the end of the game. “WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER” is a phrase used for the player or the team that wins. Pubg has over 400 million users with nearly 100 million users playing it on a daily basis. PUBG has often been referred to as the cricket of the esports world in India. Some people love it while some people are not into it, but almost everyone knows about it. Pubg has evolved the world of gaming and during the lockdown, more and more users got associated with the game. Pubg was the most played game in India during the covid-19 lockdown.
FROM AN UNDEREMPLOYED MAN TO THE MAN WHO CREATED THE BILLION-DOLLAR “PUBG” GAME
Brendan Greene, an Irish man was the person behind the Pubg game. From an underemployed man to a person who created a billion-dollar game, let’s take a look at the struggle story behind your favourite Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) game:
Brendan Greene was born in Ireland but later moved to Brazil where he worked as a photographer and a web designer. There he found his love and married her, but later got separated from his wife. After this, he headed back to his birthplace i.e Ireland. He began making his own way into gaming. As a part time web designer, he had the knowledge of basic coding. He experimented it with his own “mod” games. “MOD” refers to the custom versions of a video game that are created by gaming fans. Mods are created by doing some minor modifications. His interest in game development began after he created a mod of the famous game Arma:2. He created DayZ:Battle Royale, which was an offshoot of the renowned mod DayZ. Greene took inspiration from existing “survivor-style” mods created by online community as well as cult classic Japanese Sci-fi film “Battle Royale” in which 42 high school students are dropped on a deserted island, given weapons and then forced to kill each other until only one was left. He also took inspiration from a series of novels titled “Hunger Games”. Other developers took notice of how popular Green’s mods were. Sony Online Entertainment now known as DayBreak Game Company, hired Greene as a consultant to develop a game called “H1Z1”. When the two year consulting ended, he moved to Korea where he got an interesting offer. In 2016, a South Korean game company Bluehole (now Krafton Game Union) reached out to Greene about developing his own battle royale title, which would become Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG in short. The Bluehole Corporation offered him the post of Creative Director. The development of the game began in early 2016, and the game was completed and released in December 2017. It became a huge success despite bugs. After the mammoth success of the PC version of the game, the developers of the game formed the PUBG corporation, the sole developers of the game. After their deal with Microsoft to feature PUBG as a limited-time exclusive on their XBOX One console, PUBG Corporation decided it was time to rule the mobile gaming market.
WHAT MOTIVATION CAN WE EXTRACT FROM BRENDAN GREENE’S LIFE STORY?
When the PUBG creator “Brenden Greene” was in his life’s struggle phase, his parents were really worried that he was so indulged into making free gaming mods. They constantly used to ask him if he was making any money out of his hobby. Brendan once said in an interview, “That was quite tough, but I believed in the mods and I believed in the battle royales, so that’s where I dedicated my efforts.” So, a person must keep chasing his goals, because even the slightest of your efforts can take you to big heights.
IS “PUBG” A CHINESE GAME?
Today, India stands united in boycotting Chinese products and applications. However, many of the gamers were worried about the ban of PUBG. There was a lot of confusion regarding the true origin of PUBG. While several people have an opinion that PUBG is a South Korean game, many people believe that China enjoys the money earned from the game. PUBG mobile players will indeed be heartbroken to know that their favourite game’s origin can be traced back to China. The origin of Video game PUBG or the PC version of PUBG cannot be traced back to China as it existed way before Tencent Games came into the picture. Earlier PUBG was a video game but it was Tencent Games who made a Mobile Version of PUBG and released it in China. Tencent Games is the Video game publishing unit of Tencent Holdings, a Chinese Company. This is the reason you can see the Tencent Games logo as soon as you open the game, followed by PUBG corporation.
WHERE ARE THE PUBG MAP LOCATIONS IN REALITY?
The real life PUBG places are somewhere from Russia. The popular and most played map of ERANGEL, is a Russian island located in the Black sea. The map name “ERANGEL” was inspired by the name “ERYN”, Greene’s daughter. The locations in the map of “SANHOK” are inspired by places in Myanmar. The locations of “VIKENDI” and “MIRAMAR” are from the USA.
“PUBG” ADDICTION: Can the game lead to mental health issues?
Gaming addiction is a real disorder. The world health organization (WHO) has recognized video game addiction as a real mental health condition. They have a set of three criteria as warning signs:
⦁ Impaired control: The gamer is unable to control or limit their gameplay.
⦁ Loss of interest in other activities: The gamer’s life revolves around gaming.
⦁ Continuing to play despite negative impact: Gaming is causing significant harm to their school grades, employment, or relationships.
You may have heard about a boy who spent a sum of Rs 16 lakh on PUBG without his parents having knowledge of it. The teenage boy from Punjab spent a whopping Rs 16 lakh on making in-app purchases. The parents were unaware of the situation as the boy told his parents that he was using the smartphone for studying online during the lockdown. Another similar case happened in Mohali, where the kid spent 2 lakh on the game from his grandfather’s bank account. There have also been suicide incidents because of the PUBG addiction. Parents must keep a check on their kid’s game play and allow them to use mobile phones for a limited time and we must also check upon ourselves and avoid playing too much. We must always remember that our real life is much more important than the virtual world.
