BENGALURU : Dragonball Z, Pokémon Go, Angry Birds, Temple Run, Candy Crush, and now, PUBG – apart from them being games, what do they have in common? That’s easy – people get obsessed with them, and stay glued to their phones for hours on end. PUBG, the latest entrant in the gaming scene, is an online multi player battle game that has been developed by a South Korean company.
Many in the city have gotten hooked onto this game - in fact, the PUBG MOBILE Campus Championship 2018 culminated in a grand finale here in Bengaluru, on October 21, and resulted in the winning team from Mumbai taking home a cash prize of `15 lakh! City Express spoke to some gamers in the city who are currently playing the game, and they shared some amusing anecdotes about their obsession with this game.
Of miffed girlfriends
Male gamers tell us that the PUBG craze has hampered their relationships with their girlfriends. “I was playing PUBG, and since it is an online game, there is no pause option. I was playing with my friends, and I didn’t want to keep them hanging. My girlfriend called me just when I was about to finish the game, so I didn’t answer her call. I called her back after an hour, and she got really mad at me. We had a terrible fight, and didn’t talk for a week. I am now only allowed to play one game of PUBG a day,” said Rahul Mehta (name changed), a 20-year-old BCom student at Jain University.
For 24-year-old Firoz Khan, who works at Nuance Transcription Services, playing PUBG and consequently upsetting his girlfriend, proved to be a costly affair. “My girlfriend had come home, and we had planned to go out on a date. She was patiently waiting for me while I was completely engrossed in the game. She asked me if we were leaving any time soon, and I asked her to wait because the game had gotten very interesting. She was so irritated that she asked me to marry PUBG and have kids with it, and left. I had to discontinue the game and buy her whatever she asked for to calm her down.”
Mummy knows best
Some city mums have also had to face the brunt of their kids’ PUBG craze.
“My mom and I were supposed to go for a movie date, and she had no idea that I was taking her out as it was a birthday surprise.
I got dressed and started playing till she was ready too. I lost the first match, and started another one to get my score up – this game turned out to be a rather long one. About 30 minutes into it, I was finally winning. Unfortunately, I lost track of time and missed the movie. I had to then improvise the plan and take mom for lunch later that day,” said Shireen Honmode, 21, who is doing her Masters at Christ University.
Unlike Shireen’s mother, some have been giving their PUBG-obsessed kids an earful. “The game has a feature where you can switch on your speaker and chat with/listen to what other players are saying. Once, when I was playing the game, I could hear somebody’s mother yell at them. The mother seemed furious and was screaming things like, kal tumhara exam hain, phone bandh karo, nahin toh mein lein loongi’, ‘I’m going to tell dad when he comes’, etc. The player didn’t seem to care and continued shooting,” said Vruti Mehta, a 22-year-old, CA student.
All play and no work?
“I saw this happen to my colleague at work. A senior wanted to discuss a brief with my co-worker, who was playing PUBG on his phone. He was completely engrossed in the game. The senior stood in front of his computer and he would alternate between conversing with her and playing the game. She had to stand right in front of him to get his full attention for the briefing,” said Jeanne Rozario, a 22-year-old copywriter.
Ahmed, a 27-year-old business owner, told us that one time, a customer had come to his clothing store, and his PUBG addiction made him almost lose out on a big opportunity. “I’ve been on this PUBG craze for a while now, and on a slow day at work, I started playing and was very engrossed in it. A customer walked in and I barely noticed her.
She wanted to place a bulk order for some traditional clothes she needed stitched for a wedding. The next thing I noticed when I looked up from my phone was her walking out. I chased after her and apologised profusely. Luckily, she knew my father, so I was able to get the order. But my dad did give me an earful,” he said.