Let me start this by saying that I don’t play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), and I frankly don’t quite care whether they actually ban the game or not. However, the fact that the game was being banned in a particular state and that people were actually getting arrested for this, is what got me thinking.

Clearly, the problems caused by a game like PUBG - violence, kids stealing money to buy “skins” and children getting too addicted to the game and not concentrating on studies - had compounded enough for state authorities to step in and issue a ban. I mean think about it, how bad is THIS bad?

The problem, to me, seems more societal and psychological rather than being driven by a particular game. Essentially, you could replace PUBG with any other battle royale game that’s popular enough and the problems could have been the same. Yes, PUBG has become disgustingly popular. Heck, there are smartphone companies selling phones that will help you get the ‘best’ experience out of this game - it is THAT big right now. But PUBG’s popularity, and therefore the problems, feels more like a ‘right time, right place’ kind of situation.

At this point in time, there are phones that start at Rs 9,000 and can bear the brunt of a game like PUBG. When Fortnite came to Android, it was initially available only on Samsung phones. If we vaguely consider the population demographics of people playing PUBG, they are mostly youngsters. A Rs 9,000 phone is not exactly unattainable for them and almost all smartphone companies have devices decent enough to pull through the gaming rigours for you.

To attribute PUBG’s popularity just to ‘plenty of smartphones’ would be unfair. It’s a relatively easy game to play, even I managed to steal a car, find a gun and shoot one person in the first five minutes of the one time I played (and I don’t do battle royale, I just grow civilizations and make them decimate other civilizations). The graphics look more real (I am told Fortnite looks more cartoony), you can customise your avatar and then there is the ‘ganging up to take another team down’. This ganging up is perhaps what gets most people playing - the lone warrior concept is passé, teaming up with friends definitely sounds like more fun.

The number of times I have seen messages on a WhatsApp group that I’m a part of asking the players if they are free for a skirmish, even during work hours, is telling. As far as I can fathom, this is why PUBG worked and has managed to get ‘dangerously’ popular enough to merit a ban.

Now, I call the PUBG problem societal and psychological because those ‘addicted’ to it are playing not only because they might actually like gaming, but also because their friends are doing it too. There is this overwhelming lure of wanting to be a part of something big, something cool and something popular. You might not be the kingpin of your college group, but you can amass the most kills on PUBG - the possibilities of game-verse popularity pegs are endless.

Also, they don’t see ditching study time and failing exams as a problem. Honestly, which kid does? Teenagers do not have foresight, they are not supposed to. Our parents have been yelling at us for staying out too late to play cricket. Parents are now yelling at their kids for playing too much PUBG - NOT much of a difference actually. But to play cricket, we needed a park, a bat and a ball and enough people to make a team. For PUBG you just need a smartphone and internet - neither is hard to come by these days. Banning PUBG is not going to make these kids go back to their books. Also, when you ban something, you make it ALL the more popular.

But, will banning PUBG stop violence and the few real-life deaths it has accounted for?

No. Sorry.

Remember the time when there was an argument about front cameras and selfies being a ‘problem’ because people across the country were dying? This PUBG ban is like that. The front camera was not killing people, people were posing at dangerous points and getting killed. It wasn’t the device, it was sheer stupidity. And there is no banning stupidity.

The game itself is not making you drink acid by mistake or making you fail exams - you are letting yourself get distracted enough, letting your priorities get out of whack. You are the problem. It’s not the game.

Humans’ self-preservation instinct is not exactly their best trait in the book. I mean look at the amount of alcohol we consume, the drugs we do, sometimes we step into a predatory animal’s cage in the zoo to take a selfie and… global warming. ‘Some people’ actually still think climate change is not real - if that is not galaxy-level stupidity I don’t know what is.

This is Darwin’s playground, more than the strong surviving, it’s now the smart that survives. So, is this me saying stupid people should die if they are literally heading for that? Most definitely.

And by that logic, India would have been standing at half its population now if all went well with India versus Darwinism, but we aren’t that lucky.