Difference between revisions of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds"

Revision as of 13:39, 17 March 2020

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Genre	Online Arena Battle Royale
Gamming Style	Battle Royale
Platform	Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Android, IOS
Release Date	December 20, 2017 Windows
Developer	Bluehole
Publisher	PUBG corporation
Website	PUBG Website

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online arena battle royale game developed by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of Bluehole. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was first released for Microsoft Windows on December 20th, 2017. In 2018 PUBG editions were released for the XBOX and PlayStation consoles as well as a mobile version for Android and IOS. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was one of the best selling games of all times and had over 400 million players after the game released its mobile version. The game consist of rounds where players are dropped on a map where they must collect various weapons and eliminate each other up until the last person, or team, standing. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds gained an audience of players from around the globe where it was marketed as a viable e-sport. The items in the game only last for the remainder of the round they are collected in, but players earn coins (BP) that can be used for permanent cosmetic purchases for the length of time that they have survived in a round, as well as other factors such as how many other players the person has eliminated. after its release PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds banned a number of competitive and noncompetitive players for cheating, or using unauthorized software to gain advantages in the game, and knowing about other player's cheating. PUBG was later banned in multiple countries where the game play was seen as "violent" and "addictive".

Game Mechanics

Objectives

PlayerUnknown's battlegrounds main objective is to be the last player, or team of players, alive in each subsequent round. Doing this earns the player in game currency referred to as BP. BP can be spent on loot boxes for a chance to receive cosmetic features such as clothing or skins.

Game Play

PlayerUnknown's battlegrounds matchmaking system attempts to put up to 100 players into a lobby where they wait until spawned into a plane flying over a large map, which their are multiple of. these 100 players can be in teams of up to four or each on their own. Once inside of the plane the players skydive down onto the map and search through randomly generated items across the map. Many of these items are weapons that are to be used to help eliminate the other players in the lobby. A blue circle begins surrounding the map and slowly closes in on a randomly selected area of the map. Being outside this blue circle will deal increased increments of damage based on how small the circle has shrunk, forcing players into the diameter of the circle and decreasing the space between players.^[1]Once all but one player, or team, has been eliminated the round ends and BP is rewarded accordingly.^[2]

Ethical Concerns

Cheating

PlayerUknown's Battlegrounds has an extensive history of people cheating by use of unauthorized software, or hacking the game. In June of 2017 PUBG began banning players who had been caught cheating. Since that time methods have been developed to allow for other players to report players they suspect of cheating or hacking and almost 13 million accounts have been banned from the game in regards to cheating^[3]. A portion of those banned were professional ESports players for using cheating techniques such as "radar hacking" to gain an advantage over other players in the game by being able to see their location. PUBG began using an anti-cheat protection program called BattlEye to detect and ban accounts that are cheating.

Violence

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds main objective is to eliminate all other players on the map by killing them with weapons such as assault rifles or frag grenades found in random places throughout the map. In some countries, such as India PUBG has been banned due in part to the violence that is depicted throughout the games rounds^[4]. People in certain areas of India have been arrested for playing the game. A newspaper in India had once called the game an "epidemic" that negatively impacted kids mental health^[5]. The negative impact on mental health of players throughout India has been attributed to multiple cases of injury, and death by the Indian print media.^[6]

Addiction

Brendan Greene, the creative director behind PUBG attributes PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds popularity to the idea that "every match is different"^[7]. referring to the games design that all items found in the match are randomly generated, as well as the specific area of the map the fighting is reduced to by a blue ring that constricts players to a specific area. Due to these differences in each round the game is said to have a high replay value, which is the games potential for continued play after completion. Although this could be considered a good and marketable thing for a game to have, countries that have banned PUBG in them have referred to this factor as the game being "addicting". In India the Video Game Addiction (VGA) that is caused by PUBG has been attributed to poor grades or exam failures of students in India by the Indian print media.^[6]

References