Muluto Ayemi and his teammates after achieving 1st runners up position at one of the PUBG Mobile tournament held in Kohima. (File Photo)
Ephraim Chishi
Dimapur | February 19
All over the globe, citizens caught in the Coronavirus pandemic restlessly quarantined indoors. While it is a tough time everywhere, there are still comforts and outlets for people to find contentment in. Many spend their time indulging in leisurely activities like reading, cooking, music and others.
However, fans of the popular mobile shooter game Player Unknown's Battle Ground (PUBG) Mobile it was a period of disorder as it had to sail in rough waters.
Citing “national security under section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000,” the Ministry of Information & Technology, Government of India imposed ban on the popular battle royale game in India back in 2020. It was banned alongside 118 Chinese applications on September 2, 2020 following a previous wave of bans.
The ban on one of the smash-hit game was a big blow to many gamers all over the country. Players from across the nation took the internet to express their dismay and appealed to the authority concerned not to ban their “favourite” game; however it would be put into effect regardless.
After the initial mayhem, with over 50 million users in India, as reported by Essence Global, it was not hard to foretell that players would try to overcome the hurdle and sure enough, players took to using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the region locked ban.
Since then, however, for many young “professional” players and streamers working in the budding gaming industry, the ban has even put a hold their career and livelihood.
Muloto Ayemi, a Naga professional PUBG Mobile player sharing his feelings about the ban says, “We were really devastated by the news of PUBG Mobile being banned by the Government of India as it is one of the key games that has been promoting e-sports in India and with the ban there aren’t any official tournaments being hosted and it has really put us in a limbo type of situation...”
Furthermore, Muloto stated that while he has not lost hope yet and continues to plays competitively, there is always the feeling that PUBG Mobile might never get “unbanned” and that all his effort might have been in vain.
According to this enthusiast gamer, the ban should be lifted and the Government should see the bigger picture that “PUBG Mobile is one of the most popular games” and it has lot of scope in India for talents to make a living out of.
He observes that the Government should also accept that esports in India is still growing and will keep doing so if the “proper actions” are taken.
Yekoto Achumi, another Naga youth reveals, “I have continued playing PUBG Mobile using VPN for 5 to 6 months now. At first I was very shocked to find out that the ban was happening but then I found out through YouTube that we could continue playing by downloading the Korean version of the game using VPN.”
Yekoto also said he still plays Mobile Legends which is another game that was banned by the Government of India.
It may be mentioned here that PUBG Corporation has cut ties with Tencent in India following the ban on apps with links to China.
The ban was supposedly imposed “to protect” however, with easy access to the game through other alternatives, there is no denying that it is a letdown to the step taken by the Government. The return of PUBG Mobile is still unclear as the Government has quashed rumours suggesting that the battle royale game will re-launch in India.
Maybe the game will never re-launch in India or maybe there will be a way to bring the game back but until then young professionals like Muloto and others will have to bear the consequences of the ban which has disrupted their career and ambitions.
The writer is a student of BAMC 208-21 batch of Doon Business School, Dehradun and is currently an intern in The Morung Express.
