For the 15-year-old boy, being paradropped onto a remote field where he battles other players to be the last survivor, had become a way of life.
Of course, the boy (name withheld to protect identity) isn’t fighting a real-life battle and isn’t part of a real-life survival game. He is addicted to the popular game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG (pronounced pub-g). Created in December, the game was an instant hit and according to the website SuperData, which collates information on the revenues of gaming platforms, PUBG was the third most popular game even in June, seven months after its introduction.
The Class 10 student was so immersed that he stayed up until 2-3 am playing the game, woke up late and often missed school. It was at this point last month his parents, worried over his future, took him to the SHUT (Service for Healthy Use of Technology) Clinic, located at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), which helps people deal with technology-based addictions.
Read more of this in a report by Vikram Gopal published in Hindustan Times...
