It's only fairly recently that India became a significant blip on the gaming industry's radar. Until a little while ago, we were the "take it or leave it" market, but now many developers are actively looking at how to expand here.
Unfortunately with that come other problems.
Thanks to an increasing demand for and availability of high-end devices, together with the spread of esports culture, the gaming industry has grown into a Rs 5,540 crore industry as of FY19. And according to KPMG India, that growth will continue to Rs 11,880 crore by 2023. But as we see this major influx of easily accessible and cheap games and devices for the first time, we're struggling to integrate it with our Indian sensibilities in a healthy manner.
Gaming addiction is a problem that's currently being highlighted in our country. It's the game industry's bane in fact for two good reasons. One, that it's a real problem that no one is seriously tackling. And two, that the problem is individual and not universal, but is being treated as the latter.
The latest victim of this controversy was PUBG Mobile, which faced multiple calls for bans across India. In fact Gujarat even went ahead with a ban, threatening to arrest people found playing the smartphone game and then actually arresting students for it. Eventually however, the ban was revoked on April 2, a little under two months after it was imposed, with the police saying "as the exam session is over and the direct trigger to initiating the action is not valid any more," the ban wasn't relevant any more.
But that sort of action sidesteps the real issue without actually achieving anything of value. Allow me to explain.
Scientists have long argued about whether different addictions fall under different types, and it was only fairly recently that they came to some sort of consensus. Basically, they agree that there's a difference between dependence and addiction. Dependence indicates that your body has come to depend on a substance, while addiction means you physically and mentally crave the object of your addiction.
Basically, they seem to agree that it's possible to be dependent on a substance and not be addicted to it, though that might be just around the corner. With chemicals, this could mean your body craves the hit from a regular smoke or joint, but you're able to suck it up if you don't have the material or time to light up. An addiction to those however would manifest by you lighting up at the most inappropriate times just because you can't help yourself. This could be like smoking weed when you're supposed to be finishing up an office project for the next day, or when you know your parents are coming over in a couple of hours.
So it's not so hard to imagine that this difference holds somewhat true for gaming addiction as well. The closest thing to physical dependence here would probably translate as an itch in the back of your skull when you don't get to game for a while, or being cranky for a while because you were forced to quit your game of PUBG mid-way. Addiction however would be like some of the stories we've witnessed; students writing about PUBG in their exams and failing, committing suicide because they weren't allowed to play, and more.
Akshat Rathee, Managing Director of Nodwin Gaming, agrees with this sentiment. He's currently attempting to bring international E-sports to India in a big way, including ESL One this week in partnership with Intel. So when faced with the question of PUBG bans, his exasperation is clear.
With the growth of the gaming industry and esports in India, Intel's local arm hosted a panel discussion for industry leaders on ¡®Esports: Why the world is taking notice and opportunities in India.¡¯ They shared their thoughts on prospects and challenges for developers, gamers and manufacturers, offering a look into the next phase of evolution and the roadmap for the industry. But since gaming addiction is such a hot topic right now, and will only get louder the more gaming grows, we decided to get the panel's take on that.
Now according to Rathee, the best way to fight the problem of gaming addiction is just simple conversation and self regulation. If it's your kids that you're worried about, set boundaries. You are the parent after all. Have a real conversation, he says, because the more you try to hide away games like PUBG, the more attractive they're going to become to your kids.
He insists though, that the problem isn't one of games being addictive, but of people getting addicted to them. "Playing a mobile game is the equivalent of playing anything, or watching movies," Rathee says. "If you let your kid watch 14 hours of movies a day, then that person is addicted to watching movies. It's an addiction problem, it's a human problem, it's not a PUBG problem."
Let's go back to the examples we gave earlier about dependence versus addiction. With substance abuse, dependence occurs because that's the way the chemicals are designed. Taking a single hit of cocaine won't necessarily make you an addict overnight, but it will certainly make your body dependent on the drug, at least in the short term once your high has passed.
With games on the other hand, millions of people play them everyday. And yet the addicts are just a handful of that number. The games aren't calling out to your body like the after effects of a drug, you've just let yourself get sucked in.
And think about it, there have actually been games that were designed specifically to exploit your brain chemistry and make you spend more time playing them. Candy Crush was the most notorious of these to ever gain widespread appeal. But that game was never banned, so why should PUBG or any other face the chopping block? It makes no sense.
The most important thing is discussion as a community on what we can do to address this," says Prakash Mallya Intel's India MD. "At the end of the day, it's not a problem with the technology but how we're using it that defines its negatives."
And that's exactly what Akshat Rathee says too. "Blaming a game because you play it too much only absolves yourself from the responsibility that you are also equally culpable. Too much of anything is bad. So if you ban PUBG, your addicts are just waiting for the next one, because you've not dealt with the main issue."