Banning PUBG counterproductive — UMS lecturer
KOTA KINABALU: Banning an online battle royale game which has been blamed for the horrific murder of innocent people at Christchurch in New Zealand on March 15 is counterproductive, according to a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
Dr Zamhar Iswandono Bin Awang Ismail, who is also a gamer, said the tragic shooting is proof that society needs to fight those that promote hate and intolerance.
He said the terrorist who carried out these heinous acts is a 28-year-old man who advocated white supremacy and despised minorities.
“He also plays PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds or PUBG, an online battle royale game that lets 100 players fight in a virtual battle field until the last player or team remaining wins the game.
“After the revelation of the attacker’s gaming habit, there have been attempts to link the tragedy to PUBG and violent games in general,” said Zamhar Iswandono.
“Negeri Sembilan’s mufti, Datuk Mohd Yusof Ahmad, even suggested banning the game altogether.
“Several viral ‘news’ websites even shared an image within the game showing a carpet in the game which looked like a prayer rug, linking this coincidence to spreading Islamophobia. Malaysian society has been here before. In 2016, Pokemon Go, the popular augmented reality mobile game, caused controversy in Malaysia due to its perceived dangers, where fatwas were even released on the matter.
“As an academic and a gamer who has played computer games since 1983 and continues to play them until today, I felt called to provide a voice representing the gaming community.
“Throughout my experience reading and reviewing research on the links between violence and videogames, I have found the corelations between them to be very contentious. There have been numerous studies that have different results on the direct effect of violent games towards children.
“Most of the research results discuss other mitigating factors that contribute to the effects of violence in games towards the players,” said Zamhar Iswandono, head of Information Systems Research Group, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, UMS.
He said to combat any negative effects of computer games to society, education and parental awareness on games were needed.
“Computer games have had ratings systems introduced since 1994. Since then, different countries and regions in the world have introduced their own ratings system. These ratings systems were set up to guide gamers and parents on the suitability of the games for different age groups. Even our neighbour Indonesia has its own Indonesian Games Rating System (IGRS).
“For games that require physical media like Sony Playstation 4 discs, the age ratings of the games are visible on the box. For games that are downloaded and played on mobile devices, the ratings can be seen from the app page before the user downloads and installs the game.
“The unfortunate thing about having an Age Rating system for games is when parents are not aware of it. It is my observation that most parents in Malaysia are either unaware or not bothered about the rating system.
“Parents allow their children to purchase, download and play games that are not suitable for them. PUBG is a game given a 16+ Age Rating in all the platforms it can be played on. Yet, numerous times I have found children younger than 16 playing PUBG.
“Games like PUBG, Fortnite and other shooting and survival games have already been rated for play by teenagers or older. The target audience of these games are young adults and grown-ups. The players of PUBG include doctors, lawyers, engineers, academics and other professionals who seek an entertainment outlet that is safe and enjoyable.
“Banning PUBG will result in other games replacing them which may have the same gameplay and level of violence.
“If the government is serious in tackling the perceived negative side effects of games, they could do so through education. There is a need to educate the public, specifically parents through campaigns and the media on which games are suitable for which age group. Games like Minecraft, Roblox, and other kids rated games can become educational tools that bring many benefits to our children.
“Malaysia is a significant player in the games industry within the Asian region. With more than 50 games development companies the country is estimated to generate US$116 million in revenue from the industry in 2019.
“Electronic Sports or eSports have also taken hold of the Malaysian public where our top players earn up to millions of Ringgit in prize money and sponsorship.
“PUBG is one of the games heavily featured in eSports tournaments, thus banning it would be detrimental to Malaysia’s efforts in developing eSports.”
Zamhar Iswandono said to conclude, it is counterproductive for the Malaysian government to ban PUBG or any computer game just because of the actions of a bigoted individual.
“Malaysia can grow from the development of the games industry and eSports. The government has even pledged RM10 million to the development of eSports in Malaysia.”
At the same time, he said let’s focus on educating the public on the age rating system for games so that children can enjoy them while being protected from content which are not suitable for them.