Telecom operators will now have to pay 10 per cent of their AGR dues upfront by March 31, with the balance being payable in annual instalments from March 2022.PUBG was no Super Mario Bros. The mobile game was never going to define an entire generation like the Nintendo classic did when it beguiled Indian millennials. What it was, however, was a great equaliser. It helped the uninitiated wrest the “gamer” tag from the PC aristocrats with configurations that could make NASA supercomputers sweat, and equally elite console gamers who don’t mind shelling out thousands for new PlayStation and Xbox titles. PUBG was available for free; anybody with cheap data, spare hours and a willing spirit was a gamer, and the console was already in their pockets.
On Wednesday, this burgeoning community lost the only game in town. On the internet, news of the ban on the multiplayer battle royale shooter was soon followed by lists of alternatives for gamers to migrate to. But there’s a reason these knock-offs, which had been mushrooming for a while, still hadn’t made a noticeable dent in the bubble around PUBG. The headstart, coupled with the financial and technical might backing the product, made PUBG the cornerstone of the fledgeling esports/streaming community in India. To expect them to move on smoothly to another game would be to expect cricket lovers to fall for baseball. Sure, you’re swinging a bat at a ball, but it’s hardly the same thing.
The call to arms, currently, is for indigenous games. A perfect example is Ludo, which has been making waves in its virtual iteration. But it’s tough to imagine the PUBG crowd making the switch. The dice gods can smile on you while you clean house on the Ludo board, but it wouldn’t come close to the rush of executing a perfect ambush or surviving shootouts against strangers. With walls closing in due to lockdown-induced ennui, PUBG was an escape. An immersive simulation, a power fantasy, and a conference call rolled into one. It jumped higher than those endearing, moustachioed, pixelated Italian plumbers ever did.