BGMI urban news is back in full swing as both Krafton and the Indian government confirm it.
One of the rumoured conditions for its return is that the colour of blood graphics in the game has to be green; not black.
But, will green blood make BGMI any less violent? Here’s what we think.
In case you've been living under a rock, Battlegrounds Mobile India is getting unbanned soon and will first appear in a 3-month trial phase. Yes, the popular game that was banned from India under the Chinese apps purge a couple of years ago, will finally be available for Indian gamers to play and enjoy. Albeit with a few noticeable changes, like green coloured blood — more on that below.
During this period phase of BGMI's return, the Indian authorities will check if the game has fixed some concerns pertaining to the safety and security of the players. One of those conditions could be to change the colour of the blood graphics in the game to green from red. That makes us wonder, whether green blood will make BGMI any less violent.
Does playing BGMI or any “violent” game lead to violent behaviour?
Before some of you take out your pitchforks and come at us shouting instances of violent acts by video game players including BGMI, we acknowledge there have been such unfortunate incidents.
A 16-year-old boy in #Lucknow allegedly shot his mother dead after she did not allow him to play the online video game #PUBG. https://t.co/Zaje3jxEZU
The boy shot his mother in the head with his father’s licensed revolver on Saturday night, the police said. pic.twitter.com/iHJX1FDHEm
— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) June 8, 2022
Murder over BGMI: UP boy kills 6-year-old to frame grandfather who had objected to his playing battle royale game#BGMI #BattleRoyaleGame #UP https://t.co/YKgep5xrgf
— APN NEWS (@apnnewsindia) July 8, 2022
According to two studies done by the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, aggression in video games does tend to increase player’s “aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviour both in laboratory settings and in actual life”.
Also Read: BGMI Unban: Indian Gaming Industry Cheers To The Return Of Battlegrounds Mobile India
There’s a psychological conditioning that does tend to happen, called Priming, which means the brain tends to subconsciously associate to the activity and get rewired over the course of time. However, the studies also admit many other variables also come into play in a person’s behaviour. There’s an argument to be made about how one’s personality and temperament decide how one reacts to a situation or stimulus, and not just the stimulus itself or its long-term effects.
If you think about it, while playing a game, people are focused on it and use the game as a potential outlet for their stress, anger, frustration or aggression. Also, there is no exact correlation between the number of “violent” game releases and violent crimes taking place in society.
Even studies favouring video games are there. One such study by the University of New South Wales in 2018 states says those playing violent titles feel less distracted by violent imagery in their regular life. This has been coined by the author of the study as “emotion-induced blindness”.
Also Read: BGMI unban: How Krafton got a 3-Month lease on life on India's favourite mobile game?
So, it all depends on what kind of a person you are and if you follow limited screen time, it can help your mental health. It’s as the old proverb says, “Excess Of Everything Is Bad.” Hopefully, the newly induced changes in the game not only help in its permanent return but also help put sufficient guard-rails around current and future players of BGMI.
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G. S. Vasan
Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile
