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The three cases highlighted here appeared to be addicted to the PUBG game (based on corroborative reports), and their failure to stop playing the game and/or failures within the game appears to have been the precipitating factor that led them to suicide.
![pubg report pubg report](https://images.mein-mmo.de/magazin/medien/2019/01/PUBG-BreaK-Report.jpg)
The present‐report highlights what appears to be the first online gaming suicides during the COVID‐19 pandemic globally and the first gaming‐related suicide cases in Pakistan. Consequently, online gamers in the lockdown period may be impacting psychologically because of the persistence of excessive gaming. Gaming can be unhealthy for a minority of individuals who use it as coping mechanism and escapism from reality. Engaging in activities like gaming via smartphones has become more frequent. Millions of individuals have been restricted to their homes with lots of spare time to fill. All three were young males aged 16–20 years and their suicides appear to be related to PUBG addiction.īeing in lockdown and other preventive measures have been implemented throughout the world in an attempt to minimize the spread of COVID‐19. These three suicide cases all occurred within a few days of each other and all in Lahore (Pakistan).
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Here, we briefly present three further PUBG‐related suicides that occurred during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In extreme cases, there have been case reports of self‐harm and suicide, among PUBG players who have been asked by their parents to stop playing the game. Some scholars claim the game has a negative influence on children and youth and that it promotes cruelty, violence, and aggression. Some of the well‐known consequences of playing PUBG to the neglect of everything else include exhaustion, eye strain, headaches, obesity, insomnia, poor quality of sleep, withdrawal symptoms (irritability and rage), drug abuse, and suicide. PUBG is a multiplayer online “battle royale” endurance game where players are parachuted onto an island and must find weapons and then kill everybody else on the island to win. One game that has been associated with gaming disorder and gaming addiction is PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds ( PUBG). In May 2019, the World Health Organization officially recognized gaming disorder as a mental health disorder. While most of this technology utilization is positive, it should be noted that significant increases in gaming may not always be advantageous and that a small minority of individuals, including teenagers, may be at risk of gaming disorder.Īmong those affected, problematic gaming is associated with disturbance in sleep patterns, physical health problems, and harms to mental health.įor an even smaller minority, gaming disorder may lead to a gaming addiction where gaming becomes the only activity in a person's life and is done to the neglect of everything else. Stay‐at‐home orders and quarantines have led to increased utilization of digital entertainment, including online gaming and associated online activities (e.g., videogame streaming). The coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has significantly disrupted normal daily activities worldwide. Most research demonstrates that videogame playing has positive influences on players' psychological health, and can have beneficial social, educational, therapeutic, and cognitive benefits.