Gaming has always had a weird spot in society. From a negative light back in the 80s, through to a more mainstream and normalised light in today’s day and age, games have always been a product of the times. Hence why modern grossing titles, such as Minecraft, World of Warcraft, and yes, Angry Birds and Candy Crush, continue to remain popular.

As things stand, gaming is currently impacting hundreds of millions of lives all around the world. There is no denying that a huge chunk of this number is comprised of children below the age of 18. This may be a good thing for growing children developing their eyes and reactions, but it also means that more and more children spend the majority of their time indoors – which is very much not a good thing. We all need a good share of sunlight, after all. As such, it is up to game developers and hardware makers to implement things that parents can use to encourage their kids to go outside. Hence the advent of Health Management systems – to encourage outdoor play. The good news is that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile now has one. The new PUBG Mobile Gameplay Management system will actively encourage children to go out and play in the sun.

The new implementation will make it so that all players under the age of 18, will have to adhere to a new gaming advisory screen before the game starts up. This advisory will enable new features in the game that will implement notifications during gameplay that remind children to “rest or stop the game”. Much like how many 4X Games, such as Anno, remind players to grab a cup of coffee every few hours of gameplay.

This may seem trivial, but it is without a doubt one way to get gaming into the good graces of parents and healthy-minded individuals. According to PUBG Corp, their mobile game is one of the first to implement a feature like this. The new feature in included because of how PUBG Mobile has been growing in recent months, as “one of the world’s most trending mobile games”. PUBG Corp claims that they are “devoted to providing a better gaming environment and being proactive in building a balanced and sustainable online gaming ecosystem”. Quite the noble cause!

Whether you like it or not, and are of the opinion that parents should be the ones to dictate their children’s computer/tablet hours, it still helps a heck of a lot to know that games make this a little bit easier on you.

PUBG Mobile publisher, Tencent, states that they want the game to help people make “informed choices” when it comes to how much time they spend in the game. They say that the announcement of the PUBG Mobile Gameplay Management system is a step in “ensuring that hundreds of millions of players worldwide can continue to enjoy PUBG Mobile in a sustainable manner”. Tencent will be looking at player feedback as time moves on, and as the PUBG Mobile Gameplay Management system rolls out in more countries. For now, however, it is only available to players in Indonesia, India, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait,Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

There is no word on whether the same PUBG Mobile Gameplay Management system will launch on desktop and console, or whether these versions will receive Health Management systems of their own in the future. Either way, t it is a small step in the right direction regardless.

[Sources: Eurogamer, Gamespot, Games Industry, Jakarta Post]

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Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.