Devs have never been happy with players tinkering with game files, especially those MMO/PVP-oriented games. The top honchos of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) have that particular sentiment. In fact, they’re showing disapproval by blasting these tinkerers off the servers. Yes, you can now get banned for editing PUBG files.
Beyond PUBG Items: Fog of the Edit War
Although editing files of MMO/PVP-oriented games have been a punishable offense by default, it’s something PUBG devs didn’t implement upon the game’s release. In fact, this prohibition only came because of an update that, aside from adding new PUBG Items, added foggy weather to the game, giving the game a Silent Hill feel to it whenever it’s active.
It’s All Fogged Up
It’s also made a bit of a change in the metagame, as it forces players to rely on close-quarters combat instead of long-range sniping, as the latter is impossible under such conditions. However, despite the aesthetic and either accidental or intended minor metagame shift, lots of players aren’t fond of the climate.
According to certain players, the biggest reason why they dislike the new weather condition is the fact that it’s triggered by post-processing, which makes the game run slower. For many PC FPS gamers, fps (frames per second) is arguably the most important hardware-related quantifiable property. The higher it is, the better their performance is; that’s why devs are more than willing to sacrifice graphics for better performance (a three-digit FPS).
Between everybody getting fogged up and allowing players to reach peak performance, it’s a no-brainer that Bluehole Studio would choose the former. After all, no self-respecting developer would just let the players bypass a game mechanic, and all game mechanics are meant to affect everyone. To ensure that nobody is exempt from the latter, Bluehole enforced that some post-processing is kept on.
Finding Holes on Bluehole
Obviously, players weren’t happy with this, so they decided to get around it. How? Well, by editing the file responsible for the weather change. From a gamer’s perspective, it’s solving the problem. On the other hand, for the developers, it’s cheating the system. Bluehole decided to go with banning those who edit game files, a measure that is (depending on your perspective) either drastic or justifiable.
To give players a warning, Bluehole Studios has modified their statement regarding editing files on their forums. Before, it used to dissuade players from tampering with the game files merely. Now, it’s a violation of the Rules of Conduct, with specifies that editing game files pertain to the changing of game files.
An additional weather condition opened a can of worms. Now, all file editing, regardless of whether it’s connected to the fog or not, can get players permabanned. Obviously, players are bummed by this, as they believe that configuration files are meant to be configuration, and therefore, can be edited according to the players’ discretion. After all, they’re simply tweaking stuff, not modding PUBG items and PUBG Skins. However, given the fact that doing so could give some players the undue advantage, it may be a necessary restriction on the part of Bluehole.
The question is, is there a middle ground, a way to ensure that the fog remains on, and at the same time allow players to edit game files without getting an edge over other players with vanilla settings? Well, that’s a possibility. Hopefully, Bluehole manages to find a solution without coming off as a typical freedom-stifling game studio.
