Mobile Legends vs. The World

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang or ML for short is a multiplayer online battle arena created and published by Shanghai Moonton Technology that was launched last July 14, 2016. From then until now, it has entertained numerous players worldwide but has also collected a considerable amount of backlash and controversies. Will MLBB be the greatest phone app or will it die out and be remembered as an old trend?

The game is played with two teams of five, both competing to be the first to destroy each other’s base or Nexus. Each team member chooses a hero to use in-game. These heroes come with their own set of powers that correspond with their class. These classes can range from a tank that absorbs enemy damage to a mage that deals high damage from afar. A good player would strategize even before the game starts and knows which class best suits the team’s composition. Although it is important to actually be good at using a hero, being a team player is as important as well, especially when up against five enemy players. This encourages players to not only be self-sufficient, but to also interact with each other through teamwork and communication.

The game is praised in numerous countries especially here in the Philippines. According to Moonton, the game racked up over 500 million downloads and has 75 million active users every single day — but this popularity came with a price. In 2018, Moonton’s CEO, Watson Zhenhua, had to pay $2.9 million to Tencent, owner of Riot Games, in a lawsuit claiming that ML plagiarized League of Legends. MLBB was also banned in India last June as they investigated and discovered that Chinese companies all had ties to its government and were being allegedly used as spyware. The well-known social media app Tiktok is included in this ban, along with 59 other apps.

Games, in general, are a great way to pass the time — but too much could lead to mental weaknesses. People tend to forget the fact that we are in the living world where we ought to converse with real people. We also seem to forget how to communicate with our loved ones and to ask how their day went or ask if they are mentally and emotionally okay especially during this time.

Modern technology is booming in every corner of the world. We create things we could not even imagine, as well as things that shouldn’t even be imagined in the first place. Never let technology become the controller of your life. We can still play games, but spending all the time playing a game may lead to negative outcomes. We should start learning how to make each day a productive day aside from holding and focusing on games 24/7.

Mobile games like ML are entirely different from our daily course. We cannot make real and virtual games as our world simultaneously. May the games be not our world and may gadgets be not our homes. It is still better to socialize and make friends face-to-face or face-to-screen, as it is still unsafe to be sociable outside the house.

LAYOUT BY: Chester P. Cortez

PHOTO SOURCE(S): gadgetmatch