戦いは仮想の戦場で　ゲームにハマるイラクの若年層

【バグダッドＡＦＰ＝時事】バッシャール・アブ・カリルさん（３１）のキャラクターは、ピンク色のドレスと侍のかぶとを身に着け、壁の周りを疾走し、フライパンで敵と戦う──イラクで大人気のビデオゲーム「ＰＵＢＧ」内では、ありふれた光景だ。（写真はイラクの首都バグダッドのカフェで、パソコンやモバイル端末を使う若者ら）
　多くのイラク人をとりこにしている「ＰＵＢＧ」は、書籍や映画の「ハンガー・ゲーム」シリーズを連想させるバトルロイヤル型のファーストパーソン・シューティングゲーム（主人公の視点でプレーするゲーム）だ。「Ｇ２Ｇ」の名でスタープレーヤーとなったアブ・カリルさんも、ＰＵＢＧにハマった一人だ。
　４０００万人あまりの人口の６０％が２５歳未満のイラクでは、モバイル版のＰＵＢＧが大人気で、若者は「ＰＵＢＧ世代」と呼ばれている。
　アブ・カリルさんは現在トルコに住み、プレー映像の配信と動画の制作で生計を立てている。

■ネット環境良く、チャンス増える国外
　イラクでは、ＰＵＢＧは時間泥棒だと批判したり、銃や血しぶきといった暴力的なシーンを不安視したりする親もいる。
　しかし、モバイル版でプレーしているクルド人のレシャール・イブラヒムさん（１９）は、数十年におよぶ戦争や内戦で多くのイラク人が体験した実際の出来事の方がずっとひどいと言う。
　スウェーデンで暮らして３年になるイブラヒムさんは、ＰＵＢＧは「ただのゲームだ」と言う。
　イラク国会は２０１９年、破産や自殺、離婚の引き金になるという国内の報道を受け、ＰＵＢＧの禁止を可決した。
　しかしこの動きは、法に抜け穴が多かった上に、イラクには他に対処すべき重大な問題があるとして批判された。
　世界銀行によると、イラクでは若者の４０％近くが失業中だ。さらに、貧困率は新型コロナウイルスの流行の中で倍増し、４０％に達した。
　多くのイラク人ゲーマーが、国内の劣悪なネット環境や不安定な電力供給から解放され、アブ・カリルさんやイブラヒムさんのように外国で成功している。

■ハマる
　イラクのｅスポーツチーム「ｉＫＵＲＤ」の一員としてＰＵＢＧのトーナメント戦に出場したヘルマット・シーアルさん（２３）は、イラクチームはネット環境がはるかに強固な外国チームと対戦しただけでなく、民間からも政府からも支援を受けずに戦ったと振り返った。
　他のアラブ諸国では、政府や大手スポンサー企業がｅスポーツに大金をつぎ込んでいる。
　コンサルティングチーム「Ｓｔｒａｔｅｇｙ＆」によると、湾岸地域のゲーム市場は、２０２１年に８億２１００万ドル（約９００億円）規模に達すると予想されている。
　イラクのインフラは内戦で疲弊し、電力は不足している。一般家庭に国から電力が供給されるのは、多くの場合、１日に数時間程度だ。
　しかし、調査会社「ＤａｔａＲｅｐｏｒｔａｌ」が２０２１年に実施した調査によると、イラクでは４０００万台の携帯電話が使われ、３０００万人のネットユーザーがいる。
　同じくｉＫＵＲＤメンバーのジネル・ヘクマットさん（１８）はモバイル版のＰＵＢＧにハマったが、学業に集中するため、競技プレーヤーに必ずなろうとは考えていない。
　それでも「ＰＵＢＧでのレベルを維持するためには何でもするし、このゲームが存在する限り、プレーを続ける」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/14-12:04）

Bashar Abo Khalil's PUBG character dashes around a wall in a pink dress and samurai helmet, thwacking an enemy with a frying pan -- standard fare in the mobile game that is a mega-sensation in Iraq.
The online star, known as G2G, is one of many Iraqis hooked on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds -- a battle royale first-person shooter game that's reminiscent of the book and film series The Hunger Games.
The mobile version of the game has become so popular in Iraq, where 60 percent of the 40-million-strong population is under 25, that the country's youth have been dubbed the PUBG generation.
Iraqis across the country are spending hours every day on the game's virtual battleground, socialising via its live chat, playing competitively or even falling in love.
Abo Khalil, 31, said he used to play for hours to stop thinking about problems.
When you're playing the game you can become closed off to the rest of the world. It can be like a drug, he added.
Now based in Turkey, he earns a living streaming games and making videos.
Fan Dalya Waheed said she plays PUBG for an hour or two a day with friends she met on the game, and has even set up a gaming hub at the electronics reseller where she works.
It's really easy to meet people on PUBG, said the woman in her thirties, who lives in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
- Better internet, better opportunities -
Some Iraqi parents have criticised the game as time-sucking or have expressed worry about the violence it portrays, with guns-a-plenty and explosives sending up blood spatter.
But Reshar Ibrahim, who plays PUBG Mobile competitively, said the game would never be as bad as what many Iraqis had experienced in real life over the decades of conflicts that have devastated the country.
It's just a game, said the 19-year-old Iraqi Kurd, who has lived in Sweden for the past three years.
In 2019, the country's parliament banned PUBG amid local reports it was leading to bankruptcy, suicide and divorce.
The move, which was easily circumvented, was criticised as being out of touch with the real challenges facing Iraqis.
Nearly 40 percent of Iraqi youth are unemployed, according to the World Bank, and the country's poverty rate has doubled to 40 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Later that year, thousands of young Iraqis -- some dressed in PUBG outfits -- filled the streets to protest endemic corruption and unemployment. Over the months that followed, some 600 demonstrators were killed in protest-related violence.
Abo Khalil and Ibrahim are just two of many successful Iraqi gamers outside the country, away from the additional challenges of poor internet and unreliable electricity that players back home face.
Ibrahim, aka Freak, recently won Most Valuable Player in the PUBG Mobile Star Arabia Challenge, which doled out $100,000 in total prize money.
His team, GunZ Esports, won the competition despite one player in Iraq losing power mid-game and another having to travel from southern Najaf to the northern Kurdistan region -- where internet connectivity is slightly better, Ibrahim said.
- Hooked -
Helmat Shiar, 23, who competed in the tournament with the Iraqi iKurd E-Sports team, said it wasn't just that Iraqis play against teams abroad who have much stronger internet.
There was also no support from private or governmental sponsors, he lamented.
Elsewhere in the Arab world, governments and major sponsors are pouring money into eSports.
In the Gulf, the gaming market is expected to reach $821 million this year, according to consulting firm Strategy&.
Hayder Jaafar said he had struggled for 10 years to register his non-governmental Iraqi Electronic Sports Federation as a full member of the international gaming body before succeeding in 2020.
The youth ministry structure for eSports was last modified in 2009, and a lot has changed in eSports since then, the 38-year-old told AFP.
Iraq suffers from war-ravaged infrastructure and poor electricity -- most households only have a few hours of state-provided electricity per day.
But there are 40 million mobile phone connections in the country and 30 million internet users, according to a 2021 DataReportal study.
Last year, PUBG was the 11th-most-searched term in Iraq on Google, and variations on the game's name took several top spots on YouTube searches as well.
PUBG's widespread popularity is in part due to the launch of a free-to-play mobile version by Chinese tech giant Tencent, which said in March that over one billion people had downloaded the app since 2018.
iKurd player Jiner Hekmat, 18, said he was hooked on the mobile version but wasn't banking all his hopes on being a competitive player, saying he wanted to focus on his studies.
But, he added, I'm also going to do everything I can to keep my level in PUBG, and keep playing as long as the game exists.