Playerunknown goes to bat against 'Plunkbat'
But it's a silly name for an edgy game
Now that every last Playerunknown's Battlegrounds player has settled on using the nickname 'Plunkbat', what does creator Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene think?
"No," he told Shacknews over the weekend as they discussed nicknames then teamed up to shame us all. "I don't get that. Like, really. It's people trying to be edgy, and it's like I'm not a fourteen-year-old kid, you know what I mean? It's like 'Oh ho it's so edgy ahh'."
Greene, whose signature in-game outfit includes a hooded leather coat and five studded leather legstraps, has it backwards: Plunkbat is a goofball name opposing the game's own edgy wrapping, a celebration of how silly this 100-player murderfest is. It's contrary, absolutely, but the opposite of edgy.
I don't need to defend 'Plunkbat' (which, to be clear, I didn't create) to you. You, and all the people who send e-mails and tweets, know that it's the best nickname for Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. You know that all pronunciations of 'PUBG' (a bland shortening used only, as far as I can tell, by the developers themselves - PUBG Corp) are terrible. You already know that Plunkbat rolls beautifully out the mouth. You enjoy the other terms this leads to: Plunkbucks, Plunkbags, and Plunkbuts. Most of all, you know that 'Plunkbat' is a name which delights in how silly this wonderful game is. You know that Plunkbat is about weird stag & hen weekends gone wrong, about stupid stunts and bold gambits and crashes and terrible mistakes and triumphant murders and larking about with your mates.
Yet PUBG Corp so often pretend it's so serious and edgy. They wrap the game's clothing in spikes, straps, kneepads, and pockets like 90s comic book antiheroes. They use such taglines as "THE ULTIMATE LIFE & DEATH FIGHT" and "NOT JUST A GAME, THIS IS BATTLE ROYALE". Greene's nickname is officially stylised in all-caps as PLAYERUNKNOWN, the game as PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS. They give loot boxes names like Desperado, Survivor, and Militia.
Plunkbat is a silly name for a silly game which pretends to be edgy. It's telling that the game is best known for its silliest bit of writing: "Winner winner chicken dinner." Such a game could only be Plunkbat, never PUBG.
"Ahhh I don't get it. I really don't," Greene concluded. "It's like what the hell, guys?"
YEAH I HEAR THAT, SHACKNEWS. COME ON THEN.