If you’ve been swept up in the craze that is Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, a last-man-standing shooter videogame, then I don’t have to tell you what it’s like in the pre-game lobby. Sure, some players just stand around waiting, while others run for the gun tables to try them out. But there’s also a number of people in the public voice channel, yelling, throwing out racial slurs or homophobic language. Without granular mute controls, and 100 people grouping in the same area, it’s really not a surprise.
I’d been experimenting with using a soundboard to inject some levity anyway, so I added some Dora the Explorer quotes and music to the mix. My original intent had been simply to give other players a surprise after killing me – having Dora and the gang yell out “Swiper, no swiping!” as they approached my body. That turned out pretty great, with a number of players jumping in with the quotes and laughing along at the absurdity of it all. Check it out! (Warning – some swearing).
But the far bigger payout was playing music from Dora in the lobby. Two or three of us would get in a group, crouch down, and start swaying side-to-side while I blasted out “We Did It!” and then the sweet licks of “Backpack.” Amazingly, people would congregate to our group, look around, and start dancing. Over and over. It’s amazing! Take a watch:
Other than the music, we never spoke to the other players. There was no encouragement to join in other than seeing a group of people having a good time dancing in a dystopian battle royale. This is all the more incredible when you see the line dance at the end of that video – all we did was line up as a group of three, and moments later there’s a dozen people groovin’ to the beat.
Every so often you get some people who just decide they don’t like fun, and they try to drown it with hateful garbage, but for the most part, playing music from a beloved kids’ show has been a unifying experience. I love that people join in and have a shared moment before jumping out of a plane to kill each other.
So keep your public chat open in Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. Let’s dance!
