If you have ever played (or seen) PUBG, you know about the Blue Zones- the unsafe area that slowly expands to force players into a smaller and smaller playing field over time. Blue Zones are arguably PUBG‘ big innovation, and the reason the game is as exciting as it is, when previous games of its ilk were often boring and drawn out.
The way Blue Zones work is, over time, the play area gets reduced, and everyone has to make it to the “safe portions” of the map. Everywhere else gets a field of blue lightning that damages, and eventually kills, players caught in it. This encourages players to move, discourages camping, and ensures players will actually run into each other.
Now, changes to how this mechanic works are being tested in the test servers for the PC version of the game. There are three changes: firstly, the time between the expansion of Blue Zones (that is, the time between the reduction of the safe zones) is going to decrease, meaning you’re going to have to be on the move more often. That said, the expansion of lightning across the Blue Zone will be slowed down- so if you are caught in a Blue Zone, you have more time to get to safety. Finally, if you are caught by the lightning, it will do more damage to you.
These are subtle changes that could have major implications for how the game is played, so it remains to be seen how they will go down. PUBG is available now on PC and Xbox One.