The latest round of closed beta tests for the newest map in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is here. Along with a smattering of tiki huts and pockets of buildings to give refuge in the dense jungle island hosting the 100-player kill-fests is a new sound effect: a squeaky metal door.
An audio clue to where an enemy could be hustling to find a weapon is needed in a game like PUBG, where much of the time you’re stalking your opponent in an effort to ambush them for an easy kill. The noisy hinges let people audibly know your position, which could mean life or death.
But the squeaky door, in true video game fashion, has instantly become a weird, pre-game trolling ritual. Click the video above. Watch and listen as we spawn-in and are immediately greeted by the shrill opening and closing of the heavy metal. Stare in awe as players rush to fill the doorways so only they can be the ones to ouvre and fermez la porte into infinity, or until the timer counts down.
This fascinating, un-oiled phenomenon. At the beginning of every game, around every corner, and in every building, there is someone opening and closing a door in an effort to add to the sonic forcefield enveloping the playing field. They’re even squeaking from the rooftops.
That’s not to say some are against it. “Don’t turn on general chat” remains an eternal piece of advice for gamers considering the amount of vitriol that spews from the ether, but many are begging and pleading for the noises to stop. Their cries, however, are being drowned out by the creaks of the doors. They know their efforts to stop the silly symphony will be in vain. Even with teams of people working together to block the surrounding entryways, there will always be more to open somewhere, always, forever. The noise will always be there, like a telltale rusty hinge.
It’s then that you realize you cannot escape the echoes and grinding metal of the hinges. It’s then that you find a door, lonely and unused, and you begin your annoying contribution to the doorchestra.