Plague Inc. experiences popularity surge following Coronavirus outbreak, devs issue warning

midian182

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In a nutshell: Plague Inc., the eight-year-old strategy game that tasks players with wiping out humanity using a global plague, has seen its popularity surge over the last month as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak. The jump in user numbers has prompted its developer to issue a statement reminding people that it’s “a game, not a scientific model.”

In the last 30 days, Plague Inc: Evolved’s daily average player numbers on Steam have jumped over 148 percent to 1,672—it’s usually under 1,000. Peak players, meanwhile, reached a record 17,889. The previous highest number of concurrent players was 4,601 back in April 2018.

In a statement posted to Twitter, developer Ndemic Creations revealed that the high numbers had also knocked the game’s website offline. “Plague Inc. has been out for eight years now and whenever there is an outbreak of disease we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks.”

In the game, players can pick different traits for their disease to make it more deadly, such as its symptoms, how it spreads, and how easily it can be prevented. The studio says Plague Inc. was designed to be “realistic and informative, while not sensationalising serious real-world issues. This is something it says has been acknowledged by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other leading medical bodies.”

The most important part of the statement reads: “please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model, and that the current coronavirus outbreak is a very real situation which is impacting a huge number of people. We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities.”

The BBC reports that Plague Inc. recently became the best-selling app in China following the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which has infected close to 3,000 people and killed at least 80. Many firms in China are taking precautions to protect workers from infection, including Huawei, which postponed its annual developer conference that was due to take place in Shenzhen, 600 miles South of Wuhan—the center of the outbreak.

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Good they issued the warning, especially now, but it would be interesting to see real data .....
 
True enough. But still, the killing, maiming, raping, and pillaging of other civilizations, makes the wasted time go by so fast you hardly even notice
I gotta say, razing the city in total war is the only option sometimes. When your enemies surround you from all sides, when you have last 1000 of gold for the current year, it is for the good of the nation. They rebel of course, uniting to fight your weakened forces, but that gold you get for leveling their cities gives you another year to keep your falling empire afloat.
 
As a precautionary measure we should all build some isolation room close to the airports.

I would start with 6000 single or double person units.

I really wish to stress the urgency of this matter as reports of uncontrollable outbreak is posted by researchers in Hong Kong.

From South China News
China coronavirus: Hong Kong medical experts call for ‘draconian’ measures in city as research estimates there are already 44,000 cases in Wuhan
  • HKU’s faculty of medicine dean Gabriel Leung says research shows self-sustaining human-to-human transmission is already happening in all major mainland cities
  • He called for measures to limit people’s movement, school closures, work-from-home arrangements and cancellation of mass gatherings
 
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Funny thing is, back when I played this game, I found that starting in China gives you better results than in any other country. And if you think about it...it really is a perfect place to start to spread a desease
 
“Plague Inc. has been out for eight years now and whenever there is an outbreak of disease we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks.”
___________________________________________________

You cannot possibly know how fast (or where) the disease is spread or understand the complexities

It's like trying to fly a helicopter blindfolded (or in a fog)

Are you hovering stationary, or headed towards the side of a cliff at 50MPH?

You can't tell, because all you see is fog

Quarantine doesn't work because it's already broken quarantine

Is the virus moving at walking speed or flying on a jet?

Will people remain stationary until they know for sure if they are infected?
Obviosly not!

They are spreading the virus before they even know they are infected

They're flying blind!

It's already a Global disaster and they are still wondering whether they should raise the alarm

Are they going to be the hero pilot that can get us from point A to B in a Fog?

Not gonna happen!
 
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When you have people living in poor conditions and working with animals in unsanitary conditions, it's not uncommon for microorganisms to jump species. SARS, Swine Flue, Bird Flu, Coronavirus...

The Earth will keep coming up with ways to keep human populations in check.

I'm sure Earth doesn't really feel it needs 8 Billion people.
 
When you have people living in poor conditions and working with animals in unsanitary conditions, it's not uncommon for microorganisms to jump species. SARS, Swine Flue, Bird Flu, Coronavirus...

The Earth will keep coming up with ways to keep human populations in check.

I'm sure Earth doesn't really feel it needs 8 Billion people.

Then why did their phoney / made up God tell them to breed like Rats and overpopulate the Earth, causing massive waves of disaster after disaster?

Oh, if only we had some "Final Solution"!
 
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It was great as a flash game and the board game is decent (although I prefer Pandemic).
Evolved is decent enough, but doesn't add enough to be worth its price.

The apps are atrocious. Almost just the flash game repackaged.
 
It's like trying to fly a helicopter blindfolded (or in a fog)

Are you hovering stationary, or headed towards the side of a cliff at 50MPH?

You can't tell, because all you see is fog...[ ]....
It's hard to imagine a commercial helicopter pilot would be allowed to fly with a VFR only license.
 
Oh, and 99.99% of people have never even heard of MERS... Middle-Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, which was far more dangerous than anything you've seen so far (except Ebola). Around 35% of people who got MERS have died. That's one of the deadliest viruses ever.

The epidemic happened in 2012. And yet, you've never heard of MERS. Why? Because the media didn't want EU countries to reject refugees from those countries. In fact, whatever the refugees do, including murders, rapes, throwing bombs and spreading diseases all over EU, cannot make it into news. Why? That's a pretty good question.
 
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