We're detached from them as they're not in current or recent time, while Covid is still going on.


Though i do have to wonder if people taking Wolfenstein for historical detail are okay lol

There were middle eastern wargames when the the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had started.

At no point did i say that games don't exist on current events. Simpy framed to why some people feel so against the game. Shocking i know, not posting a reply that's fully devoted to harsh disagreement or fanatical head nodding. Cute Mitchel and Webb call though, but there's better material in there lad

Like I said earlier, Cancer is still very current right now and is killing and impacting way more lives than Covid-19, and will continue to do so long after we have a vaccine for the later, yet we have tons of media using it as their premise. Same thing happened some years ago when AIDS was at its worse.

Not all WWII games involve zombies or regenerating health...

This is true, but again, i did not say anything about things not existing lol. What you said is true and no one has claimed otherwise, and in cases with HIV, a lot of the resulting media was to battle the stigma attached to those suffered from the illness and the social backlash towards the communities it was common among.

You're right. A lot of people are acting like we are living through the event instead of having to be indoors for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jJ203Q-lyk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28o6fJda1c

That's the stuff




Though i do have to (quietly) say...i always preferred Peep Show

I know this is rhetorical illustration, but...

There's already a pre-existing (free to play on computer) game series called Pandemic, and EA still holds the Pandemic trademark for use in gaming from its purchase of Pandemic Studios. They literally could not call this game Pandemic.

There's also a pre-existing Epidemic game, and an Epidemic! game too (trivia: I have the original SSI Epidemic! from 1982 on my bookshelf).

Obviously Plague Inc exists as well. And gets a massive boost in sales every time there's an infectious disease in the news.

So there aren't many unused generic terms for infectious diseases available for use in game names except, well, Infectious Disease Response Simulator maybe.

Good point. So what you are basically saying is that the developers had no choice but to call this a COVID game because all the other alternatives were taken?

LOL, besides this game, Steam has four other COVID-games out or coming out soon.

This seems interesting, a first person shooter where you use a gun which shoots rolls of toilet paper at the virus.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1316570/Operation_Covid19/

BTW, the user reviews of COVID: The Outbreak seem positive in Steam. Some reviewer said he expected it to be a quick money grab game, but was actually pretty good. Well I'll be...

As far as cobbled together "my first foray into FPS games" goes... I guess.

They even managed to toss in the ol' chestnut of https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/hq-residential-house-48976 because of course they did.

Lmao. Can we have school shooting simulator next?

Well, not "no choice" but to name it the way they did. They could have called it something else, but the obvious names certainly are taken and have been for some time.

I've bought the game. I certainly haven't played long enough to be able to recommend it or not as a game or simulator, but I'd say it's definitely not a standard 'cash in' game and has been in development a fair bit longer than 4 months.

I'd be confident it was being developed as a generic infectious disease game* earlier and has been retasked specifically towards the current pandemic. The production values are pretty good so far, it's basic but quite nice aesthetically, the UI seems to generally be well thought out, there's some typos and rather stilted sentence construction in places and while the tutorial probably lacks a bit on the important gameplay details part it's way more than many other similarly priced games have. Guess some people also wouldn't like the use of Unity. End of the day and with the proviso that it's after only a couple of hours play but I could not be reasonably expecting much more from a ~10$ game in terms of initial impressions.

*I'd say from the intro video that there was going to be a generic infectious disease involved, ie bacterial or viral vector(s).

To peeps mad about this game: Don't buy it. There, wasn't that easy? :P

But also, a reminder that this paragraph exists in its description:

Note from the developer and publisher: 20% of all net sales from the game throughout May and June will be donated to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and other charitable foundations supporting the fight against the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

So it's not just mindless capitalization on the pandemic; it can help support the forces fighting it, as well as helping stave off potential future pandemics too.

Thirdly, I'd also like to point out that sometimes it's therapeutic to have a way to fantasize about taking control of a situation you feel helpless in. Did you guys know that in China, when their infections were at a huge peak, the number of sales of games like "Plague, Inc" JUMPED way up? (Before it was removed from the App Store by the government, as they tend to do...) Some players interviewed said that it helped them feel less helpless, more empowered, and feeling less fear through greater understanding of their situation.

A huge bunch of players also surged into the old "Pandemic 2" flash game as well. Once again, it can give people that sense of examining their situation, of staring it down, in a way that helps them carry that feeling to their real-life situation.

The way that some victims of violence can use games, movies, or even creating their own fictional works, to examine their trauma in a safe, controlled manner, and better cope with it. Fantasies of revenge against who wronged them, or being the one in control, or of taking the time to process what they've been through, in a way that can give them acceptance and closure.

I use media in that way a lot. It really has helped me.

Please don't make the creators regret something that might be VERY important to a lot of people. I myself am very frustrated at being surrounded in my town by people refusing to wear masks or keep distant, who insult and belittle those few of us who do. I have a suppressed immune system; if I catch this virus, I will most likely end up on a respirator, and very likely might die.

I'm helpless, I'm in extreme danger, and nobody around me gives a shit. They're practically telling me, one by one as I go to pick up my medicine and groceries, that they don't care if they cause me to suffer or die. This town I used to love feels terrifying now, the people I assumed cared about others are proving that they don't. :(

I'd LOVE a fantasy game where I can make a damn law where endangering other people like that is illegal (cuz it should be!), where I can think of all the ways I'd dictate if I were in charge, where I could make the world safer for the real me, and get to feel the accomplishment of achieving that.

Don't condemn this game. If it's not to your liking? Just treat it in a healthy way like anything else not to your liking: by not wasting your valuable time complaining about it, and moving on to devote your time and effort toward things you ARE interested in.

Because this is very important to a lot of people who might need it, and it's disheartening for us to see it get so much hate just for being here for us. :(