Donating to the people who have links to the virus itself.

AYY LMAO.

Read the top bit of Post 92, but put the word possible before the word links.

This indignation makes no sense and I would have expected it from the generalist media, not from gamers.

There are games on all kinds of subjects and with all kinds of morality, from world wars to the most modern conflicts, we can impersonate bloodthirsty dictators and psychopathic killers. So, beyond the quality of the game that I don't know, I don't see why an educational game about the fight against the pandemic should be outrageous.

Adding "possible" doesn't make it any less of a patently absurd conspiracy theory.

This is a fake release thread, its all fake news! Just drink bleach, game over...

I didn't know that GOG's forum is attractive to social media trolls.
Every day, i learn something new...

Honestly there are tons of brands, shops, or whatever who have done the whole "Purchase our stuff and we will give xx% to charity for research on Covid" and for most of them you could argue whenever or not it was "genuine" or just a way to make money out of the current situation.

So having a game on the subject, especially if, apparently as I haven't played the game, it's done on a "educational" more realistic level like they pretend, doesn't really shock me that much.

This is disgusting and has no excuse at all.

The timing for this is horrible and i think the great majority of answers in this thread are showing that releasing this kind of thing in this moment, while there's still a lot of people dying is immoral.

As others already said, this game has been rushed out to take profit of the situation or it is a game that was having another name and another theme, and this is even more disgusting.

The May donation "effort" (no doubt that it is a marketing thing to calm possible reactions but the idea is bad in any case) feels like a joke, considering we are 2 days from ending the month.

The World Health Organization also accepts donations and at least is not a semi private organization, so why don't you donate the money to them, a global organization from the UN? CEPI executives sure don't need a single dime from you.

27,121 deaths in my country until today. More than 360,000 around the world. And you are taking profit of this... good, humanity, good.

Oh, and "educational" is no excuse at all, you are no one to educate others in a tragic situation like this one.

So how long was the development time for this game?
Was it 7 months?

There is media that references a tragedy too soon, and then there is media that references a tragedy WHILE IT IS GOING ON?!? This may well be a great game, but I can't even look at it right now. The Honduran branch of my family just lived through a complete and total three week lockdown in which being on the street trying to get food was an enforced arrestable offense. People died. Not to mention the people that died from the actual disease. I'm in mourning, and it's not just me. This is not a case of just one person having a personal tragedy and seeing something that makes them, personally, feel bad. Instead, the entire world is feeling this way. Everyone has their own story of tragedy right now.

I understand the studio was probably working on a game for a long time and that their livelihoods depend on its sales, but seeing and taking a chance to retheme the game to fit the current global tragedy is just too tacky. You, the studio owner, should have kept it a black plague game or whatever it was before and advertised that you would donate part of the proceeds. Then people would see that and want to support you. Turning it into a covid game for the publicity and donating part of the proceeds is not enough!

I don't like this at all. The game seems like it is trying to use the current global crisis which has killed & terrified lots of people as a marketing gimmick. It comes across as crass and in really bad taste.

I don't like this, I don't like the idea of this and I will not buy it or support it. I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come with the pending US election. If GOG becomes the dumping grounds for all of those political meme games steam seems to be riddled with then it will be the worse for it!

Well, i can't give you a guess on how long Jujubee worked on the game, but if you look at the Reuters/Eikon brief about Jujubee's activities from April 30th (link: https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-jujubee-to-release-covid-the-outbr-idUSFWN2CH202), it rather looks like Jujubee postponed other projects just to get this game released quickly.

In other words, Jujubee attempted to strike the iron while it is hot. Looking at the GOG thread here and Steam's discussion forum, it almost looks like as if Jujubee is burning its hands in the process. (That said, i am curious how well this game will sell in the first two months or so, broken down by world regions. Realistically, and unfortunately, i won't ever get to know this...)

I think most of us are getting educated about pandemics and the covid virus without the aide of a game. We really have no choice in the matter as most of us are stuck in our residences. The news has been mostly nothing but the virus. Who really needs it in their entertainment besides? To the people that have had family and/or friends die, this is a slap in the face. Who really thought that this was acceptable while this pandemic is still ongoing with no signs of stopping?

I laughed, so it was all worth it.