David Hanak In the last few weeks, practically nothing else has been dealt with. China, Korea, Italy, Austria, Germany... the coronavirus is everywhere, but it is supposedly avoiding us (so far). You've probably read a lot of news related to the global virus pandemic, but I dare say none of them were as bizarre as this one - China's central internet content regulator has banned the distribution of Plague, Inc. in the country. Map of the spread of the coronavirus is available right here.
Plague, Inc. is a cross-platform game that was released back in 2012. The goal of the game is to create a pathogen that the player continues to modify, with the goal of infecting and eliminating as many people as possible in the world, ideally all of humanity. During the game, it is possible to modify "your" disease in different ways and react to different game situations. Over the course of its existence, Plague, Inc. it has been downloaded by more than 130 million players, making it an extremely popular title. Due to its theme, it started to do well in China again in January, which obviously did not please the Chinese ruling set. So they simply banned the game.
The game's developers said they have no idea why the ban was imposed by the Chinese authorities. The game became the top-grossing title on the Chinese App Store at the end of January, and due to the current situation, the developers issued a statement that it is just a game that does not in any way represent any scientific model of the spread of the coronavirus. However, this did not help and the game ended up on the list of banned software, which is now unavailable in China.
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The popularity of the game is so huge that its author was invited to a special discussion panel, where it was discussed how similar games can help ordinary people with the perception of real danger, especially with regard to the principles of their dissemination, etc. In China, however, they probably said enough and they simply banned this simulation of current reality. So far, less than 3000 people have died from the coronavirus worldwide, with more than 80 of them being (or having been) infected.
