As in the last Curtain Call, the Great Big Omega to the Beginning Alpha, that final stick of half-melted KitKat in that worn out Plastic Wrapper that is Life...
Meh, you get the picture.
Much of the "apocalyptic mood," if I may call it that has been obviously brought on by a combination of factors: A previous era of high economic growth followed by a world-wide recession, the advent of Islamic Terrorism and its decade-long effects on the Western world, oh and that 2012 Mayan Calendar End-of-The-World scenario.
Suffice it to say, it has made the public at large quite receptive to the genre of "Zombie Apocalypse" movies. But it has also helped produce a number of fictional works that cleave closer to the reality of viral pandemics such as Steven Soderbergh's 2011 movie Contagion.
And now the latest entertainment entry comes from an small App game available for the IPhone and Android dubbed Plague, Inc.
Plague, Inc., is a real-time strategy game and brain-child of developer James Vaughan at Ndemic Creations that places the player in the roll of an infectious agent - Bacteria, Virus, Parasite, Fungus, Prion....Artificially Engineered BioWeapon, etc.
Your goal is simple, transmit yourself to the world's population and proceed to eliminate the human race in one gigantic pandemic.
What makes the game particularly interesting to me is its limited application of epidemiological concepts for infectious diseases. The three overall characteristics of your infectious agent are quite familiar: infectivity (how easy is it to transmit), severity (symptoms), and lethality (how deadly is it).
The player is forced to strategize about the starting location, the mode of transmission, and the symptoms of the disease.
Most of the world's nations are in fact represented on the map, each with unique characteristics regarding the type of public health responses they can mount against an epidemic. For instance, it is much easier for your infectious agent to spread for instance in a place like South Africa or India than say Norway or Germany. Climate, economic status, and major modes of transportation can limit the means by which your virus can spread.
Speaking of transmission, the player is also encouraged to develop a plan on how his or her infectious agent can be spread. Options are quite typical - Birds, Mosquitoes, Rats, Livestock, and water/airborn options exist.
Finally, there is the "mix-and-match" symptom tree which allows you to customize your specific apocalypse. You can copy the characteristics of well-known diseases such as H1N1 and SARS, or develop your own little combination. A popular one i've heard of is Insanity mixed with Dysentery which causes much of afflicted population to start defecating in the streets.
Of course, your little imaginary world won't take this abuse lying down. Like the Scientist in the Cinematic Trailer above (and yes for those who have played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, that is talented voice actor Elias Toufexis), you face an army of doctors, scientists, and public health specialists seeking to limit your spread and searching for that cure to put you down.
A constant news feed lets you know what the little humans are up to - whether they've caught onto the fact your virus exists, if they've started to try and stamp out your methods of transmission by say spraying for mosquitoes or killing birds, or if they've decided to close their nation's borders to protect their citizens.
Oh - and you kind of know your winning if the various world governments have decided to lift all bans on human experimentation in search for the Cure or.....started to isolate and execute the infected.
Now do I find it slightly Ironic that I am now using all that epidemiological knowledge accumulated in my brain to topple humanity's dominion of the Earth? Sure.
Is it still fun? - You bet. I encourage all to give this little simulator a shot.
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