Video games, novels, TV shows and films with viral apocalypse themes aren’t something new in the 21st century. There is a long list of games that involves killing zombies with guns, looking for survivors, and finding medicine and resources. It is common for people to romanticize the apocalypse — shooting zombies, and finding resources and medicine with close friends. This can be fun in a game. However, what are the real world consequence of this type of apocalypse? What if the main character is the first virus carrier?
There is a webpage simulation game of this, called Collapse The End of Society Simulator. In the game, the player will choose his/her starting location in anywhere in the world, where they are patient zero (the first person to be infected). The virus is fast spreading with the rate of infection being determined by the population density of the starting point.
“WE LIVE IN A FRAGILE AND COMPLEX WORLD of interdependent systems we rely on every day – power, transport, banking, hospitals, communications. When one fails, others follow, creating a deadly domino effect that can cripple society in a matter of days.” — creator of Collapse The End of Society Simulator
The story will continue through text and allow the player choose a path. Even without high end graphics, you can image the hopeless situation. Traveling to the nearest hospital leads to the infection of others. As the pandemic is spreading quickly, there won’t be enough vaccine for patients. Everything turns chaotic as the crowd becomes angry. Days later, people will are raiding supermarkets, banks, and pharmacies. Riots created by resource shortage are not something law enforcement can put down easily. Within a few weeks, people will begin dying from illness and violence; or choose to try to find somewhere safe to hide. In the same time, the simulation displays a line graph and numbers tallying the infections and death.
The player decided to leave the city.
Within a month, most of the power-plants will be shut down due a lack of workers. Telecommunication, electricity, natural gas and even water services will stop running. Business and the government can’t continue operating, and the world will revert back to the pre-industrial revolution era. Modern society can’t stand longer than a month if basic utilities are gone.
North America without electricity, it is totally blacked out at night.
This horrific stimulation is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new story, Tom Clancy’s the Division. It is about a self-support tactical agent trying to restore the order. This will be the starting mission for the player. I have to say… “This is a very creative marketing campaign!”
