Coronavirus simulation game weirdly trends amid outbreak

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Is it being ignorant or facing your fears?

Following the coronavirus outbreak, a weird (but with reason) game has been trending all over China.

On Wednesday, the human annihilation strategy simulation, Plague Inc., suddenly topped the Chinese iOS download charts. Surprisingly, the game has been around since 2012 but because of the real-time events happening, users have found it very timely to play.

The real-world virus outbreak also brought out the black humor in gamers. 2012’s Plague Inc. — where players evolve a pathogen to wipe out humanity — is now China’s top paid iOS game. https://t.co/JdYrVJzwZX pic.twitter.com/inJ5jGvEJ2

— Zheping Huang (@pingroma) January 22, 2020

In Plague, players are tasked to develop a deadly virus and erase human civilization. And from there, they must devise a plan to avoid treatment through mutations and upgrading the pathogen’s attribute before scientists develop a cure.

An unusual way to cope

With what’s happening right now and the death counts coming in, the game’s setting is very similar and it appears there’s an attraction to that? According to users, it’s a form of coping with the disease.

People who play Plague, Inc. have something going ON in their lives. You don’t play that game when you’re happy and everything’s going okay – you play it when you need to cope with some bad stuff by making really bad stuff happen to fake stuff.

— Hannah Fields (@hannahgfield) December 27, 2019

On another note, the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) Asia-Pacific CS:GO finals tournament was cancelled due to the said outbreak. A confirmed case was found in Macau, where the event was supposed to take place.

What do you think of the Plague? Will you be trying out this game out of curiosity? Feel free to tell us your thoughts and questions down below! Or you can hit us up on our Facebook or Twitter @UDoUPh. And if you liked this story, make sure to stay tuned here on U Do U for more updates!

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