Doctors Paul Wake and Sam Illingworth
Deadly viruses and infectious disease are one of gaming’s recurring themes. Games such as Matt Leacock’s Pandemic and Michele Quondam’s Virus pit players against deadly viruses, while games like James Vaughan’s Plague Inc. and António Sousa Lara and Gil d’Orey’s Viral turn the players-versus-virus format on its head.
These games, which range from co-op to competitive, from Euro to American-style, are united in presenting viruses and bacteria as a threat. And it’s easy to see why. Popular representations (from cleaning product ads to hospital superbugs) have turned these microscopic organisms into villains far more believable than the monsters of myth and legend. They must be a game designer’s dream – an eminently-marketable threat against which violence is justified. But is there, perhaps, a danger that these microscopic organisms are just the victims of bad PR?