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posted by martyb on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess? dept.

Plague Inc. maker: Don't use our game for coronavirus modeling:

Interest in the continued spread of the coronavirus has had an unintended side effect for UK-based Ndemic Creations, makers of Plague Inc. The eight-year-old game—which asks players to shepherd a worldwide pandemic so it can destroy all of humanity—has seen a spike in popularity in recent weeks, becoming the most-downloaded iPhone app in China on January 21 and in the United States on January 23, according to tracking firm App Annie.

The surge in interest has led Ndemic to issue a statement urging players not to rely on the app for information on staying safe from the coronavirus' current spread. "Please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model and that the currentcoronavirus outbreak is a very real situation which is impacting a huge number of people," the statement reads, in part. "We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities."

[...] Ndemic points players to the WHO for up-to-date information about the coronavirus. The disease now has more than 2,800 reported cases worldwide and has led to at least 80 deaths.

Interesting educational tool: CDC: Solve The Outbreak

Previously:
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
Coronavirus: Millions Quarantined in Wuhan City
China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @11:17AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @11:17AM (#950576)

    Has anyone talked about using the game for that? They are looking for free publicity.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:57PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:57PM (#950679) Journal

    Perhaps, but a statement to cover all their bases, isn't a bad thing. They certainly don't want to be seen as claiming to be a scientific resource. An educational resource that gives someone a general idea of how things might progress is one thing. Serious research is a different matter.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:10PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday January 29 2020, @05:10PM (#950718)

      Have they ever made any claim that could even vaguely be construed as claiming to be a scientific resource? It's a game. Anyone with a year of high-school biology should be able to spot several fundamental ways in which it diverges from reality. If actual diseases behaved the way they do in-game, complex life would have been exterminated before it ever crawled onto the land.