Can Plague Inc: The Cure Save the World?

Abstract

Plague Inc: The Cure was created in collaboration with health organizations such as the WHO. However, adapting a serious message into a game can cause a range of problems, such as ludopedagogical dissonance. Against this background, this thesis investigates how the game creates awareness of the pandemic response actions. This is done by establishing and executing a game analysis consisting of text, play experience and context. First, I analyse how the rules of the game create awareness of the actions by focusing on the concept of procedural rhetoric. Second, the game is played in the instrumental and explorative play modes, which demonstrates how ludopedagogical dissonance arises. Third, the findings of the previous two sections are explored in relation to the context of the game. I find that the game elements trigger players to focus on the vaccine and on winning the game. This focus results in ludopedaggoical dissonance, which is the disconnect between the serious intentions of the game, the knowledge allegedly gained through the game and the actual transferred knowledge.