Games are Political
Pandemic: Contagion is a Nihilistic Fantasy
Or Anti-UN Propaganda
Somewhere in the world are anti-vaxxers who think shooting themselves will make them immune to bullets.
Pandemic: Contagion diverges from Pandemic Classic in a few ways. First off, it’s a card game. Second, the players aren’t doctors, medics, and other specialists. They’re the diseases trying to wipe out humanity. Third, it’s not a co-op game. All the viruses are competing for the honor of killing everyone. Finally, the CDC is not the hero of this story. This time the World Health Organization is in charge.
This particular play-through started slow. None of the viruses could Infect any cities on the first turn. But then a Conservative Apocalypse happened. Refugees spilled into developed countries and governments started collapsing. Said collapsing was, or course, blamed on said refugees. Vaccines were developed quickly, but humanity was still behind the eight ball.
In the minds of a lot of Conservative voters and ALL the New Nationalists, the refugees would be the obvious, and only, culprit. The hardcore Trumpists would “know” that travel bans and The Wall would have saved Los Angeles from catching ZikAids. It may be a Blue State (and who cares about them?), but now the whole country would be in danger.
The mid-game was even less generous to humanity. The diseases took advantage of the lack of sanitation workers and the increased international travel. The WHO’s public awareness campaign set the infections back a bit, but humanity’s days were numbered.
The last leg of the game pretty much sealed mankind’s fate. Flooding, a lack of social distancing (didn’t these people see that movie?!), and that beautiful global warming upped the body count AND the number of exposed cities. By the time the U.N. could start chipping away at the infection rate, it was all over but the dying.
In Contagion, humanity NEVER survives. Only one of the viruses can claim victory. Vanilla Pandemic and The Cure cast the CDC as “The Heroes”, and I think Rapid Response stars an NGO. In the other three games, it’s possible for humanity to triumph. The rules don’t say this explicitly, but it’s implied that every person on Earth is either dead or dying by the end of Contagion. That makes Contagion the only game in the series in which humanity ALWAYS dies an agonizing death. AND it’s the only one in which the WHO take the lead.
Pandemic: Contagion is jingoist propaganda! It’s meant to convey that only the good ol’ U.S. of A. can save itself and the rest of the world. If we turn things over to the international community, they will fuck it all up!
Unfortunately, the designers couldn’t predict the New Nationalism and the end of international cooperation. Now, the WHO taking the lead might not be such a bad idea. Thanks to Trumpism, the CDC is no longer the A-Team. Now the amateurs are in charge.
By the end of the game, only three cities were completely wiped out, but the writing was on the wall. And even if some humans live, civilization is officially done.
And THAT is why I love this game.
