Current Events > Video games with viruses?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm trying to think of all of the games with viruses for an academic paper. Does anyone know any good non-obvious ones? I have Resident Evil, Last of Us, The Division, Deus Ex, Plague Inc. Any other big good ones I'm blanking on?

Death Stranding

---

Street Fighter V had a rootkit in it for a while.

---

Metal Gear Solid V
Rainbow Six Quarantine

---

Left 4 Dead
---

The Foxdie virus.

---

SolidShadow3 posted...

Metal Gear Solid V
Rainbow Six Quarantine

MgsV was parasites.

---

MegaMan X. The maverick (Sigma) virus.

---

Probably a stretch given that it's a computer virus, but the corruption in Horizon: Zero Dawn works like one.

---

Pandemic

Metal Gear Solid 1 had it though.


---

TestaALT posted...

I'm trying to think of all of the games with viruses for an academic paper. Does anyone know any good non-obvious ones? I have Resident Evil, Last of Us, The Division, Deus Ex, Plague Inc. Any other big good ones I'm blanking on?

Arknights
Dead Cells
Warcraft 3
Oregon Trail

---

Mega Man Battle Network has computer viruses. I think Mega Man 9 or 10 was about a virus too. (This is on top of the previously mentioned X series)

---

Foxdie shouldn't count IMO it's less Virus and more specifically targeted bioweapon.

---

In Postal 2 you coup throw mad cow infected cattle heads as a weapon and in Postal 3 you could use a rabies infected wolverine to kill people if those count

---

Dr. Mario, naturally

they're from space, too

---

Pokrus in Pokmon

---

The Stone Sickness from Star Ocean.

---

Awesker002 posted...

MgsV was parasites.

Damn. You're right. Oops.

---

AIDA in .hack//G.U

---

I know it's going to be the biggest chore of your life if you don't like niche gaming, but Pathologic 2 simulates a day by day plague event in a small town that you can directly influence as a doctor. It's also a horror game... sort of. But the way it simulates that experience, especially now, is second to none. Just saying the words "Day 3 of Pathologic 2" will be PTSD inducing for me for a long time.

---

This is good, thanks everyone. Some I hadn't thought of and others I'd argued for as well

pegusus123456 posted...

Probably a stretch given that it's a computer virus, but the corruption in Horizon: Zero Dawn works like one.

No I like that. Very creative

Tyranthraxus posted...

Oregon Trail

Definitely hadn't thought of that one, thanks!

Strider102 posted...

The Stone Sickness from Star Ocean.

This one is so good! Most viruses in games make people stupid and violent so it's a nice change of pace

Just to call attention to Warcraft 3. I don't know how much use the actual "virus" would be since the plague isn't all that important, but the Culling of Stratholme might be useful.

And speaking of Warcraft, there's the whole Corrupted Blood thing.

---

Ever 17
Virtue's Last Reward

---

pegusus123456 posted...

And speaking of Warcraft, there's the whole Corrupted Blood thing.

Yeah that was definitely a big part of it and why it may work as a paper, since there were a few scholars who published about the Corrupted Blood. I remember I got corrupted blood in WoW when that happened years ago. In a starting area.

Metroid Fusion

Final Fantasy 9 has the virus status effect, it stops the character from gaining any XP or AP.

---

Chicken posted...

Mega Man Battle Network has computer viruses.

I was about to post this myself.
---

Oh.

This is PROBABLY not what you're looking for as it's a bit too literal, but there's actually a game called "Ebola: Civilian Assault" not to be confused with another game named Ebola that is a horror game from 2019.

Ebola: Civilian Assault is much older and it's about taking some drastic measures to contain the virus.


---

Seitar posted...

Final Fantasy 9 has the virus status effect, it stops the character from gaining any XP or AP.

That was really good! I hadn't thought about those JRPGs I love the most that all have "virus" status.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Oh.

This is PROBABLY not what you're looking for as it's a bit too literal, but there's actually a game called "Ebola: Civilian Assault" not to be confused with another game named Ebola that is a horror game from 2019.

Ebola: Civilian Assault is much older and it's about taking some drastic measures to contain the virus.

No those are great too! Do you know any more?

Academia at one point called those "serious" games

Out of curiosity, what will the focus of your paper be about?

---

pegusus123456 posted...

Just to call attention to Warcraft 3. I don't know how much use the actual "virus" would be since the plague isn't all that important, but the Culling of Stratholme might be useful.

No that's really useful! One of the people who could review the paper loves WoW stuff and has written research on similar WoW-specific things so it may be useful to add as a note

008Zulu posted...

Out of curiosity, what will the focus of your paper be about?

That is really the question. Right now, it's a survey of viruses in games. I'm trying to get a larger picture of how game developers think of viruses and how gamers generally interact with them.

If I can get "an about," it's definitely a good, top-tier paper since it's so timely and relevant. If I can't though, I can still probably fit it in a second-tier journal, get lots of citations because it's about viruses in gaming, and no one would be the wiser 10-20 years down the line.

pegusus123456 posted...

And speaking of Warcraft, there's the whole Corrupted Blood thing.

The old republic had their version with the rakghoul virus

https://swtor.fandom.com/wiki/Rakghoul_Pandemic

---

The Zero Escape games are about a virus.

Joeydollaz posted...

Death Stranding

There was no virus in Death Stranding, unless I'm blanking on something.

---

In the Mega Man X series, Reploids become mavericks because of the Maverick (Sigma) Virus

---

TestaALT posted...

That is really the question. Right now, it's a survey of viruses in games. I'm trying to get a larger picture of how game developers think of viruses and how gamers generally interact with them.

If I can get "an about," it's definitely a good, top-tier paper since it's so timely and relevant. If I can't though, I can still probably fit it in a second-tier journal, get lots of citations because it's about viruses in gaming, and no one would be the wiser 10-20 years down the line.

Take a look at this Dragalia Lost boss who inflicts a status "plague"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2McTwe1D9LU

If you can't really figure out what's going on in the video I don't blame you.

Plague (the large green circles around characters) reduces resistance to status ailments to -100% meaning taking any hits whatsoever while plagued incapacitates you for several seconds. It expires after the timer is done and when that happens it spreads to any friendly units standing near the plagued character.

Periodically the boss will perform a life steal attack. If any characters are plagued, then instead of healing damage the boss will get plagued himself. This is a window of opportunity to inflict the boss with statuses that he would otherwise be immune to as well as the obvious stop him from healing.

---

Has Monster Hunter 4 come up yet? I kinda glossed over the topic and may have missed the abbreviation.

Frenzy Virus FTW.
---

The BattleTanx games are set in a post-apocalyptic world after a virus kills off most of the female population.. or some shit like that.

Marvel's Spider-Man pretty much nails what the streets of New York looked like this year. A deadly respiratory virus, mask wearing, coughing etc

---

Pokerus from the Pokemon games. Basically it's a virus you'd want to catch, but you have to be really lucky to get it naturally. It spreads between your party, and dies out in 24 hours (you still get the effect from it though). It doubles your EV gains, and the timer is paused on Pokemon in the PC.

---

Dead Rising? I played a few games but didn't really pay attention to what caused the zombies but I think it was some virus lol

---