About

Pandemic is a board game for two to four players to cooperate and contain four diseases spreading throughout different regions across the world. Each player assumes the role of one of five specialists, including a dispatcher, doctor, medic, scientist, researcher and operations expert. The game later inspired the strategy video games Pandemic 2 and Plague Inc., in which the player attempts to destroy all life on Earth with a deadly pathogen.

History

Pandemic was created by game designer Matt Leacock and released by Z-Man Games in 2008. In 2009, the "On the Brink" expansion was released which added new roles, an optional fifth player variant and "special event" cards. In the summer of 2013, a second expansion "In the Lab" was released, allowing players to discover cures for disease in a laboratory.

Online Presence

Pandemic 2

On July 21st, 2008, the game Pandemic 2^[1] was released by Dark Realm Studios, in which the player attempts to infect the entire Earth with a virus, bacteria or parasite by avoiding detection and evolving new abilities. The game features a world map view allowing the player to monitor the spread of a disease across the globe, which is shown through animated airplanes and boats. If a country becomes suspicious of an epidemic, they can close off all ports making it difficult or impossible to infect the area.

Plague Inc.

On May 26th, 2012, the game Plague Inc. was released by developer Nmdemic Creations for iOS devices on the Apple app store.^[2] Plague Inc. features gameplay similar to Pandemic 2, in which the player names a new disease which can be evolved to wipe out human life on the entire planet. On October 4th, it was released for Android mobile devices. In 2013, it became the 5th most downloaded paid iPhone game in the United States.^[3]

On February 20th, 2014, a PC version of the game titled Plague Inc: Evolved was released on the Steam software distribution service.

Screenshots from the game featuring humorous disease names are often posted on various community sites online (shown below).

Related Memes

Shut Down Everything

"Shut Down Everything" is an expression derived from a webcomic about Pandemic 2, in which the Republic of Madagascar is often considered the most difficult target to infect with contagions due to the island nation has no airports or bordering countries.

Search Interest

External References