App review by Leslie Crenna, Common Sense Education | Updated June 2012

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Plague Inc.

Name: Plague Inc.
Item: Plague Inc.
Rating: 2
Author: Leslie Crenna

Negative goal overshadows science concepts in disease-design app

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Learning rating

Editorial review by Common Sense Education

Community rating

Based on 6 reviews

Privacy rating

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Grades

8–12

Subjects & Skills

Science, Creativity, Critical Thinking

Great for

Game-Based Learning

Take a look inside

5 images

How to Play provides detailed yet succinct instructions.

Seven plague types teach concepts; can be unlocked in any order with purchase.

Symptoms page shows various symptoms, such as "evolved," through "purchase" with DNA points; see DNA points and disease data statistics at bottom.

The world map shows Asia and Africa with high infection rates, infection along distribution and travel routes, and total number infected.

The world page shows number infected worldwide and remaining health (blue heart), a headline about the first death, and cure status.

Pros: Teens can contemplate sophisticated concepts and get lots of data and information.

Cons: The pretext is violent, and user input is relatively small.

Bottom Line: It's possible to pick up some biology and social studies concepts as you work toward the very negative goal of Plague Inc.: total annihilation through disease.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Plague Inc. obviously has an antisocial agenda that educators probably wouldn’t want to promote, except perhaps for the reaction of countries to the problem and the race to find a cure. If the developers had given teens the option to play as a government official or research scientist rather than genocidal criminal, this app could be used as a learning tool without reservations. It's just a weird, backward way to learn about the spread of disease.

What Is It?

Plague Inc. is an app that asks players to create and evolve a disease that kills the human race before a cure is discovered. Gameplay shows teens how disease spreads across the globe through air travel and cargo ships, as well as how vectors like animal hosts or "abilities" like airborne transmission make diseases more contagious or resistant to medicines. Teens can learn about world geography through the map interface; about biology through disease types, transmission, symptoms, and abilities; and about society and government through tickertape news stories and statistics pages for each country showing responses and actions to the disease.

An opening one-page tutorial clearly explains the basic steps of gameplay, distilling a great deal of detail down to its elements. Players first select a country in which to start their disease. Players strengthen their virus, fungus, or bio-weapon by adding symptoms and giving it defenses –- against cold and water, for instance. Players get points and upgrade their virus by "popping" bubbles that appear on screen. Once doctors become aware of the disease, they work on a vaccine.

Is It Good for Learning?

While some teens will be fascinated by the intense music, detailed graphics, extensive data, and the slow red spread of contagion and death, others may find it too intense and disturbing.

Overall, gameplay is quite passive physically, aside from popping DNA bubbles to earn points toward evolving the disease, but teens must do a quite a bit of reading and thinking -- though it's not clear how much impact this has on the results. In-app purchases to unlock DNA codes are easy to make inadvertently depending on your device and settings, and the text is way too small. In the free Android version of the app, ads (for dating and violent games, for example) can be eliminated with an upgrade to the full version via in-app purchase.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating

Engagement

Much of the gameplay is watching and waiting, though the information, concept, and graphics are scarily fascinating.

Pedagogy

Plague Inc. uses statistics, distribution lines, and disease characteristics to teach a spectrum of social concepts. However, what's learned here doesn't transfer well to real life: Who wants to start a plague?

Support

Data is extensive, and play is amazingly intuitive considering the complexity. Scoreboards and achievements help players track their progress.

Common Sense reviewer

Leslie Crenna

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Featured review by
Elisha J. , Classroom teacher

Classroom teacher

Mountain Creek Middle School
South Jordan, United States

Create and spread a disease and see how many you can infect with one teeny tiny pathogen. Fun and informative.

I really like this game. It drives home the idea that I am trying to instill in my students; to be safe. In their lives they need to watch for symptoms and transmission points and this game illustrates that very well. All students, no matter their learning levels, were able to enjoy this game. Some Spanish speakers needed a little bit of help with words but they caught on quickly. Be aware that students quickly get involved in their games and don't want to leave class or they secretly try to play when y ...

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