Player Comments on The Covid Assignment

The Covid Assignment is a really great introduction to epidemiology and how viruses spread throughout the population. Even though it’s 5 years old now(wow, I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since the pandemic started, it feels like I was just about to graduate from highschool, and now I have my masters, this shit is insane, time flies and I feel old as dirt), the information presented is still relevant and important. And it’s presented in a fun and easily accessible format, so the game basically ticks all the boxes I would expect an edutainment game to hit.

Like the description says, in this game, you play as a network scientist who acts as in an advisory capacity to the United States military. I like how the game alternates between complex language and easy-to-understand colloquial terms.

After you get out of bed, your PhD student, Jill, calls you. And immediately after that, you get a strange knock on the door. I can already sympathize with the scientist, fielding a call from your annoying grad student, while hearing a knock on the door from someone you don’t even know can be quite annoying.

Of course, the purpose of Jill’s call was to inform you that the military arrived at your house, a call that was useless because 5 seconds later, they enter and explain their purpose anyway.

The rest of the storygame is a quiz style game where the military basically asks you questions and you answer them. If you answer them wrong, the game quickly ends because the military realize that you’re not actually useful to them. I got that ending for fun, just to see what would happen if you intentionally answered everything wrong, and within 2 wrong answers, they leave and the game is over. You don’t even get into the meeting, so that was a fun path to go down.

I like how Northwind manages to weave in complex concepts like the idea of the basic reproduction number, or R0, of a virus, and make it easy and understandable to the general audience. The best way to learn is by application, and Northwind gives us a chance to demonstrate we actually know what a reproduction number is, by giving us an R0 of 3, and then asking us how many people would be infected by the 6th step. 3^6 is 729, and when you select that, you’re informed that you got the question correct. I like how Northwind keeps the math pretty basic, but also challenging enough to where you have to think about it a bit, it’s not just as simple as 2+2. Expect some exponents and basic probability, it may also help to know your stuff in algebra. The funny thing is, to properly construct mathematical models like this, you need differential equations. So this game gave me some PTSD, because it brought back memories of all the hard math I had to learn, with the SIR model, and the Lokta Volterra equations. Math modelling is tough, and I’m glad that Northwind was able to properly explain the theory behind it, without overwhelming readers. And that’s not even getting into all the graph theory that network scientists need to know to do their jobs. I also think the story did a decent job discussing testing, contact tracing, herd immunity, and providing justifications for the decisions that political leaders chose to make.

All in all, this is a well designed game that achieves its purpose quite well. It manages to present its information and teach the reader in an engaging and interactive manner. The story is short, keeping the events snappy and fast paced, while also interspersing math and science in between the story events so you actually feel like you’re learning something. I also like how Northwind chose to make his story around an underrated but fantastic field that’s at the intersection of mathematics and biology. I would totally recommend this game for students looking to learn a bit more about the COVID pandemic, how the disease spreads, why people contracted COVID so fast, and the rationale behind why the world leaders chose to act as they did.

The game does a good job of showing interpersonal conflicts, and the importance of rank and file when addressing a specific governmental agent.

There is one criticism in this story, and that is that it portrays the military and the political leadership as a well oiled machine. It was idealistic and too rosy of a picture, because everyone in that story was thoughtful, polite, actually listened to scientists, so that detracted from the realism. In actuality, it was a lot more complicated, way messier, and the higher ups didn’t always make the smartest and most rational decisions.

Rating: 6/8.

Purpose: This is an edutainment game, meant to entertain and inform. And it does just that! The story is a bit simple, but engaging enough that it doesn't feel like taking a test, and the math puzzles both keep your mind working and get you thinking about just how crazy large the numbers related to this pandemic actually are. There is a lot of real, interesting information here. I feel like by the end of it I know more about the virus and the reasons behind the rules we have. The characters and story do seem to play second fiddle to the informative aspects, but overall this game does a good job at meeting its intended purpose.

Writing/Grammar: The author clearly has an understanding of grammar and language. I didn't notice any glaring typos or mistakes, and everything written seems to at least make sense. Many of the scenes were very dialogue-heavy. Considering most scenes revolved around discussion, this isn't a surprise. Still, it may be beneficial to flesh out some of the other areas. Perhaps had some descriptive language to really pull readers into the setting, or spend some time going over the character's demeanor or expressions.

Plot: The plot here is pretty simple. While fun and definitely a lot better than some of the other Edutainment games I've seen, it still pretty clearly takes a back seat to the learning aspects. It does it's job, but I do think it would be cool to flesh out the scenarios a bit more. I did like the little scenes and conversations between characters.

Setting: There isn't a ton of description about the setting here, but what there is I did enjoy. There was enough there to form a picture in my head, though always a vague one. Of course people generally have an idea of what an apartment, D.C., or the back of a car might look like, but giving a bit more elaboration would serve to better pull people in.

Characters: I was pleasantly surprised by the characters in this story. People had little quirks here and there, and I never found myself thinking "Wait, which one was he again?" which happens far too often with one-note characters. Unfortunately, nobody here really gets any development. I fell that I learned quite a bit about the pandemic, but I'm not sure I learned alongside my character in the story. Since it isn't a character-driven piece this definitely isn't a deal-reaker for me, but seeing a character truely learn and change would have a bigger impact overall.

Branching: The branching here is pretty standard for a quiz game. Right or wrong answers have minor impacts on the story (a character corrects you, you feel like you were wrong, etc.) and the game continues on in the same general pattern. While this would normally be a bit linear, I think it actually works for an informative quiz-type game such as this one. Ther is enough change to show that there was some effort put in, and I think having a final score at the end is a nice touch. It may even encourage people to play through the game again if they care bout score, which is always a nice incentive to have for a learning game. The lack of true story-impacting choice isn't the usual ideal, but I do think it works in this context.

Conclusion: 5/8 Simple but effective! There would definitely need to be more added to turn this into something I'd reread for entertainment, but as an informative text it gets it's point across. It's a fairly good game for what it was made for.

One of the best stories I've seen on epidemics, perfectly paced.

This was a better edutainment game than I thought.

The quiz itself mostly consisted of mathematics and general knowledge related to the virus. The questions were challenging enough while not being too difficult. The second part was mostly about strategy in putting forth your ideas in a meeting, which was more difficult for me, but still made a lot of sense.

I really like how you tried to put a story into the quiz. It would be even better if you tried to have more variation of the endings you could get depending on your final score. There’s gotta be a difference in how the others view you, for example if you keep getting everything wrong and embarrassing your teammates, they certainly would not like you as much towards the end as you being knowledgeable and acting wisely in meetings.

This shows good potential, 5/8.

for sure worth the read, very interesting would recommend to others, 6/10

Very well explained. Even predicted the mutations!

It is a great game, you might need to use a calculator for some problems though! It helps you to understand why we took the steps we did when COVID first broke out. It explains why we should distance and why we had to shut down. Very helpful and you can tell it was well researched! Great job!

37/50
enjoyed it! - it'd be nice if all tests were as entertaining.
I did see some 'President Harris/Johnson' and other typos, but nothing too disruptive.
I also learned something. I can't say that about most stories out there.

I quite liked Covid Assignment.

An informative text disguised as a charming story game, it worked pretty well. I was able to understand and learn more about the virus sweeping the world, while still staying engrossed and interested in the plot. The information you pick up is more pertinent then ever in these uncertain times, and I appreciated that.
For example, the more complex idea’s behind social distancing and travel restrictions, as well as their functions with given examples.
In a sense, I was similar to the uninformed at the initial meeting, learning about the virus in the same way they were.
The occasional mental gymnastics in the form of mathematical sums and logical problems helped keep my interest alive and made me really mull over what was said. Though I do admit I may of redid the picking of choices a few times.
The score system made sure I stayed focused and really absorbed the information in order to get a better score, comparatively to other story games where one may skim and absently click on a random choice in hopes of passing onto the next phase.
However, I feel the story was a little bit rushed, and while there was character development, it wasn’t enough to connect with any of the characters, including myself.
I understand it’s more of an informative text to educate people in a fun way, and it isn’t necessarily meant to be too develop the characters too extensively, but I believe character development could’ve added some more meaning to what was being taught.
All in all, a great story game that’s great fun to play, held a lot of factors that kept the audience interested. Could’ve done with a bit more development to really push the information that was being given, 5/8 in my opinion.

The writing was decent here, and the information was presented more interestingly than I expect from a quiz-style game.