As gamers, we have experienced hundreds of apocalypses in our lifetime. Chances are if we were to ever have one happen to us, we would be more well-prepared and our survival skills higher than most.
We have survived the nuke, the floods, and of course the zombies, a few thousands of times really.
After recently playing The Last of Us again, it got me thinking: what apocalypses have we been through in video games that could totally happen in the real world?
I then decided to do some research on just how well video games are told and how relatable could they be to a real-world scenario. If there was an apocalypse today there would be no heaven versus hell, although Darksiders is an epic game, rather a disease, war, and perhaps a technological apocalypse could indeed be our end.
Zombies walk the Earth
Before you jump to conclusions and believe that we will be running away from the undead one day keep in mind that a zombie apocalypse could come in the form of many different things. The closest one being the Ophicordyceps virus which is a parasitic fungus that attacks insects in Africa, especially ants
This fungus attacks the brain of its host and causes them to behave in a weird nature.
After a while, the fungus then kills the ant which then causes this Cordyceps fungus to break through the ant’s brain and skull and grow out of it like a mushroom.
After a few weeks any other ants nearby this dead corpse have a high risk of being infected by the spores that emit off this mushroom growing out of the ant’s brain.
If something like this would to ever evolve enough to affect humans, then chances are we would have this fungus in our brain that would cause us to act in a weird manner. We would then die and our brain would form a fungal mushroom around us that would infect everyone.
Cue the end of the world by brain mushrooms.
Technology and Biochemical Warfare
While we may be a couple of hundred years away from A.I having more than half a brain to make decisions for us, the idea of a technological apocalypse may be something that could possibly happen one day.
In a day where we live alongside robotic people perhaps or machines that have a will to decide their own daily lives, what is stopping them from developing a way to counter being oppressed.
The truth of the matter is that we will one build robots as service objects to do what we are too lazy to do or cut down production costs in one way or another. They will be man’s servants.
Steven Hawking has already warned humanity that the advancement of technology in the world is both a threat and a blessing.
As we move into a new age of advanced science, comes the risk that biochemical warfare could leave the world desolate. This, in a way, is technology being used for the worse of evil where diseases will be enhanced through technology in order to cause disaster.
Climate Change
One of the least used apocalypses in gaming and one which we actually have a bigger chance experiencing in climate change.
One day when the sun pierces through the ozone, the deserts get hotter, the oceans cover the land, and the storms rage through the earth, we will all be fighting to survive the harsh environments on the planet.
While some may believe that this will take hundreds of years before becoming a reality, the idea of the planet being the cause of an apocalypse is something that is very realistic as it could be one that actually happens.
The best way to think about how this would happen is to have a Sim City with no resources, fire breaking out everywhere, ingore the alien ship, and service delivery being neglected. That is the start of a climate change apocalypse.
Nuclear Fallout
Yes, one of the most common “end of the world” scenario in video games is the end of the world itself through war, nuclear war. As we are in 2017 we have not experienced any sort of nuclear attack in over 60 years.
The last bomb dropped by the US back in 1945 over Nagaski. 74,000 people died in result of the attack and since then nuclear bombs have been banned and shunned by the UN.
The idea that a bomb can destroy countries in seconds and kill hundred of thousands of people is truly frightening but in 2017 nuclear weapons are as real as ever.
While the world states that we live in a “nuclear free” zone, if a World War would ever have to break out again, chances are that it will be ended in a nuclear apocalypse.
Games like Fallout and Wasteland have depicted this sort of world, bar the mutant rats, but it is one world which we could one day be in if the world’s super powers do test their might against each other.
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