![Pandemic in the News, and Leacock on Emotion in Game Design](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/-Qer2BBPG7qGGDu6KcVDIw__thumb/img/NQQcjS31TO0DE246N9rpt0hd9eo=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic2452831.png)
If any of you are full-time writers, however, then you should once again be in the "not surprised" category; for those of you who are not writers, I'll note that writers typically try to find some way to cover an expected topic from an unexpected angle. Multiple stories from January 2015 of how the Green Bay Packers are obsessed with Catan are one example of this phenomenon. The Packers were headed into the divisional finals against the Arizona Cardinals, and this was a new angle from which to cover a team that seemed to be headed for the Super Bowl.
This same approach is why we now have multiple articles about the Pandemic board game. On Feb. 16, 2020, Rick Noack and Stefano Pitrelli of The Washington Post covered both the Plague Inc. video game (but not its board game adaptation) and Pandemic, with Leacock being quoted a few times in the article. An excerpt:
"I can certainly understand the hesitation around this — no one wants to trivialize the very real human suffering that this coronavirus has brought with it," said Leacock, Pandemic's creator. "But the reality is that playing helps us process the world around us, and people may be turning to these games now for that reason."
And it felt hopeful, in the end. For a few glorious hours, my team of four was fighting back, shuttling between cities, heroically saving entire populations and eradicating disease around the world. I'm happy to report that in our notional recreation of a worldwide pandemic, we did indeed save the world. On our third try.
Well, the board game Pandemic might be the ideal thing to pull down off your shelf if you suddenly find yourself spending a lot of time indoors for some reason or another.
• For something non-Pandemic from Leacock, here's his talk from Tabletop Network in November 2019 when he gave a presentation titled "Designing from the Inside Out" on "the importance of emotion in game design and empathy as a design skill":