The video game The Division 2 takes place in New York in the new expansion. The current news from New York raises disturbing parallels – even if reality is significantly different from fiction, says our author Schuhmann.
This is the situation in the real world: New York is seen by some as the capital of our modern world. In recent days, the city, known as a vibrant center, is also becoming the global capital of the Corona pandemic:
- In the USA, more than 200,000 people are infected with the corona virus – 4,800 deaths are known
- In New York, 83,889 corona cases are registered – there have been 1,941 deaths
These are the current data from “The New York Times”. The numbers and the chart with the large red circle in the northeast of the US map make it clear: New York is the epicenter of the virus in the USA.
Parallels and Differences in Real New York Compared to Fictional
This news comes from the USA: The prison complex Riker’s Island is heavily affected by the corona virus. As the Times reports, 167 inmates and 137 staff members of the prison tested positive for corona by Monday, March 30. The prison is described as “unclean” and “overcrowded”.
In The Division 2, the “Rikers” are a group of prisoners who were formerly incarcerated on Riker’s Island:
- In the game, they are ruthless enemies that make New York unsafe in part 1 and in the “The Division 2” expansion “Warlords of New York” and want to seize power
- In the “real world,” they are victims of the virus. They must endure the pandemic under even more difficult conditions than most of us.
Field Hospital in Central Park
A field hospital with 68 beds has just been set up in Central Park, New York. The temporary hospital is meant to accommodate patients that Mount Sinai Hospital can no longer accommodate.
In The Division 2, players frequently see such emergency facilities, where patients were cared for during the peak of the dollar flu. The “Madison Field Hospital” was the entry instance in The Division 2.
In the fictional world of The Division, the “Madison Square Garden”, the famous sports center of New York, was converted into a field hospital. Players cannot enter Central Park in The Division.
Mobile Morgues
As the Times reports, New York City has provided 45 mobile morgues. Additionally, local crematories have been allowed to operate around the clock. These are necessary measures because the in-house morgues of hospitals are overwhelmed.
In The Division 2, players encounter “Body Bags”, body bags that pile up as they get closer to the contaminated zones while walking through New York.
Both are symbols of the fact that the number of dead rises so rapidly that the normal practice of burying a body can no longer be maintained.
What it’s about: It is clear that the fiction of The Division 2 is significantly different from the reality of the USA under the corona lockdown. One should separate reality from fiction.
Nevertheless, some players of The Division 2 are likely reflecting on things while walking through fictional New York and then seeing the current images from the USA.
I felt a bit uneasy when I saw on television that the USA was sending a hospital ship to New York. Because the day before, I had completed a mission on a ship in The Division 2 that had run aground in New York and was now being used as a base for a terrorist.
The developers of The Division 2 addressed the parallels to the corona virus and the virus in The Division 2 before the outbreak of the pandemic. They said, the “Tom Clancy” series games dealt with real threats. They also conducted intensive research on how authorities and helpers would respond to the outbreak of such a pandemic.
