In The Division, Massive asks if you still remember how it all began.
Last Friday, on 24th November, was Black Friday. This is commonly regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, where retailers heavily discount their goods, and countless people flock to stores and online shops to hunt for bargains.
For The Division, Black Friday is an important, a crucial day. Because according to the story, the virus pandemic that plunged humanity into chaos began with Black Friday.
Via Twitter, Massive asks if you remember that Black Friday in The Division was the starting point of the disaster. They embedded a video that was first shown over four years ago at E3 2013. Many of you may have never seen it or have long forgotten it. Enjoy:
What is the video about?
This video illustrates the complex and fragile world we live in. We rely on an enormous number of interconnected systems every day. We have created a house of cards: If just one card falls, the whole house collapses – and the catastrophe begins.
The fuel for this worldwide system is money, which is why the virus was circulated through banknotes to bring about the apocalypse. And since, according to the video, 200 million people storm the stores and exchange money on Black Friday, this day was used as the origin.
The video points out that a flu virus can survive on a banknote for up to 17 days. It then spreads to human skin, from there to other banknotes, to food, to toys, to children, and family members. By the time the first patient shows even slight symptoms, millions of people are already infected.
With a deadly, modified virus, things escalate quickly. On the first day, hospital capacities are exceeded, and panic spreads. Quarantine zones are established, transport routes are closed, and systems collapse. By day 5, everyone will do anything to survive – thus everyone becomes a potential threat.
When the video was released years ago, it sparked a lot of discussion. It did not showcase wild science fiction ideas, but instead painted a dark future scenario that could occur “in reality”. In the following years, it became known that Massive worked with experts to create the most realistic scenario of what New York would look like in this post-apocalypse.
The video achieved one thing above all: it whetted the appetites of massive gaming fans and built the first high expectations for The Division.
Black Friday as a Missed Opportunity
The community is disappointed that Massive didn’t hold anything for Black Friday this year. After all, this day holds great significance for the game. One would have at least wished for a short event, or a mini-story mission, or a cutscene.
They even let the chance slip by to offer discounts on the in-game vendor offers.
A short Black Friday event would have been a welcome change during the wait for Update 1.8. Instead, currently, there is merely a double reward event, where there are two operation performance containers.
By the way: In 2013, not only was the upper Division trailer released, but also this trailer for the first gameplay reveal. The story begins three weeks after Black Friday – and compared to the finished game, there were still quite a few differences:
You still have time: 5 tips on how to prepare for Update 1.8
