Spawning into a curious world, a creature called a Nergal ambles about its surroundings. On its own, it might strike up conversations with fellow Nergals and make or break friendships. While free to roam, a shadowy disease looms in the distance. What’s a Nergal to do?
Matthew Silk and Nitara Wijayatilake worked with the Then Try This team to bring their idea to life. Nergal enables researchers to collect data on how social behaviors change in the face of a spreading disease.
Francesca Willow
Knowing how researchers struggle with collecting real-time responses during evolving outbreaks, disease ecologists Matthew Silk and Nitara Wijayatilake at the University of Edinburgh searched for alternatives. Network science models assume homogenous and rational behaviors, but Silk remarked, “We had a strong suspicion that neither humans nor animals would be like that, and they may vary quite a lot from each other.”
Instead of relying on these models, the researchers turned to an entertaining solution: They partnered with Then Try This, a nonprofit research, design, and development group, to create an educational game that explores the trade-offs of social decisions. And so, the game Nergal—named after the Mesopotamian god of disease—was born.
The game’s animal-inspired social networks reflect a variety of group structures, such as Asian elephants, European badgers, or bottlenose dolphins, that players might encounter. Nergals explore, build friendships, and occasionally earn health-restoring snacks. But socializing has its risks, as proximity to sick friends and strangers can lead to illness. What begins as a friendly gathering can quickly turn into a sniffly, sneezy Nergal party.
Players can choose their Nergal and dress them up in a fancy hat before entering the virtual world.
Then Try This; University of Edinburgh
After five minutes, the game summarizes how sociable and sickly the player’s Nergal was, including whether others were infected. Silk also plans to add an asymptomatic feature, in which seemingly healthy individuals fleeing from sick Nergals might unknowingly spread the disease to new friends.
“Our hope is that [Nergal] is this combination of being really beneficial as a communication tool, but also as a way of collecting data that actually informs kind of scientific modeling around social behavior and disease.”
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