Swine Flu good for gaming in Mexico

by Ben Gilbert { May 2nd 2009 at 1:00AM }

As if the rampant window plasticizing and complete blanketing of nighttime news with Swine Flu stories weren't bad enough, USA Today is reporting that Mexicans are flooding markets before a five-day quarantine begins in Mexico. The good news? People are renting games (and, ya know, buying other stuff) by the boatload, with the newspaper reporting "residents are snapping up DVDs, renting video games and stocking up on food."

We contacted a few American Blockbuster outlets and asked the folks on the other end of the line how business has been lately, and if they've seen an uptick in game rentals over the past couple of weeks. "No, actually, it seems kinda slow ... I guess maybe people are afraid to come out or something," we were told by an employee at the chain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Calling another store in Madison, Alabama yielded vastly different results, where an employee told us, "The past couple of days it's increased. I think it definitely has to do with the Swine Flu worries."

While these testimonials do little for our theory that more folks are renting games in the States for the same reason, it's quite possible that us brazen Americans are simply turning a blind eye to the clear signs of end times. Hell, we're still planning on going to E3 2009 and that's a month away! We could all be dead by then!

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Tags: blockbuster, business, e3-2009, mexico, rentals, swine-flu, usatoday

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Rentaro @ May 2nd 2009 1:09AM

Freaky photo you got there

Vegnagun bwf @ May 2nd 2009 1:40AM

Creeping me out, too.

Lone Starr @ May 2nd 2009 2:06AM

Mom?

ArchGamer @ May 2nd 2009 2:36AM

@ Lone Starr

Lone Starr, eat your brains or no games tonight!

Rob @ May 2nd 2009 9:47AM

"presses A"

Damian @ May 2nd 2009 12:47PM

The worst thing is she doesnt know that skull has no brain in it.

Ignatius @ May 2nd 2009 1:14AM

Swine Flu = SARS/Bird Flu

You probably have a higher chance of an asteroid hitting your car when you go out to start it for work tomorrow than dying from swine flu.

t_m @ May 2nd 2009 1:44AM

you mean != right?

Alex @ May 2nd 2009 5:27AM

Yeah. The media don't tell you how many people die every day from NORMAL flu, or how many people have already had Swine flu and survived.
It has all been blown out of proportion. I fully place the blame on The Daily Mail. (A British newspaper that loves racism and loves to start a good public outrage or scandal)

John @ May 2nd 2009 8:12AM

No, he doesn't mean !=

Sars and the bird flu are also two bullshit "epidemics" the media blew out of proportion.

Skipjimroo @ May 2nd 2009 9:48AM

My rage levels seem to be exponentially increasing with each fresh, dose of daily propaganda that lands on my doorstep.

The media should stop to consider that the general public's mass hysteria isn't worth trading off against a few increased figures. Sadly the odds of that are equal to my contracting swine flu from a toilet seat.

Hopefully when the real apocalypse rains down on us these fuckers'll be the first to get it.

In the eye no less!

Draco @ May 2nd 2009 10:34AM

I don't know, SARS killed 17% of Canadian affected, so I wouldn't say it was really blown out of proportion, whose to say how many more people would have been infected had the WHO not taking drastic steps to stop it.

Markez @ May 2nd 2009 10:56AM

They started to backpedal a little on the hype here, and had a front page article about how things weren't as bad as feared.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/01/bn01flu145127/?health&zIndex=92282

The Baron @ May 2nd 2009 11:00AM

And how many Canadians were infected in total?

Thousands die daily of common, preventable illnesses in British hospitals, and all our esteemed tabloid newspapers can do is scream about a disease less potent than the yearly flu we get anyway.

The couple who were the first in the UK to contract it were a bit ill for a couple of days and then masses of cash from the newspapers in exchange for their story. Oh, the humanity!

Draco @ May 2nd 2009 12:00PM

44 died of 251 infected, I think it was all contained to 1 or 2 hospitals though which is where the weak live. if it got out to the general public the rate probably would have dropped to like 3% but there would have been thousands infected.

BlaqueBeird @ May 2nd 2009 1:22PM

@Draco
You mean SARStock? That was Rolling Stones and AC/DC.

Latin_Trident @ May 3rd 2009 7:57PM

Anybody remember that summer like 2 or 3 years ago when all the sharks in the world got together in a common purpose to attack humans? I do! The media reported all shark attacks like they wanted to attack us.

Swine flu, what a joke! It's just bacon's revenge.

Robert Maynard @ May 2nd 2009 1:18AM

What the eff kind of photo is that?

eastsidexhusalah @ May 2nd 2009 1:22AM

holy crap its 2 in the morning here and im all alone and its dark in my room with only a small light... that picture freaked the hell out of me

Raul3 @ May 2nd 2009 1:24AM

this is no good!!! God you guys dont even got any idea how things are down here, so thers no point of this "swine flu good for gaming" its pathetic!

Saint @ May 2nd 2009 2:26AM

Oh it's so bad. Very very bad, right? Killing the elderly and the young just like good ole' Regular Influenza. Except on a much, much, much smaller scale.

Seriously, 36,000 people died of winter flu last year. 12 have died from Swine Flu. It's really bad.

Call me when Captain Trips starts going around.

Then I'll care.

Draco @ May 2nd 2009 10:35AM

Saint the Swine flu is attacking people with strong immune systems unlike the normal flu, so it attacks nurses and doctors who have been immunized for the flu. thats entirely more dangerous then the normal flu which mostly kills people 65+

Avatar @ May 2nd 2009 1:27PM

You're right, Raul, it's easier to catch, but it's still just the flu. They even said on the news that no one in Canada has died from it, and that it's no more deadly that plain old influenza. It's essentially just a more tenacious version of the flu, a little harder to kill, maybe, but it doesn't do any more damage than usual. It takes a lot more than some puking and a low fever to kill a healthy human.

Avatar @ May 2nd 2009 1:28PM

Sorry, I meant no one in Canada and the US.

Inect @ May 2nd 2009 7:10PM

Draco i know for a fact that only %50 of doctors get the flu shot in Canada. My doctor recommend that i didn't get it. sSe said at my age and health the shot is more likely to hurt me, then the flu.

Einhanderkiller @ May 2nd 2009 1:24AM

He said he'd die "when pigs fly."

Well, it looks like...

Swine flu.

Levi (God Hand Defense Force) @ May 2nd 2009 9:28AM

YEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Nter @ May 2nd 2009 1:26AM

Um.. That woman is obviously infected.

If she's in the medicine aisle; Louis can't be far behind..

Kevin Ghadyani @ May 2nd 2009 2:19AM

It's not Swine Flu, it's H1N1, the name of the strain. You cannot catch it from pigs.

Vidikron @ May 2nd 2009 2:32AM

That's almost entirely wrong. Humans can, and often do, catch H1N1 from pigs. The reason is has the nickname "swine flu" is because H1N1 is the most common subtype of influenza that pigs carry.

Night Elve @ May 2nd 2009 2:36AM

@Vidikron

No it's not, actual virus cannot be cached from Pigs. And just for common information you can't catch the virus by eating pork meat.

Vidikron @ May 2nd 2009 2:40AM

You can catch it from swine, but you are correct that it cannot be caught from eating pork.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/26/swine.flu/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/04/understanding-the-outbreak-an-influenza-biology-primer.ars

Kevin Ghadyani @ May 2nd 2009 2:58AM

Thanks for clarifying guys :P

PR0F3TA @ May 2nd 2009 1:36AM

before i start, i wanna say i live in brooklyn NY...

... anyways, why do Americans thrive on fear? last week it was Mad Cow and before that i remember Anthrax and Sars.

This is medical issue yes, but epidemic like, no

Vidikron @ May 2nd 2009 1:58AM

It's the media here. They love to sensationalize everything and get people worked up. And for some people it's probably just something new to talk about other than the economy.

Night Elve @ May 2nd 2009 2:12AM

Well Joystiq it maybe seems a joke to you, but you see Swine Flu is a serious thing and just because few people has died so far, it does not mean this virus is not a threat.

It means our Government has been acting pretty well and taking the right decisions to control the virus spread.

Anyway I'm just tired of people saying we are making a very big deal of this, when it is something real.

John @ May 2nd 2009 8:15AM

And another comment from the dumbass section.

Swine flu is treatable. They have a drug already.

12 people died from it whoopdie doo

39000 people died of regular flu last year genius

Levi @ May 2nd 2009 10:21AM

The government didn't do anything dude. Obama told us to wash our hands and cover our mouths when we sneeze. He also spent another boatload of money.

The flu is weakening from person to person. That's why there have been a bunch of deaths in Mexico and only 1 in the US. By the time the vaccine is available to everyone, we won't need it.

PS I thout like 150 died in Mexico?

mr mobius @ May 2nd 2009 11:07AM

I've had lecturers who specialise in microbiology who have pretty much told us that there has been a lot of mass hysteria over nothing.

Night Elve @ May 2nd 2009 12:49PM

@John

I never said it was not treatable, I said people thing is not a threat (menace) when potentially can be.

@Levi

I was not referring to USA Govenrment I was talking about Mexican Government.

:)

THE Ezio Auditore de Firenze (PSN slycooper_rocker) @ May 2nd 2009 2:37AM

yeah, i live in alabama, and most people have started gaming more. even non-gamers are getting on their siblings' consoles and playing games like COD.

LFF @ May 2nd 2009 3:29AM

The happy mask salesman's business has been booming.

mr mobius @ May 2nd 2009 11:10AM

Those masks aren't great. Once they get anyway damp, they're practically useless.

Josh @ May 2nd 2009 12:26PM

Wait, really? I've never owned one before so I wouldn't know.

Dr. Oranday @ May 2nd 2009 4:12AM

Well, here in Mexico, i've seen rental stores being overrun by costumers, not so much the grocery stores. Even though there's the warning from the government, people aren't really panicking over groceries and that kind of stuff.

You know, it's cool to be worried and careful about the swine flu, but it's not something really that bad as the media is making it seem. Here in Aguascalientes we've only had 5 deceases (real unfortunate), but seems like the only place to worry about is Mexico City, and that city is not very close to the border.

otarumx @ May 2nd 2009 6:05AM

People are scared over here because in order to stop the virus from reaching a lot of people the government decided to scare us into staying at home. I mean there are almost 120 million mexicans and only 16 or so deaths so far, without this paranoia there might have been more cases and deaths.

What I can say is that indeed most people have decided to rent games and movies to spend time at home to the point where my local blockbuster has no games for rent and only old movies. People will have to try to stay at home until the 5th so they at least will try to spend this time comfortably.

If Captain Tripps is going to kill me at least I want it to happen while playing some Killzone.

John @ May 2nd 2009 8:18AM

Look, anyone who is scared of this is just plain stupid.

The deaths in Mexico, not a country well known for its medical breakthroughs.

When something like this is detected and treated, you will not die.

more people die from the normal flu every year than have or will die from this latest media circus.

You have more to fear from catching a disease off of your keyboard when you type all these OMFGMFG! I'm gonna DIE!!!!! Messages.

otarumx @ May 2nd 2009 8:39AM

The fact of the matter is that people will get scared when things are blown out of proportion, I mean every time the terrorist threat is raised in the Us people get scared the same way people in Mexico are right now even if a terrorist attack may not happen.

People are easily startled when the news gets something that may raise their ratings and just run with it (ask Fox News), Truth be told people die every day, heck a lot of people die from car accidents, way more than they have from this virus but I don't see people getting all paranoid because of the car accident epidemic.