Forget hard mode — you can now play these video games on ‘Long COVID Mode’ to experience what patients do

Long COVID is a new challenge for video game players.

What if you found that your Minecraft character was constantly leaving behind items due to a weak memory? What if you had difficulty firing an arrow at a target in Elden Ring or standing up again after resting?

These are some of the effects found in ‘Long COVID Mode’, a mod pack for Elden Ring, Minecraft and The Witcher 3, created by a Europe-based advocacy group for long COVID patients.

Mods can cause video game avatars experience symptoms and setbacks that are similar to real-life COVID symptoms.

“As gaming has become the most popular form of entertainment, overtaking film and TV, what better way to really show the impact of Long COVID than trying to beat Elden Ring, game of the year and notoriously difficult, while “suffering” from the same symptoms in-game,” Perri Karyal, a popular Elden Ring Twitch streamer, said in a press release. “I think this is such a poignant demonstration of the real problems people face, and a great way of spreading the message.”

A trailer for the project shows glimpses of how the symptoms manifest as in-game hurdles, with wobbling screens, Minecraft players losing hearts while “you’re out of breath” warnings flash and the titular Witcher being plagued with a banner of “brain fog” that briefly make the surroundings white out.

The designers hope to give players a taste of what it’s like to be a long-haired COVID.

“The challenges presented by Long COVID and other invisible post-acute infection syndromes like ME/CFS forced us to find novel means to show people without this experience what it really feels like to live with such a debilitating condition,” Ann Li, co-chair of Long COVID Europe, the group behind the project, said in the release.

“Living with Long COVID means facing new levels of difficulty every day. Gamers enjoy new challenges within their favourite games. We simply connected these dots to create a vivid simulation of a life with Long COVID.”

The term “long COVID” is used to describe symptoms that continue long after the acute COVID-19 episode has been cleared.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10-20% all COVID-19 cases will eventually lead to a long COVID infection.

That’s at least 65 million people who may be experiencing this.

Research has found that long COVID can affect multiple organs and regions of the body, with presentation differing sometimes drastically between patients, and that it has a strong overlap with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the existence of long COVID is something we’re all aware of. It’s hard to describe how it feels for those who are affected.

According to WHO, the most common symptoms are fatigue, chest pains, muscle aches and problems with concentration, memory and sleep. In practice, these symptoms can mean people with long COVID may be unable to exercise or even walk as much as they used, aren’t able to perform basic tasks as easily as they once could, struggle to hold onto thoughts or memories, and even struggle to get out of bed.

In the Long COVID Mode project, these symptoms are shown through gaming modifications that can be downloaded on the project’s website and then applied to the game itself.

The effects will vary depending on the game you are playing.

In Elden Ring for example, players will always be 25% slower. They’ll also have slower stamina recovery in combat. They may have trouble hitting targets with arrows or spells, and they might have a hard time standing up after resting.

Other symptoms include indigestion (where healing causes pain to the player), post-exertion syndrome (PEM), where the player feels drained for a few moments, and exhaustion.

“I think it’s a creative way of raising awareness, and we wanted to take on such a project because we think doing a mod about it can definitely help people understand more about the topic, whilst also enjoying one of their favourite games in a challenging way,” Garden of Eyes, one of the modders who helped create the project, said in the release.

The Witcher 3’s Long COVID Mode has four stages of exertion. These are fatigue, exhaustion and myalgia, each of which makes the game more difficult. Some of the effects in Minecraft include the player’s inability to stay underwater as long, and a brief moment of immobility when making quick movements.

According to a press release, developers chose these three games not just because they are popular, but also because they cover a broad range of age categories, so the message could be more widely felt.

Designers say that the project was deliberately released on ME/CFS awareness day, Friday.

“We want to raise awareness about Long COVID as a serious neuro-immunological disease and make a difference to people affected by this debilitating illness and other post-acute infection syndromes like ME/CFS,” Chantal Britt, co-chair of Long COVID Europe, said in the press release. “Despite the fact that those who are severely affected are forced to spend their lives housebound or even bedbound, such illnesses have been trivialized, underfunded, and neglected by research, medicine, and the society for centuries.”

Long COVID Europe aims to increase awareness of the disease and push for funding and research.