Game Theory: Minecraft Has A Zombie Virus INFECTING the Overworld!

ugh i am so done with literally every game being a zombie survival game i get it the walking dead was a popular franchise um 2010 called they want their genre back give me something new you know totally hey you want to go gather some resources sure if they ask you how you are you just have to say that you're fine you're not really fine but you just can't get into it because hello internet welcome to game theory where we're all blockheads before we begin today's episode a quick reminder that this tuesday december 1st is the big show that i have been hyping up for the last month we are doing our big million dollar challenge to benefit saint jude children's research hospital and their mission of ending childhood cancer it is a stream that has been a year in the making a stream that will feature favorite creators of yours like mr beast mark has brownly jaiden animations pokemane and minecraft speedrunner dream tune in for a massive all-day show featuring video games really embarrassing challenges a lot of fun surprises along the way just something that you are not going to want to miss it is a new show every hour on the hour it is very elaborate but man is it gonna be fun okay so today we're gonna be talking about some of the changes that were added with the nether update earlier this year and then using that information to go back and examine one of the oldest parts of minecraft the zombie zombies are such an omnipresent part of pop culture nowadays that it's easy to overlook them which is kind of ironic considering what made them explode onto the scene in the first place was how horrific they were and now they're mundane again such as the circle of life or the circle of undead it's a circle of undead and of course the zombie jockeys are just always terrifying those things will mess you up anyway in all of my exploration of minecraft lore up to this point i've tended to skip over them for exactly that reason they're just kinda there meh generic hostile mob in a world full of fire-breathing dragons three-headed withers exploding moss monsters and teleporting slender man there's just so many other cooler things to talk about zombies are just very easy to overlook but you know what that was dumb of me short-sighted because they are the bedrock upon which minecraft is built in a very literal sense these guys have been a part of the game since the beginning in update 0.2.0 so if anything has an importance to the lore it's probably them and you know what they do with some of the updates made to the nether i believe we now have some very interesting leads as to what zombies are and how they plan to the overall narrative of the game today we're talking about how the zombies and other zombified mobs might just be the most important clues for discovering what may have pushed an ancient race of builders to flee the overworld and live in the end one of the things that sent me down this rabbit hole was reading minecraft the island an official minecraft novel yes in absence of new fnaf books i've now moved on to minecraft novels yeah yeah i'll get to you guys too maybe anyway the book was a surprisingly compelling read have expected this to be some lazy video game tie-in novel but it's so much more than that for one thing it's written by max brooks who you might know as the author of world war z one of the best zombie apocalypse stories in recent memory it certainly was enough to get my attention and once i started reading it became clear to me that he was chosen to emphasize the horror of minecraft's world take this excerpt i stopped and backed away its clothes were ragged and filthy its flesh was a mottled green its eyes if you could call them eyes were nothing but lifeless black points in a flat unmoving face memories flooded my mind images of creatures i'd known from stories but had never seen in person and here it was approaching me with outstretched arms numb with fear i sprinted for the hill i wasn't thinking wasn't planning terror drove my every step this is a minecraft book like what oh and uh by the way the audiobook is narrated by jack black so you know imagine that terrifying passage but instead of being read by professional youtuber matpat it's uh being read by professional youtuber jablinski games five nights at freddy's that's where i wanna be professional fnaf youtuber jablinskygames so let's begin with what we know about minecraft zombies for one thing they only seem to spawn in the overworld there are some reports of them spawning in the nether but those are extremely few and can never really be replicated it's thought to be either a bug or a remnant from some mods but if they are indeed limited to the overworld along with their variants like the husk and the drowned that prompts the most obvious question of why why do they only exist in the overworld one explanation i've seen tossed around online would be that the zombies are just zombified villagers and as such you'll only find them in places where you find other villagers aka the overworld but the fact that zombie villager exists as a separate mob type with its own look kinda throws that theory under the bus why do zombie villagers look like villagers and normal zombies look just like us these zombies seem to be the zombified remains of builders like steve and yet like the zombie villagers these og zombies or vanilla zombies tasty zombies are only found in the overworld if zombies are truly the remains of dead players or a race of ancient builders from the past or whatever why wouldn't you find zombies anywhere that steve like builders are able to go like the nether and the end it's suspicious well i think the answer to this question lies in the behavior of another mob the zombified piglen we actually talked about the zombie piglen previously on the channel back before the 1.16 nether update and since then there have been some noteworthy new changes with this particular mob back when i did my first video on them there was really no explanation for what could have created humanoid zombie pigs the only thing that we had to go on was that they spawned when lightning struck near a pig and since then as the mojang team has further developed the piglen mob it appears as though minecraft wants that feature removed quote from lead creative designer jeb on twitter at jeb will pigs struck by lightning become zombified piglen or regular piglen jeb's reply we will likely remove that feature because it'll work differently this tells me that even though as i write this lightning near a pig still spawns a zombified piglen it's more a thing that's been grandfathered in as an easter egg to og players but no longer represents the new lore that they have in mind for this particular mob type so what spawn mechanic does reflect how piglins not pigs canonically become zombified piglens visiting the overworld i'm serious if you take a piglet out to the overworld or the end after 15 seconds they turn into a zombified piglen just as a result of standing in the overworld and breathing and i mean that literally it seems like the only plausible explanation for what could be happening here that the piglens upon traveling to the overworld begin breathing in something that just magically turns them from a perfectly well-functioning living creature into a flesh-starved zombie it's bizarre something about being in the overworld turns piglens into zombies as i see it the only explanation for this is some sort of airborne zombie virus now that might seem crazy at first after all we and the villagers are all able to run around in the overworld all day breathing in the same air without turning into zombies so what gives well that question is best answered by turning to some very real and some very tragic history as you might have learned in your history class when european colonists came to america and started interacting with the native population it didn't go well for the indigenous americans in fact it's estimated that over 90 percent of indigenous americans were killed in the decades that followed it's just horrific but why i bring this up today is how they died because while the europeans that settled in america certainly did kill plenty of indigenous americans in warfare most were killed by diseases such as smallpox measles and influenza diseases that were common in europe but completely new to the indigenous population of the new world in many cases they weren't even getting these diseases from people who were displaying symptoms of the sickness the european explorers were asymptomatic carriers of the diseases a concept that in 2020 a lot of us have become all too familiar with these were all diseases that europeans had been dealing with for generations and with each passing generation the people who managed to survive dying from some terrible epidemic passed on their antibodies and immunities to their descendants with each generation europeans gained stronger and stronger immune systems which meant that formerly devastating diseases were no longer quite so deadly so when the europeans brought these diseases to the new world exposing a population whose ancestors had no opportunity to build up those same immunities the results were devastating but there's a part of the story that might strike some people as a gaping hole why weren't the europeans having the same problem they too were in a new land encountering new people why weren't the colonists dying of the american diseases well the answer is cities europeans lived in densely packed cities which were breeding grounds for infection another thing that we've seen pretty darn clearly in 2020. i don't know if you've heard about this one looks like a lot of people are still missing the memo but big gatherings of people all packed together in a tight space are one of the easiest ways to spread a virus go figure social distancing starts to get a whole lot harder when you're all packed together like sardines and all of that gets compounded far worse when you don't have modern conveniences like plumbing and clean water if you want an indication of how big a problem water contamination was during this time it took until 1535 to finally prohibit people from dumping their excrement into the river thames of london yeah they had to pass a law outlawing you from dumping your poop into the water that ran through its most populous city reports from the time say that the water ran black really makes you want to reconsider that river view property huh all of these factors combined to make european cities a breeding ground for all kinds of horrible diseases north america meanwhile with its lack of densely populated cities stood in stark contrast and hence the indigenous people of north america had no plagues all of that is a fascinating and frankly tragic look at history but what relevance does it have in minecraft well understanding the history of diseases and plagues in the real world it becomes a lot easier for us to understand how this might happen in the fictional world of minecraft let's just assume for a minute that there is a zombie plague floating around in the air of minecraft's overworld and end we don't know how it would have started or why maybe it was the result of experiments trying to resurrect the dead like we've talked about in a previous theory maybe it was somehow tied to the appearance of the wither who knows but let's just say that it happened well in those early days it wouldn't be pretty those who managed to avoid being turned into zombies would still have to deal with the menace of being attacked by the undead it could very well be that the zombie plague was responsible for wiping out the overworld's population the reason that the overworld is filled with so many abandoned structures like the desert pyramids the jungle pyramids who knows some of the early members of this ancient civilization may have fled to the end to try and escape the plague like i've been guessing for the better part of last year but over successive generations of natural selection the people in the overworld developed stronger immune systems that were resistant to the airborne plague the villagers of today are the beneficiaries of those many generations of inherited immunity they only turn when they're bitten which makes sense one of the most important defense mechanisms that we have against infection is our skin and a bite bypasses that to inject the zombie virus directly into the bloodstream delivering a viral load high enough to transform some villagers and for as overthinking and overreaching as that statement might seem design details of the game seem to support the theory some villagers will be zombified when attacked by zombies while some others appear to be fully immune 50 of villagers will simply lose health when attacked by zombies and eventually die without ever being turned which tells us that some are immune or more resistant to the zombie curse weird right it's an awfully suspicious detail why though wouldn't a zombie virus exist in the nether when it's both in the end and the overworld my guess temperature warmer climates tend to be better at fending off pathogens and likewise when it's colder viruses are more likely to be spread that's why you're more likely to get a cold in the winter the flu in the winter and why everyone was talking about the second spike of covid happening during the fall and winter months one of the reasons your body heats up and develops a fever when you're sick is that certain infections have a harder time surviving at higher temperatures and what can be hotter than h-e-double hockey sticks itself the temperature down in the nether is high enough to effectively sterilize everything nothing says hot quite like pools of lava this in turn would keep the nether clear of any zombie viruses producing a civilization of piglens whose immune systems never encountered the plague until of course they're brought into the overworld so there you have it friends the invisible zombie virus of the minecraft overworld for as ridiculous as it sounds the science of it actually fits a surprising amount of in-game details and behaviors maybe it's time steve and alex spend less resources building swords and axes and more time building face masks after all it's up to us to protect the immuno-compromised hoglands but hey that's just a theory a game theory thanks for watching and one final reminder here that game theory merch is available right now right in time for the holidays including my signature red vegan leather jacket built from the ground up by me and also an incredibly soft game theory blanket along with a puzzle that you can do while you're snuggled in it supplies are running out right now very fast so please make sure you grab those before they're gone we even have some black friday deals going so you know take advantage of those and i'll see you all this tuesday december 1st for the massive st jude livestream and then after that on saturday for you know our usual episode of game theory

Channel: The Game Theorists

Views: 5,987,996

Keywords: minecraft, zombie, minecraft zombie, zombie mob, minecraft zombie mob, minecraft 1.7, zombie virus, minecraft zombie virus, minecraft update, minecraft lore, unsolved mysteries of minecraft, dream unsolved mysteries, zombie minecraft story mode, minecraft story mode, minecraft zombie tips, warden mob minecraft, warden minecraft story mode, minecraft cave update, minecraft caves and cliffs, game theorists, game theory, matpat, game theory minecraft, minecraft funny moments

Id: xTNSe1GBjUQ

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Walter_Alias]

What tipped you off? The zombies?

8:17 Antibodies aren't hereditary. Certain resistances are, and antibodies can linger for a few months after birth, but immunity isn't hereditary.

11:13 Antibody Immunity to airborne pathogens also protects you from bites. That's why you don't need to inhale a flu shot.

12:23 Zombie Piglins can swim in lava and nothing happens to the pathogen.

Pathogens usually can't cross species barriers, meaning that either Piglins are either somehow the same species as Steve and the Villagers, or it's a totally unrelated pathogen. Since Zombie Piglins don't act like regular Zombies or Zombie Villagers, it's a totally unrelated pathogen.

Edit: Zombie Piglins already exist in the Nether.

[u/SongofRolland]

I usually agree with MatPat's Minecraft theories (possibly due to minimal knowledge of the game because I don't play) but this theory really isn't holding up to well.

First of all at 10:53 the assumption made would debunk the entire wither theory and throw off the timeline. First of all if the ancient builders fled to the end due to the zombie virus obviously this means that the wither should never have existed, thus small details such as the dessert temple decoration shouldn't show the wither or a wither like entity. The builder villager theory states that the villagers separated from the builder society because of their content with the level of technology available to them. This theory suggests the divide between civilizations happened because of the builder civilization dying out due to the virus while the villager civilization gained immunity throughout the generations. Any timeline I could make with all the existing Minecraft theories seems to be completely thrown off by the virus theory. Not only does the assumption made at 10:53 completely throw off the timeline that has been created but it is also completely preposterous. It doesn't necessarily take an army to defeat a hoard of zombies, and it is obvious that the virus wasn't civilization ending since the villagers still seem to be functioning just fine. I simply can't believe that the builders built strong holds ridiculously deep underground and fled to an entirely different world, to escape a virus that has a 50% mortality rate and creates creatures that aren't an immediate threat to anyone.

Secondly we have to consider that Steve has 100% immunity. As far as I can find from the wikis there is a 0% chance of a zombie spawning from your corpse and as far as I know it is near impossible for a species to develop complete immunity to a disease. If Steve is indeed a builder this shows us that the ancient builders had some significant immunity to the zombie plaque meaning it wasn't too disastrous (as in it wasn't smallpox to the native Americans disastrous), and was probably equivalent of Covid today. Still killing a significant portion of the population but not so disastrous that we need to start evacuating entire cities.

The real kicker here is that the virus can exist in the nether. Zombie piglins exist in the nether at what I estimate to be a minimum of 1750 degrees. The protein shell of a virus is irreversibly denatured at 176 degrees. A zombified being simply shouldn't be possible in the nether and yet we can get ender pearls and gold from humanoid zombie pigs.

I am not saying that the idea of a plague is impossible but it would have to be much less disastrous than it's played out to be in this theory and a new explanation would have to exist for zombie piglins. The theory doesn't hold up that well in my opinion.

[u/eurotorian]

Skeletons are more interesting to me than the zombies since the skeleton is alive despite having nothing biological to keep it alive, I doubt a virus can bring a skeleton back to life since it has no organs or muscle probably no brain as well.

Therefore the only answer is magic

[u/tttminer200]

mat one detail about your video if you are in the normal difficult you have 50 50 chance to turn villager in a zombie if you r on hard you have 100 percent and if you r on easy you have 0 percent chance to transform a villager in a zombie you can try it ok bye

[u/WitherKing001]

The Nameless Kingdom: "Am I a joke to you?" Seriously, I feel like that whole thing should've been mentioned somewhere in there.

[u/_QualityGarbage_]

Matpat saying that there were no large cities in North America and therefore there were no diseases to catch from the Americas isn't really true. It was that European cities were also filled with a large amount of livestock in a very unclean and densely packed environment, while the americas had very few animals (like, one) to domesticate and thus had nothing to really get sick (disease sick, not regular sick) from.

CGP Grey has an interesting video on the topic: Americapox: The Missing Plague

[u/jordanvbull]

The ONE TIME I’m not on YouTube and I miss a minecraft theory

[u/pengie9290]

A few thoughts...

Something that MatPat didn't mention that I feel should have is how Zombie Piglins act differently than all the other undead mobs in the game. All other undead mobs are hostile and will attack a player on sight, but Zombie Piglins are passive and only attack once you've shown yourself to be an enemy. I'd say maybe this is just a side effect of being from the Nether or being related to pigs and not fully human, but the Zoglins show neither of those can be the case, as they're aggressive towards ANYTHING not undead. Clearly there's something about Piglins that sets them apart from any other mob that can be zombified in the game.

[u/alexthenonbianary]

Really loved the video