Look out for the zombies – coming to a campus near you

Red On The Head — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:33:00 GMT

There's a somewhat new craze that has infested college campuses all over the country, and has now made its way into mainstream America – Humans vs. Zombies.

The game is pretty basic: it's an immersive game of tag based on the traditional zombies-are-after-the-humans kind of narrative. All players, except for the original zombie, begin the game as humans. The zombie feeds on humans, one by one, converting them to zombies, who in turn feed, and on it goes. A zombie must make a "kill" every 48 hours or starve to death. The kill is defined as tagging the victim.

What are the humans doing while the zombies are on the hunt? Mostly, they are holder up in dorm rooms or the library, or are aiming for zombies with their Nerf guns – which stuns the zombies for 15 minutes, or with balled-up sock grenades.

The game is played all over campus for 24 hours a day, for days at a time, even going for weeks in some cases. It's over when all of the humans have perished or all of the zombies have starved.

The game first begin in 2005 at Groucher, with about 70 students. Since then, the number of players has climbed into the hundreds, and it's become one of the most popular campus activities, even though it's not an official student activity.

The game even has its own Web site www.humansvszombies.org, where the quote, "The antidote for the ailments of a generation" appears. Really? This is supposed to help?

We suppose it does explain some bad grades. But an antidote? Hardly.

The game has had its critics, particularly around the time of the shootings at West Virginia Tech. Many thought it was in poor taste. But it has continued on, and has grown. There are people eating people all over the world now.

We decided to check out the rules of the game and how to organize a game, and found one section particularly interesting…"what you can get away with at your school." The section is mainly just advice on making sure organizers work with the schools, and go through the proper channels to make sure no one gets hurt…or arrested.

All in all, we'd say that although the game is certainly questionable, it really is just a good, old-fashioned game of tag, played by kids who refuse to grow up. And we find no fault in that. It seems to relieve stress and give students a fun, drug-free, alcohol-free activity that brings the entire campus together.

So…Nerf guns blazing, we're up for the next game. Look out zombies. We're gunning for you.

A Thin Line : zombies

Look out for the zombies – coming to a campus near you