Why We Love Zombies

rsvp42

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Jan 15, 2010
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I've always been a fan of zombies. I think the apocalyptic survival aspects are what appeal to me most (I'd probably like the Fallout games for similar reasons if I ever got around to playing them). There's something compelling about having your life upended and trying to survive/rebuild. Add a terrifying, mindless enemy to the mix and the stakes have been pleasantly raised. I suppose there could be some "generational egotism" under that, but it's more personal. It's more like, "what would I do?" Zombie movies/games are a potent mix of major crisis, survival, fighting, personal and unlikely heroism, and all other sorts of drama. There's a lot of compelling things mixed into one concept.

And from a gameplay standpoint, zombies are pure gold. An endless horde of humanoid enemies and, as you said, no guilt from killing them. The stories basically require players to start with nothing, which makes character progression from a lowly starting point possible without feeling contrived. Exploration in a zombie game becomes essential, both for story and gameplay, as supplies will always be needed. Yet the constant threat of the enemy adds a fear of the unknown when you come up to any door, long hallway, etc.

Eventually, the current market for zombies will be maxed out. Someday we'll have three different zombie-cooking-reality-comedy-dramas on TV and people will move on to something with more novelty. But then it'll all come back in another 20 years. We should just enjoy the craze while it lasts. Can't wait for that World War Z movie.
 

duchaked

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Dec 25, 2008
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currently playing Undead Nightmare

...eh
zombies, I'm not a big fan of them
normal humans please...

and no I'm not scared! psh

lol
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Well, I have to admit it. These are good reasons. I definitely agree with the first one, for sure. Indeed #4 is pretty much on the money. Might be some trouble with #3 on the grounds that religious fanatics would be arguing over it for decades (assuming they live that long, since...you know...the flesh-eating). The second one causes the most problems, Yahtzee, in that you've chosen to use a picture from The Walking Dead during a moment where they were pointing out the opposite to your claim, namely that some (or indeed many) would find it hard to destroy the loved and the familiar. I'm not saying it's the brightest of notions (in fact, it's quite dim to cling to the undead corpse of family), but it may be reality.

All I can say is that with all the zombie culture going on and all the media about it being circulated, we'd better eliminate zombies ON SIGHT without fail, because there are NO excuses now for not known better.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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bdcjacko said:
Sometimes it is better not to ask questions and just accept. How do bumblebees fly? How do the Amish take over space? How did the dinosaurs die out? These question may never be answered.
I think we may have answered a couple of those.
 

xdiesp

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Oct 21, 2007
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Not true that zombie killing is guiltless, in movies at least. Plenty of them, old and new, tell you that indulging too much into zombie hacking is bad. Those who do, generally are left behind or get screwed when they try having one kill too many. Actually scratch that, it happens quite often in multiplayer as well!

Torturing zombies (28 days later), experimenting on them (day of the dead), brutalizing (the horde) is always taken as a symbol and bad omen. Of what you are capable of, when you are unrestrained (much rethoric here).

Because in zombie movies, the real stereotype workshop is on the survivors (not the monsters).
 

DirgeNovak

I'm anticipating DmC. Flame me.
Jul 23, 2008
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Pugiron said:
Australia has a Zombie Walk? I had no idea it sucked that hard. Why do we keep other countries from taking them over again?
Why would anyone want to take over Australia? It's a big desert in the middle of the ocean.

Oh, and did I read novels? As in another one? Sweet.
 

MrMajenta

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May 21, 2009
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robinson crusoe, the original survival story, we just love survival stories, we always have and we always will. it's a sub reason for why we like apocalypse, we want to survive against the odds.
 

likalaruku

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Nov 29, 2008
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I don't fear the outsider; it's the pack I hate; faceless ununique nonindividuals. Who doesn't love to see a zombie tear apart a brainless cheerleader/jock or an entire troupe of vapid teenagers?

Where's the part about us liking zombies because they can get away with doing illegal or impossible things such as cannibalism & still being able to walk with two broken legs?

Meh, I wish there were more games where you got to BE a zombie instead of fighting against them.
 

theklng

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May 1, 2008
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zombies are boring. i think being on the internet for a while makes things seem old once they hit mainstream. but then again, zombies were never cool. they were always just fucking annoying. i cannot remember anything but negative emotions or remarks towards zombies as a subject (towards the zombies themselves).

i wish it'd just ebb out and our civilization would start thinking about something more interesting, like space and the unknown or something third, for zombies have become stale.
 

theklng

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likalaruku said:
I don't fear the outsider; it's the pack I hate; faceless ununique nonindividuals. Who doesn't love to see a zombie tear apart a brainless cheerleader/jock or an entire troupe of vapid teenagers?
you have some issues dude, go sort them out. this is not healthy.
 

VulakAerr

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Mar 31, 2010
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You've got to be fucking with me. We love zombies? Do we really? I'm sick of them. They've got to be the most mind-numbingly boring enemy ever and they're getting more and more overused. Especially in some of the bigger titles to come out recently. It's getting painful watching how developers shoehorn zombies into more and more games.
 

Skyy High

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Dec 6, 2009
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So, there's nothing that I really disagree with in the article proper, but I'd like to say something about the last paragraph.
The fact is, if 100% of the doomsayers up to this point were wrong, ours aren't going to be any different. Humanity is too widespread and too disorganized to bring about their own total extinction and the Earth is too small and insignificant to reach the attention of any giant asteroid or murderous all-powerful intelligence. You're going to die and humanity will tenaciously march on, forgetting about you and the entire world you knew.
The first sentence here is a logical fallacy, full stop. Just because soothsayers and astrologers trying to predict the future failed miserably for thousands of years does not mean that modern scientific methods are equally useless. As for the humanity's disorganization safeguarding us from total extinction: the amount of destructive potential that a single person or entity can wield has grown exponentially. Killing used to need to be done hand to hand. Now a single person (or government) can push a single button and wipe a major city off the map. The insignificance of the Earth has nothing to do with an asteroid hitting it. Its relatively small size does make it astronomically improbable, but it's not exactly without precedent, lest we forget.

The Earth itself is very hardy, and life will withstand almost anything less destructive than a gamma ray burst. We, on the other hand, are incredibly fragile. The climate has been relatively stable for the entirety of human existence (yes, Ice Ages; that's why I said "relatively"). It's at best foolish, and at worst actively destructive, to hold the opinion that we are incapable of wiping ourselves out, or just altering our lives beyond recognition.