Why We Love Zombies

[lozfoe444]

God I can't stand you. You're just a pathetic artist who refuses to make friends to make youself seem like some anticonformist and give yourself a mild sense of superiority, like you actually matter to this world or even this generation. You'll never amount to anything and not even your family will ever love you. AND STOP PROJECTING!!!

 

[PatternWolf]

I only half agree with the reasons listed. They have some merit, but I think the main reason people like zombies games is the survival aspect of this genre. Running around, scavenging what you can, making people work together. Zombie games are the most fun co-op games I've played.

BTW whats with the nihilism in this article. It's seems completely forced in this article, like he had to get this off his chest. You would think someone who reviews games for a living would be a little more cheerful.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

Truth is depressing

God dammit now I'm kinda sad...

 

[NoNameMcgee]

"The only thing we do know is that the concept of an afterlife, any afterlife, even the hot fiery ones, holds more appeal than the notion that our consciousness will simply cease to be."

Disagree... You will find a lot of people, including myself, and athiests in particular, find the concept of ceasing to exist much more appealing than going to hell. Personally since I subscribed to this belief, it actually got rid of all fear I had of death at all, and the only thing im worried about now is dying slowly. If anyone genuinely finds nothingness frightening then they do not understand the true meaning of non-existance.

Everything else are good points though

 

[Adremmalech]

Yahtzee, I'm glad we are both alive at the same time.

 

[Seraj]

Hurrah, so it isn't just me who thinks zombies are starting to get boring

 

[KDR_11k]

For games: Zombies are easy enemies. They require little AI and little justification for why they happily walk towards that blazing machinegun instead of running away, hiding or pulling out guns of their own. Even feral animals will get scared and run away or try to sneak up on you. So just by virtue of having a gun and a working trigger finger the player is already superior to the zombies and can feel awesome for it.

 

[Neferius]

True, true, and PAINFULLY True :|

 

[unwesen]

It's a well-known fact that every major civilization in history has believed themselves to be living in, or near to, the End Times. Whether it be biblical Armageddon or nuclear war or climate change, the human race has built an entire industry out of doomsaying. Why? Because it's comforting.

Better still, it's the perfect excuse for squandering each and every resource you can get your grubby hands on. Nobody's going to have a use for them after you're gone.

 

[That Greek Guy]

I know all this is true and whatever the reason it always hurts to rub it in our face that we are as significant as a burger in human history. I'm still gonna play left 4 dead with my 3 friends now.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this point, but another aspect of why people like killing zombies is because of the whole "lack of free will" thing. Zombies don't make choices, they are not capable of doing so, because they have only one objective and that is Braaains. and if we get bitten, we become that, we lose our freedom of thought and individuality, we become part of the horde. and i think that mind slavery aspect terrifies people who value their minds. so we kill them, so that we won't become them.
It's a more accurate re-telling of the reason why Americans hate Communism. zombies ARE what cold war era Americans perceived Russians to be.

 

[m64]

I think there is another reason to why zombies got so popular particularly as of late. It is "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks (and, later "World War Z"). This is a rather good book that took the old, almost comedic stereotype of zombie and made it serious and scary again. It got quite popular just before the zombie shooters started coming out en masse.

Apparently some guys at Valve and other studios read it and got inspired to make games about it. And it turns out that the geek audience was ready to accept zombies as viable enemy again - possibly also due to being set up for this by Brook's book. The rest is just the industry-standard story of jumping onto a bandwagon.

 

[left4bed]

Yahtzee, are you trying to secretly tell us something? Not like WIKILEAKS which is looking suspiciously like the US leaked it on purpose.

Leak 100 North Korean diplomat talking about his fear of how huge American Penises are.
Leak 101 Pope and St Mother Theresa both talked about bombing the shit out of Iran would be a great idea.

And then even if this obvious fucked up plan fails the still get to close down wikileaks...

Any way...I digress...

WHY WE LOVE ZOMBIES.....

I think what Yahtzee means is how he is justifying fucking dead people.

Think of it.

1. Zombies are sexy. They look almost alive and as luscious as ever, dead girl anyone?

2. ZOmbie fucking is GUILT free....mmmm they love it.

3. Represents life after death, therefor redemption, its guilt free fucking, no humans were hurt, no one was unfaithful and you didn't spill your seed over the ground.

4. Humans Love apocolypses as it gives us carte blanche to do all the things we would never normally do. I would never NORMALLY fuck a zombie, but times are hard.

Yes, Yahtzee fucks Zombies and wants you to fuck Zombies too, KIDS you were warned.

 

[Bloodstain]

May I postulate number 5?

5. The first thing we do is kill all lawyers.

See, the world today sucks. It may suck more or less than it used to, but it does suck. When, historically, didn't it suck? During wars.

Yeah, sure, there was always the chance of getting bitten or blown apart or crushed; but that's there every day. Perhaps not as much, but it's still there.

Yeah, and also there's less stuff. But that's a good thing sometimes. If you're stressing about the exam coming up tomorrow, then the apocalypse will sort that out. Worried between buying games on the Xbox or PS3? Don't. You can't during an Apocalypse.

Your life is one long workday of running from one safe house to the other, but guess what? That's all it is. Gone are the worries of whether Alfie really loves Peggy, what you're going to have for dinner, whether Fox were right to cancel Firefly. And that guy down the street who winked at your girlfriend? He's alongside you blowing holes in the undead. And her. But she's a zombie. And her mother never did like you.

It's a simple, less brutal life. Living on the edge, safe in the knowledge that you're not only the counter culture, but the culture itself.

And anyway, Zombies are pansies. Not as bad as Triffids or something really scary.

This exactly. Screw annoying daily life, make me feel alive!

 

[stuhacking]

The appeal of the Zombie idea is to have an enemy that is unrelenting, uncaring and driven only by the most primal urge to feed, and to see these aspects presented in the image of mankind. People stripped of any trace of humanity.

There aren't many games that have yet captured this: L4D, Dead Rising and other horde games make the Zombies easier to kill than they should be. This is why the genre becomes boring - it's just a killing fest with no need for thought or strategy. (Still fun though). I don't tend to associate the current wave of zombie games as horror.

What I'd like to see is the game where zombies still possess the resilience of the human body while being rendered a puppet (be it via disease or magic). The horde would plough on through streams of bullets. Limb shots do next to nothing- no pain or fear in the enemy, only the imperative to advance. Front lines fall but continue to crawl forward while the next ranks climb over them. Only headshots count - The best you can hope is to slow them down while you attempt to gain a strategic advantage.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Im in it for the Guilt Free murderfest ;D

They dead already, whats the harm in making them more dead. Stress relief for the masses.

 

[EternalFenix]

I don't know about a real life scenario, but I have an idea as to why we love them in games. Since the invention of gunpowder, warfare has never been the same. How skilled or noble can you be when your enemy can pull a trigger and instantly kill you? Hollywood has lessened that impact by giving all baddies Stormtrooper accuracy. That way, the heroes can run and gun all over the place with little chance of actually dying.

The only way to escape guns (since it makes no sense for enemies these days to use anything else, right?) would be to have the game take place centuries ago, or in a universe that guns were not invented in. That way, developers don't need to worry about bad guys you can't see randomly insta-killing you. One reason hack-and-slashers are as popular as they are, I suppose.

The reason I believe zombies in games are so popular is because we, the living, are allowed to use modern guns while our dead friends stand there and get shot. Let's face it: guns are bullshit. Like I said, how many times in history is instant death caused by the pull of a trigger? Guns have devolved combat into long-range potshot contests with high-tech detection sensors, and indoor target practice sessions when the enemy is hiding in buildings. Admit it, combat is boring these days.

Not with zombies! WE can use guns, but they stand there looking stupid and becoming more dead with each shot. It's a great release from normal life because we can kill untold numbers of enemies while using guns. They can't use guns, so we get to feel the satisfaction of killing things that look like people without the fear of dying from guns ourselves.

In games, of course...

 

[Sabazios]

Along with this and Extra Credits, The Escapist really is turning into the thinking man's gaming site.

 

[imnot]

Didnt you write a book about a zombie?

I have been tired of zombies for a while. They need to bring back dinosaurs. Red Dead Raptor would be awesome.

and this

 

[Echo136]

We've done the Zombie walk here in the US. I live in Michigan and I've seen it done all over.