War on campus: Humans Vs. Zombies
Last week was the annual Utah State University Humans Versus Zombies game — a week-long, campus-wide game of zombie survival simulation.
Students from all different departments and age groups joined in for a week of testing their survival skills against the ever-growing zombie horde. The event was coordinated by a relatively small group of USU students working with Humans vs. Zombies, the organization that invented the game and helps run it.
“We’ve got a fair number of people playing, but not quite as many as we had a few years ago when the game was a bit more popular,” said senior Mikaila Young, one of the moderators of the game.
The rules of the game are pretty simple. Every student who wants to participate sets up a free account on the game’s website, which gives them an ID number and a designation of human or zombie.
When students are zombies, they wear a bright orange head band and try to tag (or “eat”) humans; as a human, they wear a bright orange arm band and avoid zombies until tagged, turning them into a zombie. Humans can throw socks at zombies to temporarily “stun” them, which prevents said zombie from tagging other humans for a short time.
Using ID numbers, the Humans vs. Zombies website keeps track of the game’s progress. Anyone can check how the game is going — which zombies have the most kills, which humans are still alive and which side is winning.
Approximately 290 students participated in this year’s game. The turnout, which was lower than average, was not helped by the fact that a large number of players on the human side didn’t participate in many of the night missions and other activities the moderators put on. On the Wednesday night mission, only ten “humans” came out to play, despite the website listing over 150 players who had still not been tagged.
Despite the lower than expected participation, the game was still largely a success. Students who participated in all or most of the activities the moderators put on reported a tense but rewarding experience.
“It’s been really fun, especially if you’re with a group of people who are all playing and taking it seriously. Some people chose not to come out and stayed in their rooms the whole time, but I don’t see the point of that,” said freshman Xavier Haemmerie.
According to the game log, most of the participants were tagged within the first three days, and only a very small handful managed to avoid being tagged all the way through the game’s conclusion on Friday.
“It was almost a relief when I finally got eaten because my friend was a zombie pretty early on and I’ve just had to avoid her the last few days. She’s going to lunch with a bunch of our friends who aren’t playing and I’m like ‘I can’t go with you guys, it’s too dangerous,'” said sophomore Megan Harris.
For safety and practicality reasons, various areas like parking lots, the insides of buildings, stairways and everywhere outside of campus were designated as safe zones for humans, so as to avoid tagging practices that could be potentially disruptive or dangerous.
Additionally, whenever the moderators scheduled an activity, all of campus would be “safe” so the humans could go to activities without fear of being tagged.
However, for most of the day, heading between classes was a dangerous endeavor for any humans hoping to survive the week.
“They got me between the science building and the Taggart Student Center. A group of them surrounded me. I threw a bunch of socks all at once, bird-shot style and got two of them, but their buddy got up behind me and tagged me right in the back,” said senior Bradley Curtis.
— austinlabonty@gmail.com