Comments on: Humans v. Zombies Post-Virginia Tech.

Humans v. Zombies Post-Virginia Tech.

longdaysjourney — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:47:26 -0800

Commando Performance: (Toy) Guns on Campus Post-Virginia Tech - A fun game of tag for campus geeks? Or a celebration of immaturity and glorification of war and violence? Playing Humans v. Zombies after the Virginia Tech Massacre.

Previously on MeFi.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:56:29 -0800

I'm voting for "fun game of tag"...

By: patr1ck

patr1ck — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:03:16 -0800

Because playing Tag with nerf guns is such a small step away from killing others with real guns, right?

By: nervousfritz

nervousfritz — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:09:51 -0800

It's not editorializing when you put it in the form of a two way question. Or is it? Lukewarm controversy on Metafilter. Myself, I cauterized out the portion of my BrAInz which has the political opinion, because it was the right thing to do. Pry my soldering iron out of my zombified claws.

By: longdaysjourney

longdaysjourney — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:12:34 -0800

It's not editorializing when you put it in the form of a two way question. Or is it? Not when it's a one-line summary of the article. :) (Did you read it?)

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:15:36 -0800

On the plus side, those who called for / enacted bannings of this thing have given us an easy indicator that they fail at life. Would that it were always so easy to know.

By: nervousfritz

nervousfritz — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:16:40 -0800

Did he read the article or did he not? Nervousfritz posts from the hip.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:21:43 -0800

As a former moderator of HvZ, I think the people who have a problem with it are, basically, dumb. Nerf guns look nothing like real guns; the idea that somebody would see someone with a bright yellow Longshot or a red Magstrike and open fire is ridiculous. The idea that somehow this instills a militaristic mindset is equally absurd; one might as well suggest that football is teaching children to solve problems through violence, or that baseball encourages hitting things with big sticks. I imagine the same people forbidding their children to play Super Mario Brothers for fear that they'll get the impression that they can resolve their differences with people by jumping on their heads. On the campus I founded a game at, HvZ has been a tremendously positive force; it's created an environment in which people who would have never otherwise met have become close friends. It's created extended social networks that broaden players' view of those outside their own subculutural and social circles. In a handful of cases that I've heard about, it's even served as a place where people have met their significant others. I've come to believe in it as a thing which brings people together and is, in the bargain, a hell of a lot of fun.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:34:36 -0800

NervousFritz: "It's not editorializing when you put it in the form of a two way question. Or is it?" I once tried UrbanDead and determined it sucked raw eggs through a straw. Do you wanna decide for yourself?

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:40:02 -0800

Probably the worst that could be said of Humans v. Zombies is that, in the light of the Virginia Tech shootings and other similar incidents, it is insensitive to go around campus shooting at people with toy guns. But the game must be a great way for nerds to get together and find sexual partners.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:54:00 -0800

in the light of the Virginia Tech shootings and other similar incidents, it is insensitive to go around campus shooting at people with toy guns. I don't buy it for a second. You could just as easily argue that it's insensitive for Microsoft Flight Simulator to be able to let people crash into buildings in light of 9/11.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:54:50 -0800

In a handful of cases that I've heard about, it's even served as a place where people have met their significant others. Speaking as someone who met their S.O. on a photo sharing site, I do hope this trend continues, or future generations are REALLY going to think we are all sad fucks. Mind you "I met my wife through a zombies game using toys designed for 6 year olds while a student" trumps the hell out of my version in that regard. Can you imagine hearing that as a "how did you two meet" as a kid?

By: Brockles

Brockles — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:56:39 -0800

I don't buy it for a second. You could just as easily argue that it's insensitive for Microsoft Flight Simulator to be able to let people crash into buildings in light of 9/11. Precisely. People make extreme extrapolations from this kind of thing all tehe time. If you call harmless fun 'subversive' often enough, it will become stigmatised and start to take on that role. It's running around being silly. It has nothing to do with a mentally disturbed person killing themselves in a horrific manner.

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:57:18 -0800

Forget the controversy, that game sounds like it's fun as hell.

By: internet!Hannah

internet!Hannah — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:08:26 -0800

Well, jeez, the cadet corps here runs all over the place with fake M-16s and no one seems to care. We even had a paintball tactics battle on campus. What trouble could some nerf guns cause?

By: Balisong

Balisong — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:26:31 -0800

I remember playing this back in high school in the early 80's. It even has amanual. (Steve Jackson's "Killer") Complete with weapons classes from safe (banana), medium (nerf, water, dart guns), to dangerous (BB guns). Cool scenarios are spelled out, too. Circle of death, 20's gangster mob boss turf wars, fox and hounds, etc. Cool game, but generally looked down on by authority types.

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:31:40 -0800

Cho Seung-Hui will not be forgotten. Sigh.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:36:41 -0800

I've come to believe in it as a thing which brings people together and is, in the bargain, a hell of a lot of fun. And even more fun if you used real guns. Nothing bonds a team like a killing spree.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:43:43 -0800

Or paintball.

By: Happydaz

Happydaz — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:46:15 -0800

This bit from the article is fantastic: "A few hours later, the zombies attacked in Tuttle House, a dorm, but the humans commandeered the stairwells, knocking the zombies back every time they attempted to advance. After the 90-minute siege ended, Temkin and the other humans ordered Chinese food and asked the delivery guy to pass it through the window." I wonder what the delivery guy was thinking ... Anyway, I liked the article. I hope games like this don't get shut down. Most the professors' comments in the article were based on the logic that playing war = being warriors. I doubt anyone who plays the game will end up joining the military. The only point I thought made sense was what if an outsider came on campus at the wrong time?

By: OverlappingElvis

OverlappingElvis — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:12:33 -0800

How is this any different from playing Assassin with water guns? That doesn't seem to cause many problems, though part of the charm of Assassin is its covert and paranoia-inducing nature - everybody is potentially out to get you, but there's no way to know for sure...

By: DMan

DMan — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:10:12 -0800

As one who has played with water guns, nerf guns, and airsoft guns, and one who has wanted to play Assassin but hasn't been able to... I really, really, really love this idea and wish it was in some way possible at my large university. However, it'd never happen. There's no way the campus police would even think about allowing something like that. So sad. Kudos to those brave kids. I wish I could join them.

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:23:44 -0800

Take back the nerf.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:27:54 -0800

If it involves zombies, I'm for it.

By: [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST]

[NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:31:57 -0800

Of course the solution is to give all the other students real guns and tell them to shoot anyone they see acting insensitively.

By: jkaczor

jkaczor — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:52:41 -0800

Uh, we have Nerf guns in Canada too - I don't see any correlation to that and school massecre's - if more people blew off steam like this, they'd actually be socializing with other people - something which reduces the "go-psycho" instinct...

By: allen.spaulding

allen.spaulding — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:51:49 -0800

You know what, I'm going to go along with this. Yes, it's insensitive. We should get rid of Humans v. Zombies and while we're at it, ROTC. People, it's worth the sacrifice.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:45:19 -0800

There's no way the campus police would even think about allowing something like that. The way we managed it was to not even give them the option. I went straight to the University's President at the beginning of the semester and said "We're doing this, and we'd like to work with the school as much as possible to prevent any problems." A few compromises and deals with the administration later, and all that was left was to go down to the university PD and explain what was happening. University PD's aren't policy setters; treating them as such is just as bad an idea as it would be to have municipal PD's make laws.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:30:09 -0800

Being insensitive is against the law now?

By: DMan

DMan — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:48:15 -0800

The way we managed it was to not even give them the option... I'm impressed. How large was the university? And was it public or private? I'm at a public Texas university with about 20-30,000 people, including a fair amount of vehicle traffic throughout most of the campus. Something tells me this would never happen. I take it you have experiences to the contrary? While we're at it, does anyone have a link to a website about this stuff?

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:59:25 -0800

Public university in Indiana with 17K students. The best HvZ website right now is HvZ Source.

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:53:39 -0800

I'm not against goofy toy guns that shoot soft projectiles. However, I am very much against guns that look like goofy toys. I know it may be irrelevant to this specific article, but I don't want a bank to be held up or an officer to be shot because some criminal had a tiny pink gun which didn't tip anyone off.