April 25, 2008
Technology Is Key to Zombie-Themed Game of Tag
College students have played elaborate games of tag using toy guns for decades, but the Humans vs. Zombies game makes unprecedented use of the Internet and other communication technology.
The students at Goucher College who devised the rules of the game also created Web-based software to manage game play, and the software has been adopted by students at several other colleges. (See a Chronicle video report on the game to find out who won the latest game at Goucher.)
Every player starts the game with a unique ID number written on an index card that they carry at all times. When a player on the human team is tagged by a zombie, the human must hand over their card to the zombie, and the creature logs on to the game Web site and registers the kill. The player also marks the location of the kill on a Google map of campus.
Players can log in at any moment and see live statistics showing how many humans have become zombies — there are even pie charts and graphs.
Moderators of the latest match at Goucher, which finished on Sunday, even used the campus television station during the game. Students tuning into Channel 10 in their dorm rooms saw messages about the game’s next mission. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Friday April 25, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I sure don’t know what this ESL piece is all about, but I do know that Alfred University in Western NY state was “locked down” when a staff member spotted a Zombie player with a Nerf gun. University officials went into Virginia Tech-style alert lasting about three hours—until, that is, they determined that the gun was a toy. I doubt that Goucher’s software helped AU officials.
— observer Apr 28, 10:36 AM #
First off, AU is not using our current software. Secondly, the zombie players do not use NERF guns, human players do. Thirdly, I think that if AU had worked harder to publicize the game and make it known to the entire community, this would not have happened. As a moderator of Goucher’s HvZ game, we go through hoops and bounds to make the game known, and we have had very few political problems.
— Sklover Apr 29, 07:22 PM #
Many other schools use online system MUCH better than Goucher’s, nor is their system original. Schools like UMass, PSU, and a few others have ran systems for Assassins long before HvZ systems that functioned the same.
— RR May 3, 03:28 PM #