Zombies - Why Are Zombie Games So Popular? - Extra Credits

[Music] oh look it's Halloween again well given the time of year I say we Dawn our awesome costumes and find an appropriate topic for the occasion I'm thinking zombies good yes okay zombies it is so as all Hallow's Eve approaches we'll be exploring how it is that our flesh eating friends have become a billion dooll industry over the last 50 years and why they make such great videos G material we love them we love killing them but why what is it about The Walking Dead that makes us feel so compelled by them why has the zombie crazed increased and what makes them scary anyway after all they're slow usually and eminently killable well really zombies aren't that scary by themselves but they do serve as a great empty vessel for fear to explain what I mean let's first look at the evolution of the zombie over the last century the zombie as we know and love it today is a distinctly American cultural product and its traits have evolved over time alongside our culture our zombie has his origins in early 20th century and rological and cultural studies of

Haitian Voodoo this strange foreign practice was both frightening and exotic to Americans at the time and like most studies of the period the more flamboyant and foreign elements were brought right into popular culture our first Landmark zombie title to hit the mainstream was The Depression era film White Zombie in 1932 and while the Bella legosi film isn't particularly racially charged at least not for the period in which it was produced the voodoo zombies portrayed in the film played upon caucasian-american fears of the Primitive and mysterious African culture dwelling in their midst after that the zombie disappeared as a major cultural Force for several decades as the world slipped into the greatest armed conflict we'd ever known and then faced the Monumental task of picking up the pieces but then in 1949 the Russians tested their first atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began instilling in Americans a brand new kind of fear 5 years later we get the first Proto zombie apocalypse novel I Am Legend these zombies much more closely resembled our modern Vision sure the IM Legend creatures were really half zombie half vampire shambling and pretty brainless but also afraid of sunlight and garlic still these zombie

esque Critters showed us that zombies could serve as a grotesque mirror for ourselves as a way to explore our society and deliver a paradigm and how we look at our civilization moreover they taught us that zombies could be scary not only because of the physical harm they threatened but because of the way they could cause our society to break down as a whole and this leads us directly to Romero's Night of the Living Dead the film that solidified most of what we think of as a zombie today aim for the head if they bite you you become one it's all there but more than just the standard tropes what Romero's film really cemented is the way we use zombies and story Romero himself said zombies don't represent in my mind anything except a global change of some kind and the stories are about how people respond or fail to respond to this that's really all they've ever represented to me more importantly Romero introduced us to the last missing piece to our decaying friends the human element what we take for granted today but what may in fact be the most compelling thing about zombies is how they test us as human beings almost all modern zombie stories are Rife with moments of moral failure not on the part of the zombies but rather on the part of the human beings faced with them night of the Living Dead introduced us to the

idea that when faced with a zombie outbreak mankind might not band together and bravely fight the oncoming threat even under threat of Apocalypse we might still act selfish jealous and cowardly since then it's mostly been an update on themes over the years it started with the voodoo zombies then we had the radiation zombie later the biological manipulation zombie the consumerism zombie the modern on Wii zombie we've seen a Cavalcade of origin stories and meanings for the ever recurring torrent of zombie apocalypses to mirror the everchanging fears of our society so why are zombies scary because they're a blank slate to project our cultural fears upon they're rotten versions of us is what makes them so compelling and versatile there's no one particular zombie story zombie stories can be as varied as human stories because really that's what they are but why else are zombies scary I mean when you think about it except for maybe the modern Runner variant zombies aren't all that threatening at one time or another we've all wondered how could that destroy the world well the truth is threefold the first is a feeling of inevitability zombie books movies and games with the notable exception of World War Z awesome

book are usually about surviving the zombie Menace not overcoming or destroying it human beings don't like feeling like they don't have any control over a situation we really don't like feeling trapped which leads us to the second thing zombies almost always Force us into claustrophobic situations a good zombie game or a movie will use other forms of psychological horror to compensate for the fact that zombies themselves aren't actually that frightening but finally the one really frightening thing about zombies they're us so whatever's wrong with them whatever horrible gaping wounds or Twisted limbs we know exactly what that means in human terms you don't get that effect with other monsters or aliens or whatever so now we know it makes them scary but then there's the other question why are they so fun to beat on well we asked a number of designers for their thoughts and the consensus seems to be there are human beings who can take a ton of punishment and who aren't technically human beings they give us all the satisfaction that combat against another human being brings but without all the moral burden of actually killing somebody plus they make beautiful punching bags because they don't seem to care when you beat them to a pulp they just keep on coming I mean even those linebackers with chainsaws will crumple after a few shots or a chainsaw to the

Torso but zombies barely even seem to notice way more satisfying they also tend to come in hordes and since they aren't that threatening boy do you get to feel powerful mowing down wave after wave so zombies can play to our fears and fulfill our power fantasies and that pretty much makes them a perfect enemy so merry all Hallow's Eve and All Saints thereafter enjoy your hop tuna your sa and your alenti have a great Halloween everyone we'll see you next week [Music] [Music] a

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