Until now, zombies are still the most popular game genre by developers and the most popular community. Despite many game titles, the zombie context has never made gamers bored.
From urban legends, zombies have become one of the pillars of film culture or video games. It can be said that the post-apocalyptic scene with zombies has become the most popular in the horror game genre. Over the years, the zombie game has been developed a lot, with different styles and different storylines. The immense popularity of zombies mustn’t make gamers bored. This is still considered a popular game-making topic.
So why are zombies so popular in the gaming world? And no matter how many brands do it, it never makes fans bored?
Can develop zombies according to many different ideas
In the gaming world, zombies are a topic that can evolve with many different ideas. And because this is a bogus creature, not based on any rules, developers can turn it according to their creativity without bored gamers. Of course, it still has to rely on specific rules such as brain death, aggression, ready to attack the living most brutally.
Jespi Barisic, representing Gamespires, the developer/publisher for SCUM, shared his thoughts on zombies:
“Regarding game design, there are many ways you can do it with zombies. So this topic has many interesting variations, different playing styles. In Techland’s Dying Light, for example, zombies are a nightmare. Making zombies have a terrible number; chasing players is no different from the rushing sea waves. You can also bind zombies with magic; That’s how zombies started legends in folklore. It is also possible that viruses created zombies. Or neuron control chip technology when humans die. ”
Zombie is an idea that developers can “reuse” many times without making gamers feel bored.
Post-apocalypse is a great setting, and post-apocalyptic zombies are much loved
In life, people are always curious about: If this world collapsed, how would people live and face it? Post-apocalyptic themes are an excellent way for developers to create creative, satisfying people’s curiosity about the post-apocalyptic context in various ways. Therefore, up to now, this is still a famous game scene. And zombies are the reason for the collapse of society because many game companies take advantage of it. Through the zombies, game makers can integrate a lot of social elements into them. They are ready to expose the dark right side of people in modern society.
In the post-apocalyptic context, humans are pushed to the bottom of Maslow’s demand tower. I.e., humans have to do to satisfy the first floor of the building of demand such as Food, drinking water, residence,… Zombie exists as a pressure, has a significant influence on people seeking to satisfy needs to survive. Game designers can create a variety of zombie threats to challenge gamers. And when those threats are overcome, players will find satisfaction.
So why do you keep mentioning the apocalypse that game makers will think of zombies? When it comes to the apocalypse, most people will only think of 2 scenarios. One is a natural disaster that wipes out all life on this planet, and the other is a zombie outbreak that turned humans into monsters. The difference here is that the natural disaster will be almost invisible as an invisible enemy that does not give people any chance to fight against it. When a zombie appears, it is a visible enemy right before the eyes. Humans can grab anything as a weapon against them at the time of the attack. With the zombie scenario, humans will have dozens of ways to fight immediately. That’s why the natural disaster scene is more suited to the cinema, and video games will be easier to exploit the zombie/monster context.
Zombies have simpler AI
Another reason why game developers prefer zombies is that zombies don’t require too complex AI. If the game character plays an enemy is a normal person, the game maker will have to design more complex AI to have the actions, expressions, and personalities similar to the real-life human. And if the zombies have some stupid actions, it does not matter because they are zombies.
Making zombie games does not need to consider ethical issues
Moral factors in video games are mention a lot, especially the games labeled “violence””. Although it is only a video game, the shooting game characters will kill each other will be judged based on the moral of the player. Dozens of questions will appear in the minds of both the game maker and the player, such as: “Was it really right to do that?”, “Is such a playable character too cruel”… And the zombie game is different? , you like to kill zombies and kill thousands of monsters at the same time. No one judges anything. Zombies are considered a type of monster that must be killed without asking why.
The zombie can bring humor, create tragedies at the same time.
People love zombie games because of a variety of topics. Zombie has just brought funny moments but also created tragedies that take away the tears of the player. Co-op games such as Left 4 Dead always start refreshing laughter for players and their friends, especially with the mod versions. Gamers also make many games in the form of funny highlights with zombies.
However, when needed, it also created tragic tragedies. Loss in the post-apocalyptic context has never been pleasant to survivors. The Walking Dead or The Last of Us has made fascinating stories, memorable episodes deeply embedded in players’ minds. Humor no longer exists; instead, we see the disease’s devastation and how humans treat each other when the world fades.
