Weekend Reading: Zombies, Games and Gamers

What once started as an easy way to create enemies for underpowered consoles and other platforms has now become an integral part of our everyday gaming experience. I am of course talking about zombies and how they are now branching their undead presence into almost any type of game and genre of titles.

From being killed in bonus modes for popular games like Call of Duty: World at War, to killing and being killed in titles such as Left 4 Dead, to even being pelted with peas in casual games like Plants vs. Zombies, these enemies are being inserted, one way or another, into almost every title, making it extremely popular in the process.

Let's take a look at a recent example, in the form of the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: World at War. What started as a fun little bonus mini-game that you unlocked after you completed the single-player mission has been unlocked for all players with a subsequent patch and is now generating a big amount of profit as people are desperate to buy new DLC packs that contain new scenarios with “those crazy zombies.”

In the end, the undead provide a great and remorseless pleasure for all of the parties involved in a game. No more worrying about creating believable backstories for the enemies and developing complicated AI behavior from developers, as zombies are, in their undead nature, evil and move almost in a straight line with no big variations. And no more guilt for gamers who are pacifist in nature and shoot every enemy, mercenary or otherwise, with a slight sense of regret as they left a virtual family without their dad.

Now, with Plants vs. Zombies, it seems that the undead creatures are introduced to even casual players who, although might frown upon them at first, will certainly be attracted by their comical nature and interesting demeanor.

Hopefully though, when the zombie apocalypse will arrive, gamers will be more than eager to pick up anything they have available, from weapons to plant seeds and be ready to save the world because we already have enough training to begin with.