Are zombies doomed?

[HighPlainsSquinter]

Mainstream culture's obsession with zombies isn't new in any sense of the word, but lately it's been taken to rather staggering heights, and no where is this more obvious than in the games industry. There are piles of zombie games, both of the released and upcoming variety, and even games without so much as a tangential relationship with the undead are still winding up featuring them (Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption come to mind.)

Why people are so in love with the shambling hordes I don't know, but that's not the question. The question is: will the thing that finally kills zombies be not a bullet to the brain, but a loss of interest? Will over-saturation cause the walking dead to go the way of the Western?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

We can only hope.

 

[HighPlainsSquinter]

We can only hope.

Amen to that.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Most likely, but then thats a good thing. Remember hte vampyre craze? When we had castlevanias, bloodraynes, the Kain series's? Those all rather killed the vampyre gnere, which was good. Zombies will be fads. they'll go a way for a generation or two wihle something new picks up the slack before eventually going the way of the zombie, like the vampyre did before it.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

I have a feeling that this seems to be just a sudden spike in the Zombie-Seismograph, that will eventually die down by at the latest 2012.

Then again, (should some people be right), MOST things will be dead by 2012.

 

[Blurr[SOAR]]

I think people's interest in zombies at the moment, especially in games, is the fact that they are the most humanoid monster that people can feel good about killing without any lingering feelings of regret.

See, with vampires, they still show some aspects of humanity that some people may still harbour lingering doubts about blindly murdering, especially with this new crop of emo-tastic 'twilight-esk' vampires we're currently seeing. God forbid someone put a stake through the heart of James Patterson without the whole world population of pubescent girls wanting to string you up and play pin-the-rusty-railway-spike-on-the-albatross on your crotch.

With zombies you get a feeling that you're doing the world a service. These are mindless creatures that are out to eat anyone and everything without a second thought. Those who don't want to kill the zombies are with them and should equally be shot. This is the mentality of the kill-the-zombies crowd, and I have no qualms with that. Nor do I have any qualms with all the zombie games coming out. I, too, enjoy murdering wave upon wave of soulless creatures sent back from hell.

I don't think this phase is going to last forever, but I do think it's going to have a lot more legs than most gimmicks developers like to slap onto their games. Nothing beats putting a bullet through the skull of a shambling hobo who was just about to take a delicious bite out of your melon.

 

[Link XL1]

oh course its going to end, or should i say 'take a 10 year break'. its a fad and like all fads it will stop being popular, go away for a while, and then come back. (for great examples see: bell bottom pants, 3D, vampires/werewolves, the World War 2 setting, and [according to some people] video games)

in any case, i am getting quite tired of zombies (though that may be due to a famous game of tag at my college), as well as 3D. and im sorry to say that me getting tired of them is NOT good, because we've barely seen any diversity with them! look around, what percentage of games involving zombiez are shooters? now how many of them are RPGs, hmmm? (and i mean REAL RPGs not that borderlands bullshit).

zombiez are definitely on their way out, which is good because we're sick of them, but bad because there still aren't any story oriented games set in a zombie setting. which i find very odd, considering that in movies and books the main premise behind a zombie setting is not the killing of zombiez, but the surviving of them. take The Walking Dead as an example (a good comic, and now a tv show). Walking Dead is all about a group of survivors and their state of minds as they go through a world filled with the undead. what most readers love about this series is that it revolves around how the humans cope with living each and every day like its their last (because it very well may be).

thats the kind of zombie game i want before the fad ends.