By Courtney Walsh, Assistant News Editor
The brain munching, Nerf gun shooting, sock throwing mania, which has been sweeping the nation and world is finally coming to Hofstra University. Two students, Brad Sappington and Chris Weed at Goucher College, founded Humans Vs Zombies (HvZ for short) in 2005. Since then the game has spread via the World Wide Web to over 200 universities, as well as high school military bases, summer camps and even public libraries.
The infestation finally made its way to Hofstra this year by way of three freshman: Alexander Breen, President; Gabe Moody-Siegel, Vice-President; George "Alex," Demarest Treasurer.
"I had a friend who went to Penn State who was the last human alive and he bragged about it like none other," said Demarest.
Demarest did some light research and began to discuss plans to bring the game to Hofstra with Siegel, but it wasn't until Breen came into the picture that things got serious.
"You can make pages on the official HvZ website, I found our page and I went to email the person in charge and found out it was Alex Breen," said Siegel.
The fact that it was 2:00 a.m. didn't stop Siegel from running downs the stairs of his Netherland's dorm into Breen's room "freaking out so excited."
"Since then it's been a lot of leg work, it's been running back and forth all over the place to nether regions of buildings I didn't know existed," said Siegel.
But the boys' work has not been in vain, the count down for the first ever Hofstra Vs Zombies has begun. Registration for the event begins on Nov. 17 and the outbreak commences on Dec. 5, when one player succumbs to the hunger for human flesh and becomes the "original zombie." The original zombie's identity is a secret, and once the game commences this first player's job will be to tag as many other players as possible before their identity is revealed. Upon being tagged, players or "humans" become zombies.
"Basically the biggest part of this game is its word of mouth," said Demarest. "It's honesty so if you get tagged you're tagged don't complain about it, don't stalk people till their out of their job, just enjoy the game."
Human players are identified by bandanas tied around their legs or arms; zombies sport bandanas around their foreheads.
Aside from the club's executive board, there are four moderators that run the individual games. Moderators are unbiased sources of information for players. The moderator's most important job? Running Missions. What are missions?
"Missions require the players to leave the room instead of holing up their room for five days," said Demarest.
Missions can range from escaping a building to rescue attempts.
"That way you can't sit in your room, with a bunch of food, and say haha I'm the last human alive! You're not going out, you're not enjoying the game, so it defeats the purpose," said Siegel.
After completing a mission "Humans" are rewarded with prizes such as ammunition, or in the case of a zombie victory, moderators throw "zombie parties."
To prevent total and utter chaos, human players are given "safe zones" where they can't be tagged. Such zones include the student center, housing complexes, dining halls, academic buildings and the library.
"The unispans however are not safe, so you could be in the student center or the library and you're safe but if you cross that unispan and there are zombies there you are out of luck," said Demarest.
The game will go on 24 hours a day for five days straight, and all the humans have to do is survive.
"If two humans survive to the last minute of the game then the humans win, but it's really REALLY hard. It's slighted against the humans really," said Siegel.
The human's only means of defense against the growing hoard are socks and Nerf guns. Players can tag zombies by either throwing rolled up socks or hitting zombies with Nerf guns pellets. When a human hits a zombie, the zombie is "stunned" for 15 minutes, meaning they're not allowed to participate in game play for that time.
Siegel and Demarest predict that Hofstra Vs Zombies' first game will have about 50 players. Although this pales in comparison to Goucher's thousands of participants, the boys have high hopes for Hofstra Vs Zombie's future.
"The goal is go from this little 50 person game and turn it into a campus wide incredible thing that happens four times a year," said Siegel.
Although they expect some students to be skeptical at first, the boys don't think it will take long for the HvZ virus to spread across Hofstra's campus.
"It's a big social thing, you get all of your friends to play and you make new friends. I mean you're running around campus Friday afternoon and the zombies are chasing you down, you're throwing socks, screaming and making a scene. All of a sudden there are five more kids ready to help you out, you never met them before but now you're friends and they'll escort you to class," said Demarest.
"It's a great social experience for a lot of kids on allot of campuses"
For more information on Hofstra Vs Zombies the club will be holding two meetings on Nov. 17, one during common hour in Breslin 018 and another at 8:30 p.m. in Breslin 209.
You can also visit
Http://www.hofstraversuszombies.com or http://www.humansvszombies.org
