Bite Me: Prelude
If you follow the nerdy going-ons of campus at all, you may know that Humans versus Zombies is coming back next week, and with it, Imprint will be running a special daily blog series, Bite Me.
The series will follow the experiences of several HvZ players throughout the week, and I have to say I'm pretty excited about this one from both a narrative perspective and a personal one, as in my three years of university I have somehow not participated in HvZ until now.
Let me start by explaining the basics of Humans versus Zombies. There are two factions of players (you can probably guess what the factions are based on the name), and it basically boils down to a campus-wide game of manhunt. Zombies chase after humans and tag them to convert them into zombies. Humans can only hope to stun zombies with their weapons and then escape. All players are assigned IDs, and when they are tagged or stunned, they have to give their code to their conqueror so they can register it on the HvZ site and get points. Buildings on campus are generally time-out zones from the match, cuz otherwise things would get completely insane, once you get outside, though, all bets are off. There are also missions throughout the week that players can participate in to get rewards, but I don't know anything specific about that yet.
Getting signed up for HvZ was a lot easier than I expected — I just found the booth in the SLC, gave them my name and e-mail, and found out what I was going to need for Monday. There are also a few other Imprinters playing this year, who will hopefully be able to guide me through my days as a rookie survivor (unless I end up as an alpha zombie, in which case I'm totally gunning for them first).
After I had officially signed up, I realized just how much prep I needed to do. Humans versus Zombies requires you to have a colourful headband or other piece of stand-out accessory to wrap around you (most people, including me, will just be using the Warriors headband they got during O-Week), Nerf guns or socks to use as weapons against the zombies, and the will to survive (or, alternatively, to feast on sweet, sweet brains).
Much to my shame, I have never owned a Nerf gun before. Stupid toys that I can use to cause mild annoyance to my friends are right down my alley, so I'm not sure how I've come this far without one, but suffice to say I was pretty excited when I hit up Target yesterday to pick my weapon of choice. Bringing along another HvZ player for advice and moral support, I decided after roughly 15 minutes of deliberation to settle on an impressive looking Nerf shotgun, as well as a tiny little Nerf pistol for tense situations. In all the excitement I forgot to stock up on socks, but other than that, I'm ready for next week.
As HvZ draws closer, I have to wonder what the week will bring. Will I last long as a survivor? Will I even be starting as a survivor (I kinda hope so, because I just spent $40 on Nerf guns)? What is the likelihood of being able to hold onto all my Nerf darts for the week? Whatever the outcome, I'm sure it's going to be a fun week, and I hope you follow Bite Me as we chronicle everything we experience.
