Zombies are so hot right now.
Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
Yesterday's lock down and reports of a potential gunman on URI's Kingston campus raised speculation that the situation was linked to a popular on-campus game called Humans Versus Zombies.
The University of Rhode Island isn't the only college campus that participates in this game, which involves Nerf guns that shoot soft, foam projectiles from plastic "guns."
According to the Humans Versus Zombies (HvZ for short) website, the game is played at 650 different colleges on six contents.
Here's how it works:
HvZ is like a giant game of tag. All of the participants start out as "humans," except for one, randomly chosen "zombie." From there, the humans use Nerf guns to "stun" and "kill" zombies. Zombies, meanwhile, try to tag the humans to turn them into zombies.
All participants must wear a bandana to show they're playing: humans wear it on their arms, while zombies put it around their head.
Here are the official safety rules:
1. No realistic looking weaponry
2. Blasters cannot be visible inside campus buildings
3. Players can't use their cars where there is traffic
4. Darts can't hurt people
The University of Rhode Island has said they don't believe HvZ was the problem during yesterday's gun scare; in fact, the game is sanctioned by the school, and URI President Dr. David Dooley said they've never had a problem with the student players before.
Humans versus Zombies was created by two guys, Brad Sappington and Chris Weed, at Goucher College in 2005. There's even a documentary about it. The following YouTube video was created by URI students, and served as an introduction of the game circa 2010:
URI students aren't the only ones who think zombies are great. The Providence Student Union recently employed zombies to make a point about the NECAPS, and even the CDC is jumping in on the bandwagon, saying zombies could be the perfect way to educate people about rabies.
