So, working with the university some more, these students organized a three day game: starting Thursday at 5 PM, and ending Sunday at 5 PM.  The students wanted to have a week-long game, but the university wanted to see how the game would work with people travelling between classes before they allowed that.  I got a Nerf gun for Christmas, and was eager for the game to get started.    I attended the necessary meeting to sign up for the game, and just had to wait until Thursday to start playing.

Now, after the game is over, I have this to say: I can’t wait for the week-long game which is planned for some time in April.  Humans vs. Zombies is not only a great excuse to run around campus with a Nerf gun, shooting people for the fun of it, but also a great way to be social and meet new people.  The teamwork and strategy involved is amazing, and I definitely met some great people I would have otherwise never said hi to.  Needless to say, I’ve been disappointed to find out that some college campuses refuse to allow the game to happen.

A lot of the arguments I’ve seen against the game from universities has been the use of Nerf guns.  Even my university has a policy against allowing Nerf guns in the dorm rooms, but most RAs here don’t seem to mind them, as long as we’re not running around in the hallways and causing a ruckus.  The people on the Humans vs. Zombies website also have some interesting advice to getting around this: never call them Nerf “guns”.  Nerf themselves refers to them as Nerf “blasters”, with foam “darts”, so use this terminology.  It may seem like small change, but I can see how it would make a big difference.

Another issue has been the use of bandannas in the game.  Players must wear a bandanna around either their arm or head to denote whether they are a human or zombie.  However, some universities worry that this can be seen as a gang symbol, and, coupled with carrying a Nerf “gun”, this would not look good to the local police.  The solution the Humans vs. Zombies website has for this is, unfortunately, costly.  The organization sells bright-orange bandannas for use in the game.  It should be clear to most cops that no gang would use bright orange bandannas that say either “HUMAN” or “ZOMBIE” as a gang sign, so there should be no trouble.  Unfortunately, these bandannas cost $5 each.  Hopefully, though, people will play the game once, buying a bandanna, and donate the bandanna to the people organizing the game when they no longer wish to take part in it.  Of course, fundraisers are also an option.

Overall, to universities who want to consider banning Humans vs. Zombies, I say this: please don’t.  The game does not promote gun violence, or shooting people, etc.  It’s a social event that’s a lot of fun for students to take part in, and makes the campus come to life.  If you want to consider banning the game for its violence, you should also ban any video game with violence in it in the dorms.  I urge universities to work with students to figure out a way to get the game going even if they have worries about one aspect of the game.  Students won’t have all the ideas on how to work around restrictions: offer suggestions that would work well for both parties.

As a final note, Humans vs. Zombies would look great to prospective students.  As a senior in high school, if I had visited a college and there were a bunch of kids running around with Nerf guns shooting each other… that would give the school huge bonus points.

Three years later, in walks Microsoft.  Perhaps you’ve heard of Project Natal.  It’s an interesting concept.  Instead of forcing you to hold a control, sit down and play your video games, we’ll FORCE you to stand up and fight your opponents like a man.  Microsoft looked at the success of the Wii, and basically said, “We can take this one step farther…”  If it works well, and Microsoft can keep the price point low, then I have a feeling it will go over big.  If not, then it’ll flop and be part of gaming history, much like the Power Glove and Sega Activator.

However, there’s a strange point that all the articles I’ve read have been missing.  Without a controller to hold, there will be no rumble, no force feedback.  And while, for the most part, this is really just a novelty… There are some games that might be lacking without this crucial detail.  Yet, the blogosphere hasn’t exploded.  In just three years, the Internet has gotten over the joy of having rumble in a controller.

Maybe we never really needed it to begin with, and Sony just showed us this by removing it.  Personally, I’ve never used a PS3, but if the consesus was that it wasn’t a critical point, then that’s not what’s hurting its sales.  Or, maybe, Microsoft just can’t do any evil in the gaming world.  Sure, Microsoft is evil in the computing world… but they seem to be a god in the gaming world, much like Apple is a do-no-evil god in the computing world.

So, what will come out of this?  Maybe we’ll start to see more controllers without rumble.  Rumble hit it big, but maybe the novelty is dying off now, and we realize that we don’t really need rumble to play a good video game.  Or, perhaps Microsoft’s “controller” will flop, and systems will still keep rumble in their controllers.  Of course, Natal could always flop AND we lose rumble in controllers.  Only time will tell.