I don’t know, I’d be pretty freaked out if my good ole friend Billy got his arm blown off in front of me and got right back up and tried to eat my face. I’d be scared knowing that right around the corner could be something that could end my life, or worse turn me into a monster that could kill another person. For all we know, the zombies could be stronger than before, I know that I couldn’t punch a hole through a door.
So in short, yeah, I could see zombies being frightening enough to cause nightmares. Especially right after the whole zombie thing starts, when you haven’t adjusted to the way things might be, if you ever do.
I mean you would be horrified because you aren’t exposed to violence every day. People get desensitized pretty quickly. The only way zombie fiction works is based on humanity’s ignorance of zombies in the story world. “Dave are you ok? Oh God! You look really sick Dave. Come here buddy let’s get you to the hospital…” IRL you would clobber Dave’s brain with a hammer the second you saw him acting zombie-like, and he probably would be legitimately on drugs or something.
I my opinion if you want to make it “realistic” you have have to change the zombie paradigm. I thought the 28 Whatevers Later was pretty good in this department. That or just suspend disbelief and go with it because:
@JimD, I’ve got a question for you. Earlier in the thread, if I remember correctly, you hinted that a teenage MC’s parents might not be dead.
My question for you is: will we be able to choose how a teenage MC’s relationship is with their parents? The teenage MC I have in mind is honestly the textbook definition of a troubled youth. I even back it up by giving him scars to go along with it, but the only present option seems to be, well… a happy modern family option.
So the zombie paradigm you are talking about is the slow moving, dumb kind, right? In this game they do move slow, but I wouldn’t say they are dumb. You look out a door, see a zombie and duck away, yet the zombie still looks at the door and stand there like it knows you’re there. A zombie tries to break into your house even though it doesn’t see you and is able to punch through the door. That doesn’t seem like a zombie that I would necessarily just pass off as just being annoying and something I wouldn’t have nightmares about. Also I see no reason why they couldn’t sneak up on you even though occasionally they growl (make a guttural sound), especially if you get careless for a moment.
So yeah, they might be more scary if they ran fast and mutated but still, I’m just not going to pass off zombies ( especially like the ones in this game) as something less scary than a bug.
Yeah, I’m talking about your classic Romero zombies. I would say @JimD’s zombies are probably stronger and have the whole claw thing going on. There is also the virus slime from the first game and there is an actual explanation for the zombies other than “magic or whatever. Stop asking questions.” There is enough different to keep it interesting but it still relies on people not having any conception of what a zombie is unlike IRL. This game to me is more of a “just shut up and go with it” then attempting a logical explanation of what is otherwise pretty illogical. I think that is fine. It is zombie fiction and I like it because of reasons like the meme indicates. I’m thinking about ways to kill you all for fun you know???
Seeing things from this point of view, it seems reasonable…Although their limitations still makes it difficult for most people to be actually scared of them. The violence thing, though…
They’re pretty good until you start binge-reading their articles and realizing they’re just re-writing their old stuff with click-baitier titles. Also, damn tittle guy.
I agree. I didn’t say zombies were implausible (well, not recently, anyway), I just asked “hey, if zombies existed, why would people fear them?”
Uh…Have you stopped to think about what can kill you right now? Criminals, climate, vehicles, animals, wet floors, electricity, razors, germs…Just watch 1000 Ways to Die (or the Final Destination franchisee if you’re into that sort of thing) and marvel at the many different ways one can die, even if zombies aren’t involved. I’d rather face an enemy I know I have a chance of killing than to fight nature or my own stupidity.
Well, I guess a smart zombie (28 days later style) would check the fragile window instead of just standing in front of the reinforced door. They’d also likely notice me approaching from the side and aiming my rifle at them. And they sure as hell wouldn’t stand in my way if they were just a bit intelligent
Zombies are decomposing bodies. You’d probably throw up from the smell as soon as they turned the corner. Also, unless you’re dealing with a zombified Solid Snake or Sam Fisher, I don’t see them mastering the whole “stealth” thing. Humans are pretty loud by themselves, even when they actively try to be stealthy. Zombies, on the other hand, don’t even try to (or comprehend the concept, I boldly add) of “stealth”.
Hello! I’m not sure if someone else reported this already, but I had a continuity issue. I played as a college student. So I supposedly had a bike. Is the bike like a motor bike? Because in the date scene at the movie theatre when I was trying to run away, it said I pressed on bthe gas and it was weird because I was using a bike. Another part was when I got myself a vehicle (the coup) parked it by my house, but the following day when I was going to Thelma’s it said that I was going to use my bike. I don’t know if that was intended , but I just found it odd. The following day, I had the choice to acquire a vehicle again which I already did this earlier.
Then I think this was a mistake?
Instead of fell rested should it have been feel rested?
Thank you so much for the amazing story. I’ve played ZE like a lot of times and this just excites me so much. Zombie themed things are heart.
From a non-zombie-meta perspective most people tend to find rotting human corpses horrifying. Rotting human corpses that are walking around and trying to eat you are just that much more horrifying. Fear isn’t exactly rational.
Also… um… Final Destination is a horrible example if you’re looking for ways you can die. The majority of the deaths in that series are only possible due to the fact that the universe the films take place in has this magical sadistic mass murdering ghost thing that likes randomly causing massive disasters that defy the laws of physics after giving people premonitions of them and then hunting down anyone who was saved by those premonitions in even more sadistic ways. It’s basically like if Freddy Krueger could attack you while you were awake, but could never attack you directly (instead having to rely on making inanimate objects work in impossible ways), and had no personality whatsoever.
Heh, you get used after a while…Especially if it turns into a routine occurrence, as a zombie apocalypse scenario seems to suggest.
A fully functional human with the intent (and means) to kill seems much more terrifying than a decomposing corpse. But, as you said and I wholeheartedly agree, fear isn’t rational.
If you exclude the paranormal element, it isn’t. A bad or mild example, perhaps, but not horrible. Of course the movies show people dying in the most over-the-top ways possible; it’s what moviegoers paid to see. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that the movies tease us by making the characters almost die a dozen times before finally killing them for real. Most of these scenarios are plausible. They just go with the least likely ones for added irony.
Anyway, I only mentioned Final Destination because I saw it on a website while looking for another movie to download and it stayed on my mind. My main example was 1000 Ways to Die, which excludes the paranormal element. Also, some people might believe that “Death” exists as an entity, so the example could make sense for them. I could also mention Darwin Awards, and that as an example would make sense to a group of people. To each their own.
@Pqfire09 [quote=“Pqfire09, post:3696, topic:2000”]
I continuously get jillian and lyle killed when I follow them to their car.
[/quote]
I am going to tweak/add choices to this to make saving them more in line with skills.
@StarshinaSokolov no, and I don’t think it’s something I’ll add. In theory, you can sing while gardening, listen to music while gardening, etc., so in the interest of time, I’m going to keep hobbies separate/
I like this kind of addition. It may require a “how do you feel?” choice which some people (@StarshinaSokolov don’t like). I also have to consider how people can answer it, ranging from: I am crushed by their deaths to Good riddance.
@iota_moon005 thanks for your feedback. I will fix these errors
Those scenarios really are totally plausible in a world where there’s a sadistic mass murdering ghost monster wandering around targeting people with physics altering powers. Sure. I mean, sometimes it just manifests as a magical teleporting bus that teleports in on one side of the screen and then out again on the other.
Yeah, you can die any time, but a zombie apocalypse as implausible as it is, would make it even more likely. Modern society exists in large part to limit the risks of death. The collapse of it would remove those protections.
Well… Considering it’s one of the two(?) background options that have the MC being a dependent of someone, I think it’d be alright! Otherwise, it kinda feels like creating a teenage MC has to fit within this certain mold to me. Just a bit.
Oh, okay. I was just thinking about giving my fellow survivors a little rock ‘n’ roll show to lift their moods
How about one of the options stating something along the lines of “it would be good if they were here, but since they aren’t, there’s no point in thinking about them” or maybe something “I’m mostly indifferent”? I only dislike these questions if I have to choose between the “least wrong” of the options, or if the game misinterprets my choice
I also dislike molds.
I already told you to disregard the paranormal aspect of it. Simply take in consideration the situations themselves, not what leads to them. Sure, in one of the movies the water magically finds it’s way to the feet of one character while he’s in the bathroom, but it’s not like anyone never died while handling electronic appliances in a bathroom (as is teased in one of the movies, but the character quickly pulls the plug of his radio before the water reaches his feet), or slipping on wet floor (he didn’t even need to fall into and get strangled by a clothesline for it to be fatal, but hey, it’s Final Destination).
Now, our little discussion has already taken too much space in this topic. If you wish to discuss it further, please let’s take it to PM.
You don’t seem to get what I’m saying though. I’m saying that most of those scenarios simply aren’t in any way plausible without the paranormal aspect.
I love how I get a 5% discount for both being a teenager and being in the military and everyone I meet seems to think I’m armed forces I’m never taking these things off.
It may seem unrealistic for somebody to believe a teenager to be in the military, but as it turns out, you don’t even need to use the “I’m older than I look” excuse.
In Russia, for example, we have military schools that accept kids as young as 5. While elementary-aged kids aren’t required to take part in anything combat-related (although they can if they so wish), all middle-schoolers receive combat training (including full-contact hand-to-hand, melee with standard-issue blades, grenade throwing, and even fire assault rifles with live ammo). Fortunately they aren’t officially considered military personnel so early. But then they enter high-school, and multiple-deployment enlisted veterans need to salute these bratty cadets who don’t even shave yet…
So, at least in some parts of the world, this situation makes perfect sense. It kinda makes me wish Jim added “Cadet” as a playable profession…Kinda.
I played in the country area.
Eventually I got the event with the rogue dying soldier when white came I killed him then my character looted his booze cigs hun and clothes.
So now everyone thinks I’m armed forces and leaving my MC wondering whether to come clean.
Happened during the second day I think.
I found a bug, when I lead Jillian and Lyle out back so [dependent] doesn’t witness the murder, my survivor kills didn’t increase at all. It should increase by 2, right?
Edit:
I think I found a typo 'cause this sentence seems weird:
Rachel laughs and backs away. “Fiesty aren’t we. We truly just me. Let’s not jump into anything just yet.”
That sentence was when I flirted with Rachel.
Edit #2:
I found a bug, when I went to the expensive rancher with the travelling neighbors, I decided to kill all the zombies so I could freely search the house. The game mentions that there’s a pistol in the house but after all the zombies died, I didn’t get a pistol in my inventory.
Otherwise, it kinda feels like creating a teenage MC has to fit within this certain mold to me. Just a bit.
Useful stuff.