For anyone who would like a tongue in cheek point by point explanation as to why zombies, realistically, would not be a fleshy tide of pure apocalypse.
@Shoelip Yeah, but unless you can prove to me that thereās no possible way a mutated strain of some virus or pathogen out there could cause a āZombieā outbreak, then Iāll still keep my house loaded with guns.
And no, it probably wouldnāt end all of humanity, we do have the rep of being extremely adaptable. but I think that it has the potential to come very, very close if we didnāt catch it in time. Iāve read a book where a virus that more or less caused an extremely high fever, which destroyed parts of the brain causing more or less extreme rage, started out with an incubation period of about a week. If the infected had a week before they turned symptomatic, it would be almost impossible to contain everyone. And shit would hit the fan quickly, especially in the poorer areas and the rural areas. Canāt exactly call the police if you donāt know your neighbor who lives a mile away is an undead beast until heās chewing on your face.
Either way, Iāve always just been of the mindset that anything is possible, and itās best to prep for the worst-case.
Of course, an asteroid could hit the earth killing us all at any point in time so speculating too much is pointless, but either way.
Edit: we actually do have strong jaws. You could bite off someoneās pinky as easily as you could bite a carrot in half, but societyās brainwashing (Not a bad thing at all, but it still IS brainwashing) has made it so that our subconscious says āNo, donāt do that.ā
as for yours, @stsword, I wonāt go into detail about why I disagree with a few points but Iāll just say that several of those reasons are based on the assumption that the Zās will be your box standard zombie.
Just like vamps, there have been a lot of different kinds of zombies, ones that were fast, slow, strong, weak, so on.
But I still doubt a lion could take on 50 Zās at the same time. and they WOULD group, unless they were completely braindead (Hue)
The pack instinct is still there in modern society, weāve all just been trained over generations not to be overly violent or aggressive.
Also, itās not true that weāre defenseless. Humanity made it long enough to create all these nice weapons we have now. Donāt underestimate your ancestors, who survived for generations with nothing more than rocks or a sharp stick.
Also, last comment, Iād edit one of my other comments but I feel like theyāre already too long.
It would spread fast, because it would start off in major confusion. There are some things that, regardless of the situation, people canāt comprehend until theyāve seen it several times over. I still canāt believe that Mel Gibson was a successful actor.
So, in terms of having your neighbor, best friend, or child trying to eat your face off, 20% (Roughly) would take them out without hesitation, letās say 30% would freeze, or be unable to killtheir best friend/neighbor/child, 20% or so would probably we caught off guard or from behind, something like that. The other 30% would run.
@Patch101 Yes, anything is possible. But youāre far more likely to kill yourself with a house full of guns than you are to ever see a real zombie. Although the fact that you believe them likely makes you far more likely to imagine seeing a real zombie and murder a normal human being.
Pop culture zombies were created by George A. Romeroās imagination. All the other zombies are extrapolations of that, and all of them are, again, creations of pure imagination. They arenāt based on ancient myth we donāt understnad the origins of, (And before you talk about voodoo, zombiās those are completely different and have almost nothing in common with the pop culture zombie) we know exactly where they came form, and we can ask their creator how he came up with the idea because he isnāt even dead yet. Zombies are less real than unicorns.
Also, where did you get your statistics? From the way you delivered them it sounds like you just randomly came up with them on the fly.
@Shoelip Actually, if you played The Last of Us, then you might reconsider that. The disease in the last of us currently exists, at least a version of it, and is called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. This is a disease that attacks the brain of an ant and controls it. While this disease only affects ants and does not cause violent tendencies in the victim, it is possible that Ophiocordyceps unilateralis could evolve (or be altered by scientists) in a way that would make it similar to the virus in The Last of Us.
I think the Romero model works well when explained in the Walking Dead context. Its basically a disease with an incubation period of your natural life! Otherwise everyone is completely normal. If a disease like that was highly contagious like the flu we wouldnāt know what hit us. Plus you need society to survive the zombies, but every other human is a potential insider threat because when (not if) they die they become a zombie.
All of these things start with the premise that zombies are real and then search for vaguely scientific sounding justification after the fact to increase immersion. If anything doesnāt line up with real science they just fudge it because itās entertainment, not education.
There are teachable moments in zombie loreā¦namely donāt panic! Panic never solved anything.
Lions hunt in packs too, in fact a lot of predators do, so no the advantage would still be to the animals, not only in physical power, but intelligence too, since most zombies are actually depicted as being dumber than animals.
And lions are ambush predators that hunt at night, so good luck to the zombies that will be lunch before they even notice the lion. 
I donāt really believe that Zombies would ever be real, but just like @God_of_Demonz said, itās entirely possible that a strain of some virus could cause symptoms similar to āZombiesā I donāt think the dead will ever come back to life. But, several kinds of virusās could mutate to cause hyper aggressive behavior, and a high fever would cause a much higher metabolism, which, mixed with hyper aggression, could cause cannibalism.
Either way, I feel like this has gone way off topic. Iām gonna stop replying now.
@JimD I love your games, keep up the great work!
Edit: In response to your comment about rabies @Shoelip thatās the current strain. A mutated strain could cause a lot of different results.
Yes, and a mutated strain of cauliflower could cause immortality. If your only argument is āanything is possibleā you have no argument. Do you wear body armor everywhere you go? Because itās a lot more likely that youāll be randomly targetted by some psychopath with a gun on a mass murder spree than that anything approaching a zombie apocalypse will ever occur.
Food (?) for thoughts: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140123-new-solutions-for-global-problems
Either way, games are for escaping this world and have fun ā I suppose the fun in a zombie apocalypse game is to see if you can make it, no? Is a ZA realistic? I sure hope not!
Anyroad, I do like ZE and this one certainly hasnāt put me off zombies yet! Thanks for making these, @JimD!
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Actually cracked had an article about how zombies might come about, they like their zombies over there: http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html
Yeahā¦ no. Cracked, like every zombie enthusiast deluded enough to consider zombies a real threat, is starting the same way Christians trying to āproveā the existence of God do. āI know Iām right, now Iāll find the evidence that proves it, and ignore anything that doesnāt line up with that.ā
The first example doesnāt make the host aggressive. In fact, itās the opposite.
The second example again does not make the host aggressive, and also is not contagious.
The third example is extremely debilitating and makes the victim lose coordination and motor function. Not particularly threatening.
The fourth example is non-contagious and non-aggressive.
The fifth example is about the only one thatās an even vaguely plausible threat, but again, just like all the others, itās āHow can we make zombies real.ā rather than āCould zombies become real.ā It assumes that nanobots would act in this particular fashion without knowing really anything at all about nanobots, because theāre Cracked, a comedy website. And even if zombies were plausible, them causing the apocalypse is a whole different set of ridiculousness, irrationality, and wishful thinking.
I seriously donāt get why some people seem so desperate to see the world end.
Because people like you make me think it might be nice.
You take life way too literally. Get over yourself.
@Shoelip, your really going to bring religion into this? Your really so anti-Christian that you have to pair it up with zombies?
@Shoelip Iām atheist myself, but I donāt thing compare any religion to zombies is fair. There are millions of proofs about the not existence of zombies. But still without being any total beyond any rational doubt any proof about the existence of any god creature . Its faith territory, so no point of compare it.