Zedtown

This weekend, we participated in Zedtown with a group of friends. The good things about it? It was immersive and fun and something different to do with friends on a Saturday night. We learned that we will probably die relatively quickly when the apocalypse goes down; I survived about an hour and a half and Michael survived about two hours long. But, having gone through such a simulation, maybe we now know enough to live a little longer. 

Being athletic people who play self-officiated a team sport, I've come to realize we have more body awareness (of ourselves and in relation to others) in physical activities than the general population. This also means we are adequately socialized and have a regular outlet for our competitiveness and aggression. I mention this, because Zedtown was a reminder that many people do not possess these qualities and abilities. It was mostly fun, but there were a few moments that weren't as fun because there were a few people that got a little too into the scenario and didn't know how to scale themselves back when doing a physical activity with other people they didn't know. What should have just been a simple "tag" turned into more aggressive charging. Nobody got hurt or anything, but it just made the the whole thing less enjoyable. On the frisbee field, I can trust that my teammates and opponents will do whatever they can to avoid physical contact, even if there is the occasional accidental bump. At Zedtown, I could not be so confident. The first rule of the game is, "Don't be a jerk", but some people don't quite know what that means in practice. 

There were also a few minor issues with the app they used to help run the game and the way they set up the missions; if they improved those the game would have been more cohesive and fun. They even had a live, improvised station you could play through the app, and they could make announcements and help move the story along. I think they could have used this a little better to give teams information so there wasn't so much confusion at the beginning. 

In the end, we were glad to try the whole thing, but I don't need to do it again. It was cool to have the run of an Olympic stadium and surrounding area at night with our friends. 

The night culminated in the zombies winning - there were over 1000 at the end. Three people made it to the "evac zone" by luck - these individuals happened to be hiding out near where it appeared. All three faction bases fell to the undead, and the evac zone was quickly descended upon by hundreds of zombies, rendering it completely unaccessible, and the remaining survivors were devoured. Sometimes evil wins.