For the next week, Ball State University students walking to class might have to avoid flying balled-up socks, darts and students chasing each other.
Humans vs. Zombies, a large-scale game of tag played on campus, starts Thursday. The game was first played on Ball State's campus in October 2007 by about 350 students, according to the Daily News. One to three players are randomly chosen to be the original zombies and must convert at least one human player to a zombie every 48 hours by tagging him. Human players wear bright green bandanas on their arms, and zombies wear them on their heads. To "stun" a zombie and remove him from play for 15 minutes, a human can throw a balled-up sock at the zombie or shoot him with a dart gun. The game features several special missions, and the goal is to survive the zombie infestation.
It's great that students are finding ways to connect with each other outside of class and have some fun on campus. Any opportunity to make the week go by a little faster is welcome. It's all in good fun if we can all cooperate to avoid a few foreseeable problems that could arise if people are careless.
For things to go smoothly, there must be mutual respect between those who are playing the game and those who are not. Posters on the Facebook group for Humans vs. Zombies at Ball State last fall said players sometimes mistook non-players for zombies or human players. One person said in the Fall Semester that she chased after some runners at night because they were wearing iPod armbands, which she thought were green armbands. Another post said a girl was "charged and tagged" because she was wearing a green undershirt that stuck out under the sleeves of her T-shirt. Other students said they mistook umbrellas, Gatorade bottles and purses for Nerf guns.
Game moderator Brian Bauman said he heard that the opposite was happening, too - that non-players were harassing players and getting in the way of the game. This problem is easily avoidable if non-players can have some decency and if players can restrain themselves from acting on their paranoia all the time.
Human players must also be aware of how they are acting and handling themselves. Although the rules of Humans vs. Zombies ban "realistic looking weaponry," the game continues at night when it can be hard to see. It might seem far-fetched, but carrying around objects that look like guns has gotten students in trouble before.
We all remember the incident earlier this year when two students were arrested at Bracken Library on preliminary charges of disorderly conduct while they were rehearsing for a play with a toy gun, which someone mistook for an actual gun and reported to a library staff member.
The gun issue has caused controversy on other campuses, too. Two students were arrested and given citations for disorderly conduct at Bowling Green State University in October 2006, according to The BG News. The students, who were participating in Humans vs. Zombies, were carrying Nerf guns, which the university police said caused a panic because some people thought they were weapons.
Ultimately, the game shouldn't interfere with what we're all on campus for - to go to class and get our work done. Seeing students in classes wearing bright green bandanas and carrying dart guns is one thing, but the game can be even more distracting for those who are playing it. While there are safe places on campus like buildings and buses, the game runs nonstop for five to six days. A friend who played in October said it was "extremely stressful" and made him feel paranoid all week. He said he altered his daily schedule to avoid being tagged. He never left for class early and tried to get rides as much as possible.
If we are going to have Humans vs. Zombies on campus, the players should be aware and respectful of each other as well as those who choose not to participate, and vice versa. The moderators of the game should maintain communication with the University Police Department and enforce the rules of the game as much as possible to avoid safety issues. If done right, this could be good for the lagging morale that plagues the last month of the school year. And for those of us who won't be playing, it can at least induce a smile or a chuckle that a large game of zombie tag is happening on our college campus.
Deanna Pogorelc is a junior magazine major and writes 'Oh really?' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
E-mail Deanna at djpogorelc@bsu.edu
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