Low zombie turnout at CU

The Zombie Apocalypse has spread to the University of Colorado, and there’s only one weapon that can save humanity now—a balled-up sock.

Students are struggling to survive in Humans versus Zombies, a campus-wide game that started Sunday night and is set to continue through Friday.

According to the Humans versus Zombies Web site, the game pits humans, distinguished by bandanas around their arms, against a growing number of zombies that wear bandanas around their heads. The Zombies’ goal is to “infect”—tag—all the humans they can.

The game originally calls for Nerf guns, which the humans use to “stun” their zombie attackers, but the CU Police Department cautioned students not to use the toy weapons.

“It’s a violation of Regent policy to have simulated weapons on campus,” said CUPD Public Information Officer Molly Bosley. “Our concern is that there are simulated weapons out there that look like actual weapons.”

Players who shoot Nerf guns on campus could face charges of unlawful conduct and could also be charged with violating the student code of conduct, Bosley said.

Nate Madigan, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major, said that he is playing the game but that he believes the restrictions are too tight at CU.

“If you look on the Web site you can see videos of people playing on other campuses all over the place, and they all have tons of Nerf guns,” Madigan said. “I think the sock bombs work well, but the Nerf guns add an element of realism because you have a sort of weapon…as opposed to a sock. It seems kinda silly to me.”

Now popular on campuses across the U.S., Humans versus Zombies, according to the group’s Web site, was started at Goucher College in 2005 by a group of students, several of whom now run the Web site.

At CU, however, the game faced several problems getting started. The game originated as a Facebook group, but the creators did not thoroughly organize the event and eventually abandoned it, leaving many students confused, said Scott Serafin, one of the game’s organizers.

“The original moderators vanished and deleted the Facebook group without warning,” Serafin said. “Various sources say the moderators never replied after trying to work out the fundamentals of playing the game on campus.”

Serafin said he currently co-manages the Web site for the game at CU, where more than 600 students registered to play before the deadline on Monday night. The Web site serves as a message board and also tracks the game’s progression through player identification numbers, which are submitted to the Web site when someone becomes a zombie.

Madigan said that he has not been attacked yet in the game, and that he thinks it might be because of the low temperature, the number of people playing and the school restrictions.

“So far it’s been pretty low key—not a lot of action,” Madigan said. “I’ve seen a few kids in my classes and on the way to class that have bandanas on, but they seem to be absorbed in just going to class.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Noah Wanebo at Noah.wanebo@colorado.edu.