Reign of Ota

Good ol’ Zombies, everyone has heard of a Zombie and everyone knows what they are… Or do they? That is the question, the question that has been playing on my mind for far too long so I have decided to finally find the answer, (believe me I have tried 42 but it doesn’t work here).

What is a “Zombie”, before you say “they’re those undead guys who eat brains” just take an minute and think, you finished?, good. Can you accurately describe a Zombie? You may think you cant but I am here to tell you that you cannot, what you can describe however is a popular, reinterpreted version of one, be it from the gaming world or from the film world.

All I hear in regards to Zombies nowadays are simply preconceptions of a new generation, younger players who haven’t had that much experience with our rotten-fleshed friends, they have played a pretty simply Zombie-shooter and have taken that games description as a solid foundation of knowledge on Zombies, thus creating a false understanding which, in turn, is how most false knowledge or understanding on anything ever is created. It is a rather annoying occurrence but nevertheless, we’ll press on.

Zombie Characteristics

To determine the most definitive description of a Zombie, we must first determine what most of the interpretations have in common, the following is a short list on what I personally think the most common traits between the many versions:

• Lack of higher thinking
• Aggressive/uncontrolled attacking
• Decaying state
• Craving for human flesh/blood/brains
• Usually found in large groups

As I said, they’re are just what I deem to be the most common and when we are talking about the common Zombie description, mostly all of them will have these attributes, there are of course a few that break the mould.

So why do most Zombies have these aspects? How have we come to an age where anything remotely reanimated or cannibalistic is immediately described as being either a Zombie or Zombie-like? The answer is of course those under-aged and/or inexperienced gamers. See what I mean about it being annoying. Now on to the next step, the slightly boring yet a little interesting comparison between those characteristics and history’s earliest mentions of Zombies. Joy.

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