Shannon Flynn
Equinox Staff
This year Keene State College’s Humans versus Zombies Club is hoping to break into the triple digits in number of participants by using new ways of promotion and even allowing faculty and staff to play in the game.
“It’s fun for everyone,” KSC junior, and President of Humans versus Zombies, Ben Piche, said. According to Piche, the amount of participants changes every semester. He said the game with the largest amount of participation was two semesters ago, totaling 90 players. This year, Piche said the group hope to “break through triple digits.”
In order to reach that goal, the leaders of the Humans versus Zombies club took on some new approaches to publicize both the club and game. According to Piche, the group mainly relies on its Facebook fan page. Piche explained that once someone “likes” the page they are added to the KSC group page and can communicate with other members and players. Piche said they also used to put up wooden signs on Appian Way. This semester, however, Piche said the group took it up a notch and had the flyers put into some of the students’ mailboxes on campus. Also new this year, the members put on several “Nerf events” in the Fiske Quad. These events were open to whomever wanted to participate.
Also new this semester is the idea of having KSC faculty and staff join in on the fun. The Humans versus Zombies Club would like to have staff actively participating in the game. There have not been any staff or faculty members officially committed to participating in the game yet.
Rebecca Berkey, the coordinator for experiential education and Humans versus Zombies advisor, said she did not know of any faculty or staff playing in this game because she did not know how they went about publicizing the game to the faculty and staff. Berkey said she thinks there is a possibility of faculty joining, and she said she thinks a lot of people would “get into it.” KSC junior and Secretary of Humans versus Zombies, Kyle Virgin, said, “There are a large amount of females” who participate.
Zack Spadaccini, a junior at KSC who is a member of the Humans versus Zombies committee, estimated the club was split up 70 percent male to 30 percent female. Kara Young, the head of the library systems at KSC and co-advisor of the club said, “It’s growing in participation.”
According to Piche, the game of Humans versus Zombies was started at Goucher College in Maryland. He claimed the game has become very popular on college campuses, military bases and high school all over the United States.
Piche founded the Humans versus Zombies club his first semester at Keene, back in the fall of 2010. The club’s first game was not until the spring of 2011. According to both Piche and Virgin, the games usually last only a week. Piche said the humans have never won before. To distinguish between a zombie and human, Piche said the humans wear a “contrasting” bandana on their arm and a zombie wears one on their head. Everyone starts out as a human except one player, who is a zombie, Piche said. According to Virgin, the only way to turn a human to a zombie is by “tagging them.” He also mentioned that the zombie is not allowed to tag a human unless they are outside and on campus.
Humans carry a Nerf gun with them and can shoot at the zombies, eliminating them from the game for 15 minutes, Piche explained. “It’s a lot easier to see humans with their Nerf guns,” Virgin said. In order to join this club, one must attend one of many registration meetings. It is this meeting that registers the players online, provides them with the rules and prepares them for the game, Piche said.
The fall 2012 game is scheduled to begin on Oct. 24. The registration meetings for this week will be held at 6 p.m. in Morrison Hall room 110 from Sunday, Oct. 21 to Tuesday, Oct. 23.
Shannon Flynn can be contacted at
sflynn@keene-equinox.com