A campus-wide battle between good and evil commenced today when Notre Dame's WVFI radio station began its game of "Humans versus Zombies."
Approximately 480 students signed up for the game, which will conclude Sunday, co-moderator Alex Muench said.
"We conduct a lot of events like [Humans versus Zombies], mostly for the benefit of our DJs," co-moderator Nicolle Walkling said. "This one we decided to extend to the entire student body, so we're really excited about the scope of this event."
Muench said the moderators researched Humans versus Zombies online and created a Facebook event in order to advertise the game.
"We sent [the invitation] out [to] maybe 300 people just to start, and by the end of the night we had over 2,500 people invited," Muench said.
While Humans versus Zombies is popular at colleges across the nation, Muench said this is the first time it will be played at Notre Dame.
"Humans vs. Zombies has a really big college following," he said. "It was made by some guys at Goucher College... They set us up with the [website] code and got it all put together for us, and we took it from there."
Co-moderator Willem Klein said any concerns about the game should be directed to WVFI.
"It sounds ridiculous and fun and awesome," sophomore Rachel Chisausky said. "You get to run around attacking people, like the ultimate form of creeping."
Muench said the game consists of a "human" team and a much smaller "zombie" team. Over the course of the five-day playing period, the zombie team members will attempt to turn the human team members into zombies by tagging them.
Muench also said there will be missions with rewards in order to draw the humans into the playing area.
According to the rulebook on the Humans versus Zombies at Notre Dame event website, http://nd.hvzsource.com, these missions will be "events that advance the game."
"At the end of the week, if everyone's a zombie, the zombie team wins," Muench said. "If there are humans left, the human team wins."
Muench said players must wear bandanas at all times to signify they are playing. Humans wear their bandanas on their arms and zombies wear them on their foreheads. Players cannot tag each other in campus buildings, and the whole game takes place outdoors.
Humans can use Nerf Blasters to tag the zombies before the zombies tag them, Klein said. If a zombie is tagged, he is out of the game for fifteen minutes and cannot tag anyone.
Freshman Olivia Schneider said she's looking forward to the game.
"I think it will be fun to have this ongoing competition between people all over campus," she said. "Plus, I get a Nerf [Blaster], and I think it will be fun to shoot it."
Junior Brian Conway said he was inspired to play Humans versus Zombies because he enjoyed playing the similar game Assassins for St. Edward's Hall last year.
"I had a blast playing Assassins, and I heard my friends at other campuses saying this game was a lot of fun, so I didn't want to miss out," he said.
Muench said he originally expected about 150 people to sign up and was surprised when close to 500 players ultimately registered.
"I think the most challenging thing [about organizing the game] was the sheer number of people that ended up signing up," he said. "I've had people emailing me questions and forgetting the password to the website."
Klein said he is excited to see the game play out.
"Seeing a multi-day, on-campus event isn't something we really have [seen often]," Klein said. "I'm just looking forward to shooting some zombies."
