Ohio University’s Urban Gaming Club brings “One of Us” to the Athena Cinema as it prepares for the club’s weeklong Humans vs. Zombies event.
The Urban Gaming League will bring One of Us, a documentary covering the culture surrounding Human vs. Zombies, to the Athena Cinema.
The documentary, created by Youngstown state University student Kelsey Davis, delves into the subculture of the games by putting the spotlight on the range of people, from students, to kids, to parents, that form the community.
Humans vs. Zombies, a live action game of tag, is the club’s primary event of the year. Teams are separated into zombies and humans distinguished by bandanas. The objective is for the zombies to tag humans to turn them into a zombie. The humans have weapons such as nerf guns, shields and “sock bombs” to fend off zombies. The game is played in the fall and in the spring, typically attracting 150-250 players each time, Tanner Bivens, administrator of Urban Gaming League and a longtime friend of Davis, said.
While admittance for One of Us is free, the club is requesting donations.
“The donations are due to the fact that she put in a lot of time and money into the project,” Bivens said.
The film will begin Thursday at 7 p.m. for dedicated players and interested students alike.
After Thursday, the club will have its sight set on the week-long Humans vs. Zombies event taking place from Oct. 20 to Oct. 27.
There are several missions for the players throughout the week. The game takes careful planning up to ten weeks to plan a single game by moderators.
Leading up to the game, Levi Blake, a senior studying mechanical engineering and the club’s senior moderator, said the moderators go through the missions to make sure there are no issues.
Bivens, a first year graduate student studying political science, has been participating in Humans vs. Zombies since 2010. After transferring to Ohio University, Bivens found the league to be a strong positive factor in his life.
“Most of my college experiences can be traced back to Humans vs. Zombies,” Bivens said.
Bivens said the community created by the league is a tight knit, positive environment.
Terry Boyer, an Athens resident currently enrolled at Florida Institute of Technology, said while working in food trailers on Union Street, he witnessed the chaos of the games unfold in front of him and developed an interest.
He gives the game credit for allowing him to meet and connect with the students of OU.
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“(The game) lends itself to forming what we call strike teams … some of these strike teams have gone out into the real world and maintained that group to the point where they start getting houses together, living and working together,” Boyer said.
Blake attributes a great deal of personal growth to Humans vs. Zombies, suggesting the game can be a great help to introverts.
“I’ve changed so much in the past three years, and a big chunk of that is because of these games,” Blake said.
On Oct. 20, the club will hold a rules meeting and an opening mission briefing at 10 p.m. in Walter Hall room 135.
“If people are even the slightest bit interested I encourage them to come out and try the game,” Boyer said, “They may just find out it is the most exhilarating fun you can have.”
@graceoliviahill
gh663014@ohio.edu
