Plants Vs Zombies became a cultural phenomenon upon its release in 2009, with its oddball sense of humour where plants squared off against backyard zombies in a cartoon style. Created by George Fan and developed by PopCap Games, it was originally released on PC and Mac. It’s safe to say, it consumed many hours of my life when I was younger.
Proposed Analysis Method
Through a contextual analysis, I would focus on game genre and related games. Establishing the game within a genre can help determine, for instance, why it is like other games of the same type, or what is innovative about it.
Particularly, what made this game so popular? There’s been no shortage of successful zombie-themed video games in the past decade, and even games like Call of Duty: World at War and Red Dead Redemption have “enjoyed increased attention by shoehorning in modes featuring the undead,” (Marchiafava 2011).
Dead vs. Undead
Does the use of Zombies in games have an advantage? Secondary research could help understand this. “Video games have become an important form of mass media, yet they remain understudied and misunderstood,” (Consalvo, 2003).
Zombies frequently feature in digital games and Krzywinksa has argued that they provide an ‘ideal enemy: they are strong, relentless and already dead,’ (Carr, 2019). They mimic basic human behaviour and in an age where video game violence is an ongoing and important topic of discussion, no one thinks twice about re-killing the undead.
Making this relevant to a public audience could be revealed through a weekly twitch stream, testing out multiple games which all have one thing in common, the antagonist: zombies. Through comparing and contrasting, the aesthetic which stems from a walking but dead creature, can be analysed through common aspects shown such as the herd mentality, distorted features and raggedy clothes, which overall make the game spookier.
Furthermore, each livestream can be accompanied by explanations which describe how horror games play (literally) with the dynamic between gaining and losing control over involving sluggish and graceless characters who can barely stand up. Maybe it’s just less expensive for game developers?
Overall, we never want our enemies to out-smart us.
Check out: 19 Best Zombie Games Of All Time
References
Carr, D. (2019) ‘Methodology, Representation, and Games’, Games and Culture, 14(7–8), pp. 707–723. doi: 10.1177/1555412017728641, viewed 4 August 2021.
Consalvo, M 2003, ‘Zelda 64 and Video Game Fans: A Walkthrough of Games, Intertextuality, and Narrative’, Television & new media, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 321–334, viewed 4 August 2021, <https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2937081/mod_resource/content/3/1527476403253993.pdf>
Macgregor, J 2019, Plants vs. Zombies turns 10, creator shows original designs, PC Gamer, viewed 4 August 2021, <https://www.pcgamer.com/plants-vs-zombies-turns-10-creator-shows-original-designs/>.
Marchiafava, J 2011, Why Are Zombies Still So Popular In Video Games?, Game Informer, viewed 4 August 2021, <https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/09/05/why-are-zombies-still-so-popular-in-video-games.aspx>.
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