While most people fear an impending zombie apocalypse on earth, like the ones in Resident Evil or The Walking Dead, others have spent time preparing for this gruesome final destruction of the world (because you know, just in case it actually happens). If you belong to the former group, you can test your skills and strategies on Sep 2, when St John Island, a place where sufferers of beri-beri and leprosy as well as drug abusers and political detainees once lived, turns into a real-life, 13-hour long MMORPG (massively multi-player online role playing game) called Pulau Zombie.
This event isn’t like any other zombie-themed events that have taken place in Singapore; you don’t just try to complete a 5km run while trying to avoid the zombies from turning you into one of them by stealing your tag (a.k.a. life line). No, it’s not that simple. For Pulau Zombie, the narrative goes as such: Singapore is now the epicenter of a virus that turns people into zombies, and everyone you know is dead. You’re one of the many survivors who managed to escape to the safe haven of St. John Island. But, one of your fellow survivors has already been bitten and will slowly bite and turn more survivors into one of the infected as the night grows. Your task? To survive at any cost for 13 hours until the rescue boat comes.
Just like in MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, where you’ll need to “grind” to advance in the game and get better gear, you start off at Pulau Zombie without any weapons, bullets or special items to survive the rest of the 13 hours. You’ll have to earn gold to purchase these things by completing missions. And how do you get hold of these mission objectives? Talk to non-player characters (NPCs) throughout the island. They may even give you tips on how to deal with the zombies, whisper to you secrets of the island and more.
Alternatively, you can “steal” other players’ guns, weapons and ammo, but that means you’re susceptible to bandits too. Everything is pretty much fair game for everyone so that the game can be as real as possible. There’ll also be supply drops and caches every now and then but it’s going to be a real challenge to find them as night falls. Just remember to stay in groups and form alliances for a higher rate of survival (you’ll obviously have to break them in the end to be the last survivor).
And just how serious are the organizers taking this? You’ll have to sign an injury and death waiver to take part, and not have serious health problems. The last standing survivor, along with the top three zombies with the highest number of kills, will each receive a prize (they’ve not stated what that exactly is yet).
Ticket sales and more info here.
