What started the Zombie fad and what will be next?

[Deleted]

Zombies haven't been present on this scale before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

They've always been everywhere.

[Deleted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

They've always been everywhere.

Even the list you linked suggest that they haven't. 3/4ths of that list is games between 2005-2013. So from 1984 to 2005 there have only been made 1/4 of the amount of zombie games that have been made between 2005-2013.

[Graeham]

I never really cared much for the zombie genre until I played Resident Evil: Outbreak and Forbidden Siren. They're not perfect games but they both paint an excellent picture of what it's like for regular men and women to put in a situation where they have to fight for their lives against the undead. I particularly liked how there wasn't a huge focus on being able to use powerful weapons to defeat anything that stumbled across your path. I've since lost interest in the genre again, though - it's become too focused on action rather than horror and the vulnerability that comes with such scenarios.

[Waaldo]

There aren't enough Dinosaur games, unfortunately

Hopefully it's something other than CoD and BF clones.

Yes! We need more dinosaurs!

[Raptor With a Saber]

Yes! We need more dinosaurs!

Zombie dinosaurs....

[Deleted]

Yes! We need more dinosaurs!

Grimlock, motherf***er.

[Super Kami Dende]

Even the list you linked suggest that they haven't. 3/4ths of that list is games between 2005-2013. So from 1984 to 2005 there have only been made 1/4 of the amount of zombie games that have been made between 2005-2013.

zombie games are easier for Indie developers to make, since the AI of a zombie is "run at the character and flail your arms if you see them"

Whereas most other games actually require somewhat of a good ai set.

[Deleted]

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only Flappy bird.

[Revik]

I'd put my money on Machines or Robots. Especially government controlled Machines or Robots. Precursor could be Robocop.

[openair]

What caused the zombie "Invasion" in gaming and movies? They literally sprung up from the ground overnight(Pun intended) and took the world by storm but I don't have the faintest idea what triggered it. And can we predict what theme is coming next after zombies?

Umm No. Maybe sprung up over the course of 20+ years, but definitely not over night. I like how "00's had war themes" but more zombie games and movies were released before 2010 than after.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah I think it might be aliens next too, more specifically space themes. So many games have started featuring aliens lately and then we have the upcoming big titles such as Star citizen among other space exploration games that might reignite our love for the theme.

But "aliens was the 90's"! It already done. Oh, you're just realizing these 'fads' aren't as 'faddy' as you assume.

[Vightnic]

There aren't enough Dinosaur games, unfortunately

Hopefully it's something other than CoD and BF clones.

I'd love to see a proper Turok game, like the original N64 one but for next gen.

[Deleted]

Umm No. Maybe sprung up over the course of 20+ years, but definitely not over night. I like how "00's had war themes" but more zombie games and movies were released before 2010 than after.

All themes are present throughout the generations. But they cycle in popularity between generations. Zombies weren't this popular in media and games pre-2005-ish, sure, they existed in the form of the resident evil franchise(Games and movies) and House of the living dead but wasn't much more than that. Nowadays everyone love them some zombie movies, games and series and you can see that by the amount of different and individual zombie franchises being offered currently compared to before when war games were popular.

And when I say "00's" I don't mean the entirety of that decade. I meant the crossover period between the 90's and 2000's up until the point where zombies became popular in 2005-2006, so 1999-2005(6) is when the War theme was as most popular in games I'd say. I didn't specify further because I didn't want to clutter the opening post with unnecessary and trivial details.

But "aliens was the 90's"! It already done. Oh, you're just realizing these 'fads' aren't as 'faddy' as you assume.

And please refrain from trolling when you don't know how. I'm assuming you're trolling or perhaps you weren't present in this world prior to 2005? Arguing against me is fine, but don't try to troll me.

[Collegeguy]

As I recall, it was the remake of romero's Dawn of the Dead in the early 00's that came out in theaters right after Passion of the Christ. It was a change of theme in theaters and it stuck since that time. Before that movie, the zombie genre was retired. Afterwards, zombie themed movies and games popped up everywhere. It was everywhere in games before but not so popular in hollywood.

Also, Walking Dead is the highest rated tv series in history. Hate or love it, that's a big success that makes CEO's cream their pants just dreaming about.

[barackopala]

you know what kind of setting i miss? world war games, i still listen to the allied assault soundtrack, so nice

[Crackleslap]

I'm not complaining. The Zombie (Horror) Genre is my favorite. I fucking adore zombies! I'm still looking for a good zombie game. (MMORPG) Hopefully, Human Element (2015) will provide that :P Even though it focuses on survival and it's 30 years later after the outbreak.

[PetersenIII]

I'm not complaining. The Zombie (Horror) Genre is my favorite. I fucking adore zombies! I'm still looking for a good zombie game. (MMORPG) Hopefully, Human Element (2015) will provide that :P Even though it focuses on survival and it's 30 years later after the outbreak.

30 years after the outbreak, humanity should be extinct. <.< Or zombies should be. One or the other. http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/Zombies.pdf

[Deleted]

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, supernatural monsters, aliens, superheroes, time travel, medieval/fantasy, science fiction, westerns, war, agent thrillers, space, and every other thing imaginable aren't "fads", they're trends. Zombies have been around forever, and they just happen to be trending right now, just like vampires for example, and in fact zombies have been trending for quite a while now.

A fad is something that appears overnight, exists for 15 minutes and disappears overnight. Zombies are most definitely not that.

These trends can be seen, for example, in Hollywood, in that quite often two or three movies with identical themes come out almost at the same time. Good example of late were Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. Pretty much the exact same movie, coming out pretty much the exact same time. Who sets the trends and why and how they're set, that can be discussed, of course, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with ideas being thrown around in Hollywood, with scripts being sent back and forth, and with people in smoky rooms smoking cigars and drinking brandy, discussing what would be the most lucrative cash grab for this season.

Hollywood, then, leaks into TV-series and games as well, and I'm sure they've got their own backroom dealings and idea factories. So what's the next thing to trend? Look at upcoming movies and TV-series.

There are movies like Noah and Pompeii, and there's a couple movies about Hercules, there's a movie called Son of God, then 300: Rise of an Empire, so movies taking place in ancient mythological history are definitely trending, and they might spawn some new TV-series (although Spartacus tapped that vein already I think) and games as well. Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise are continuing the sci-fi film trend, superheroes are still going really strong, and there's interest in monster movies (I count the new Transformers as one of these, and then of course Godzilla, Planet of the Apes, and so on.)

In TV sci-fi is trending still, with Continuum, Intelligence, Almost Human, and so on. There's a couple shows about pirates, a couple about witches, vampires are still strong, so are werewolves, as are zombies obviously, and then there's your assorted selection of all kinds of other shows.

As far as games go, there seems to be a healthy mix of all kinds, with old legends such as Thief, Wolfenstein, Carmageddon, Oddworld being resurrected.

It's not really that there's one thing trending at a time, and that there'd be like a clear start and end to it trending, but there are a lot of different things going on at once, ebbing and flowing throughout the years. One thing is for sure though; these are trends, they wax, they wane, but pretty much none of them never go away. As such, they are not fads.