Seth Mecklenburg | Arts & Life Co-Editor

Video Courtesy of Zachary T Schmidt

Each semester, zombies invade Buena Vista University’s (BVU) campus; that doesn’t mean the students on Monday mornings or even real ravenous flesh eaters, though. Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ) is a live game of tag in which all players but one start as humans. One selected player starts as the original zombie (OZ). If a zombie tags a player, the player becomes a zombie. There are also missions thrown into the mix.

It can get complicated, which is why moderators (mods) are important. The moderators set up every game, plan the missions, and make the rules fit to the respective area the game is being played.

BVU’s campus has had the same moderators for five games: senior Ty Klobassa and fifth year senior Jon Kenkel. Since both students will be graduating at the end of this year, they have decided to make this HvZ, their last.

Klobassa feels the game has improved each time they have done it.

“We can honestly say that for our last game, this will be our best one,” Klobassa said.

In planning for the game, they both agree it has to be taken seriously while also staying fun.

“We like to have everything planned out but with the realization that stuff can happen,” Klobassa said.

They jokingly agree it’s surprising they are still friends after the long process. Kenkel says there is lots of yelling, and it’s difficult to figure out what works and what doesn’t. One of the hardest parts of designing HvZ is the backstory.

“Backstory has always been something we wanted to do but never been able to successfully pull off,” Kenkel said.

There is always a backstory to the game, but it’s usually just portions and character names to give a reason for the zombies. Klobassa says it allows them to drive the gameplay.

A common aspect to any game includes players trying to find out insider information; however, the mods say they are very careful about not trying to leave around material that can give anything away.

“People follow us, but a lot of time, we just walk around to mess with them,” Klobassa said.

The game always comes with a lot of interesting stories. Great players can go out at anytime, and anyone can be a hero.

“Everybody has a story to tell. I’ve always wanted [to have] someone that walked around and just wrote down stories that people had,” Kenkel said.

HvZ is a weekend when the entire campus knows many of their friends will be mainly focused on a fun slice of the apocalypse. Over 100 students are currently signed up for the game this coming weekend.

But what makes HvZ amusing to so many people? Kenkel believes it’s the people and the energy they bring to it.

“It destroys those boundaries that we built up. We create this danger, and you’re on edge. You have to band together. We give everyone a playground. They go and make it fun,” Kenkel said.

Kenkel really looks forward to playing next semester’s game, but with their decision to step down and play, new mods have been chosen. Next semester, Myckeal Rake and Zachary Schmidt will take the reins of the zombie game.

“They were picked partly because they were freshmen and partly because they were active freshman, and they expressed a lot of interest,” Kenkel said.

When the game has finished, Klobassa and Kenkel set up a pizza party for those involved, and prizes are given to people that make the game fun.

“We’re going to stand on that stage one more time and resign,” Klobassa said.

After this weekend’s game, the two seniors will step down and allow the new moderators to take over.

“We are going to symbolically give Myke and Zach the notebooks we have been using for the game,” Kenkel said.

HvZ starts on Friday, Sept. 20 at noon and ends on Sunday, Sept. 22. Anyone can sign up at hvzsource.com/bvu.