A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine a game about rebuilding society in a world of the infected & undead, “State of Decay”.
Community is Key (“State of Decay”)
We’ve all seen it before – a person is unexpectedly thrust into a world now infested by either the undead or people inflicted with a disease that turns them into a ravenous, bloodthirsty brood who will rip apart anything in their path. In the ‘00s the zombie genre witnessed a full-blown revival in popularity from movies to, of course, video games. “Left 4 Dead”, “Dead Rising”, “Dying Light”, adaptations of “The Walking Dead”, and even zombie-fied DLC additions to the “Call of Duty” series were all big successes in pushing forward the narrative of surviving against the unbelievable; but none of those games really emphasized the importance community at large. That all changed with Undead Labs’ “State of Decay”. Originally released on the Xbox 360, “State of Decay” thrust the player in the shoes of a randomly generated character who would leave an open area after the unexpected happened; learning the lay of the land while gathering supplies to live such as food and weaponry be it a boat ore or a baseball bat when it comes to the latter. But the key feature that made “State of Decay” so interesting was the aspect of finding strength & weakness in numbers not only when it comes to supplies, but also when in regards to handling other people.
“State of Decay’s” basic premise saw the player bringing individuals together to a homemade, fortified shelter centered around anywhere be it a church or an abandoned state fair. Depending on who was recruited mattered just as much as the location as different survivors had different traits and potential qualities that can help make this budding community more productive be it stronger fighters or even medical knowledge. But building a new mini-society in a limited space proved to be also detrimental to others not so blessed with special abilities or even cursed by being one of the unlucky few to be bitten in the heat of battle. The constant tension of whether or not everything actually worked to the benefit of the player’s community is what made “State of Decay” a one-of-a-kind experience while also adding another question to whether or not someone would thrive during the zombie apocalypse, “Is there truly strength in numbers?” Depending on what type of people makes up your community you could either be Saviors or constantly finding yourself being kicked out because you put down a person suffering from a summer cold when you thought they were suffering from an infection. Community is key to surviving the zombie apocalypse, but only if you pull your weight – just like a giggling juggernaut.
Have you learned any major life lessons from playing “State of Decay” or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
