The game must (not) go on
...to paraphrase the song title.
So we are through season 2, and as bad as it was, at least it had a good final episode. I'd say its time to collect some thoughts about The Walking Dead, the universe in which it takes place and how the future looks like.
To begin with, realism. I know, its not realistic with dead people walking around, yadda-yadda, and so we should be able to do whatever we damn well please in a world that allows dead people to walk around. However, realism is for me a way to connect people and events in the game to the real world, from the unfortunate implications of what Kenny says to Lee about picking the lock ("you are not saying what I think you are saying!") to the bewilderment of Jane and Clem when they see walkers in the snowstorm.
Realism means that a lot of what we have seen doesn't make any sense. Season 1 of the game span over a little more than three months - it begins at summer and ends in the fall, and apparently during this time the world falls apart - people die and turn back as zombies, leaving very few people still alive and surviving.
Say there are 300 million people in the US, 7 bilion people on earth. In three months only a fraction of people have survived by all accounts - for the sake of the reasoning, say 20% have survived these three months, the rest have died and/or become zombies. Of the zombies, a lot if not most have most likely been destroyed, especially in the US where there is ample supplies of guns. People in Asia or Europe for example will have it a lot worse. Say that of the killed or zombified in the US, about 50% remains as walkers (and that is being generous and taking into account that most shoot like if they were blindfolded and the walkers move fast as cheetahs.).
That means that in the US, at the end of season 1, you should mathematically have about 60 million survivors in the US along with 140 million walkers (again, very generously). And another 140 million corpses.
Of the living, some will die of course - from violence, walkers, disease, starvation, exposure and so on. Some will turn into new walkers..Of the walkers, some will be destroyed by violence or accidents. But what will really destroy the walkers are not guns. Its exposure. They will rot away in the summer and freeze stiff in the winter, and by the second winter (ie start of season 2), there shouldn't be any walkers left, save perhaps for a very small number of newly made walkers, that is, survivors who has died and turned very late. At this point, there shouldn't even be a need for walls - a curfew would be enough to keep people off the streets at night.
What I'm saying here is, any zombiecalypse lasting more than a year stretches my suspension of disbelief beyond its breaking point. The zombies will die out so to speak and people take precautions against new outbreaks.
Now, I understand the fascination of living in a world where you are born, live and die and all you see all the time is zombies, but it won't work - we will run out of zombies eventually, there's no way around it.
That is why I say that first of all, season 2 was a terrible stretch with that 16 months time jump. Secondly and more importanlty, The Walking Dead must end. It has a starting date; it should also have an end date. Nothing lasts forever and neither should TWD. From a more entertainment point of view, I also think it should end before it goes bad (really bad, like The Walking Dead TV-show-bad). End while on plus I'd say.
Now, I know The Walking Dead is Kirkman's creation, but he is also just churning out the same story over and over. And why? Because it sells and he needs to eat. He struck gold with this franchise and he is going to dig for as long as possible. That doesn't mean that we players or TTG needs to do the same.
So if we are going to go through another season, let's do it from another perspective - someone being there from the start, someone giving the expositions instead of getting the expositions. Someone not located in Georgia, US. Someone who also gets a good, worthy ending.
Perhaps someone who even ends the zombie plague? Food for thought.
(Finally a word to those wanting Clem in the future: Get a child of your own. Let this game character be).
Comments
It's a freaking game not a documentary. Screw realism.
The comics are 4 years in to the apocalypse.
Someone make a simulation on Plague Inc (Necroa virus) so we can estimate how much longer we can realistically play.
I'm all for a more realistic protagonist.
I don't know if it's true but I heard somewhere it was about one person to every one thousand zombies.
What's wrong with the TV show? IMO it's awesome. And in the comics they're like 4 or 5 years into the apocalypse and walkers are still roaming around. Kirkman already said he's not explaining what the virus is, how did it started or if they'll ever find a cure. He also said that whatever makes the corpses walk around is what keeps them from rotting away in a matter of weeks. That means they may be eternal, or at least, they won't rot so early. And I see nothing wrong with people seeing Clem as a daughter, that's what Telltale want us to feel. I know people who didn't want kids that after playing this game they changed their mind. Of course Clem is not real, but that doesn't mean we can't feel emotions towards her and the game. Of course TWD will end, but it'll take a while. Rick still has to live until Issue 300 or so (and that won't mean the comic series finale), and the TV show may have 10 seasons or more, and we got at least a third season for the game. As a TWD fan, I'm very pleased with all this, I'm not looking forward to the end of it, I always want more.
Yeah, so why weren't we given lightsabers then?
I actually did with the beta and a bacteria. I managed to wipe out the earth population in 10 months.
No, Kirkman is not going to explain the virus or stop telling the same story over and over since he has bills to pay. But that doesn't make it good or better than any other zombie franchise, it only explains how, despite everything that goes against it, he is still telling the same story.
And there is no way the zombies aren't rotting away - THEY DO ROT. And they decompose. And freeze. And stumble. And fall off ledges. And walk into fires. And can't use weapons. And can't take cover. And move slowly so they make good targets.
The only reason to why there are still zombies around 4 years after the outbreak is because Kirkman is saving up for a solid gold humvee. Nothing else.
Regarding the TV show... George A Romero said, and I agree with him, that The Walking Dead was a soap opera with the occasional zombie. I noticed that halfway through the second season and I abandoned it quickly, simply because they lost the gist of it.
And yeah, I'd like more zombie stories as well, not necessarily from TTG. But, I want it framed properly, not catering to the creator's bank account! I want a good story with a good start, a good middle passage and a good ending. Finished. Done. The End.
Too much zombie will kill the them, to paraphrase another song, and I like zombies too much. That is why I want it to end so it ends well, not because Kirkman dies of old age or something.