Are Zombies on the way out?
By oraknabo 10 Comments
In a recent article, With Obama election comes the return of the vampire, San Diego Tribune's Peter Rowe theorizes that the popularity of Zombie and Vampire movies come in waves based on which political party controls the government. He argues that Obama's win ushers in a new age of vampire fiction, pointing to True Blood and Twilight as early indicartors.
“Democrats, who want to redistribute wealth to 'Main Street,' fear the Wall Street vampires who bleed the nation dry,” Newitz argued, noting that Dracula and his ilk arose from the aristocracy. “Republicans fear a revolt of the poor and disenfranchised, dressed in rags and coming to the White House to eat their brains.”Even if he's right, I'm not sure if the same thing works with games. The first Castlevania games came out during Reagan's Presidency and Resident Evil came out at the end Clinton's first term. Both are Japanese though, so it's hard to argue that American politics would have had a role in inspiring them except for maybe a role in influencing their US sales.
I think overall, zombies are more interesting for games, especially when game AI is rarely smarter then your average zombie. Most vampire games I can think of are Japanese except the Buffy and White Wolf games. Bethesda puts vampires in their games, but I can't think of anything that's been announced that will feature them heavily in the next few years. Anyone know of any upcoming titles that might hint at a trend?