Twitter vs. Zombies

Watch your hashtags, and sleep with one eye open.

The newest iteration of TvsZ starts June 20. Sign up now. And our essay on the Game: "Twitter Vs. Zombies: New Media Literacy & the Virtual Flash Mob"
by Pete Rorabaugh and Jesse Stommel

Original Game | November 2012

Inspired by the popular campus game Humans vs. Zombies, join @Jessifer and @allistelling for an epic zombiefied experiment in Twitter literacy, gamification, collaboration, and emergent learning.

Part flash-mob. Part Hunger-Games. Part Twitter-pocalypse. Part digital feeding frenzy. Part micro-MOOC. Part giant game of Twitter tag.

Band together your most trusted Twitter allies to defend against a virtual Zombie horde. Collect canned goods, store water, watch your hashtags, and sleep with one eye open.

THE RULES TO JOIN THE GAME:
Watch #TvsZ for announcements about a new game. Register. Commit to posting at least 10 tweets per day.

THEN, TO PLAY:
1. A ZOMBIE can #bite (to attack) once every 30 mins. A #bite can only be sent to a player that has been active on Twitter in the last five mins.

2. A HUMAN can #dodge (protect yourself) once per hour and #swipe (protect someone else) once per hour.

3. When you are bitten, you have five mins to reply to the ZOMBIE with #dodge or have another player reply to you and the zombie with #swipe. A turned HUMAN must update the Twitter vs. Zombies Scoreboard by changing his/her status to ZOMBIE.

Additional rules and clarifications.

The rules are emergent. There will be challenges, amendments, and rule adaptations as suggested by the community and implemented by administrators. Keep your eyes on the blog and #TvsZ for updates.

Anatomy of an action tweet: [@name(s)] [body of tweet with action tag #bite, #dodge, or #swipe playfully inserted] [game tag: #TvsZ]

Example of a bite/dodge:
@DigiWriMo attacks: “@moocmooc I want to #bite your lovely flesh. #TvsZ
@moocmooc dodges: “@DigiWriMo No you don’t. I have not used #dodge in an hour. #TvsZ

Example of a bite/swipe:
@DigiWriMo attacks: “@moocmooc What’s that lump on your neck? Is that some kind of #bite? #TvsZ
@Jessifer defends: “@DigiWriMo @moocmooc I #swipe your hungry beak. [pets @moocmooc] #TvsZ

The game is beta, and we'll be crowd-sourcing the rules as it's played.
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