Player Comments on Zombie Survival Guide Game Part 1: Weapons

First off I'm going to avoid grammar entirely and talk strictly about the choices.

Choice 1. I am not military trained but I know how to conserve ammo so buying a full-auto would not cause me any ammo problems, maybe recoil at first, though one of the first guns I ever fired was a 16 gauge and that was when I was like 10 so I doubt it, but not ammo. Secondly the M1 Garand and Enfield are two of my favorite semi-auto weapons, seeing as how they can be used as a sniper when in the right hands, so I would pick them due to their functionality. Also what do you have to say to any hunters or people in gun clubs who have used full-auto weapons, they are ordinary citizens yet I believe with their experience in using them they know what they're doing, and I feel that if young children can learn how to use an AK-47 properly, than so can an ordinary person, adult or not, under the right circumstances.
Choice 2. I think you need more choices than what you have, personally I do like the crowbar, but a tire iron would be better seeing as it is just as heavy/light, and it has a built in spike on one end and a bludgeon at the other end.
Choice 3. First off I think you mean trench knife not trench spike, a spike is just a spike. Secondly a halberd isn't all that hard to learn how to use, it's basically just a long axe that you can poke/slice things with and yes there are certain things that you won't know about using it at first, but overtime you can learn and seeing as most don't weigh beyond 10 pounds, almost anyone can use it and their length keeps zombies at a distance instead of having to get in close. Also with the halberd you could carry the trench knife for close encounters when necessary, since it is just a knife after all and hardly weighs anything.
Choice 4. Clothing doesn't really matter although weight does and heat factor does. Almost everyone knows you don't go walking in anything that can cause heat stroke or anything that weighs more than, let's say 10 pounds, all articles included, and of course baggy clothing can be a problem but so can skin tight clothing, here are two examples;
Baggy clothing provides some extra protection against bites while if you have skin tight clothing, it can be bitten through.
Baggy clothing may get stuck from time-to-time while skin tight clothing may not, but skin tight clothing doesn't allow for much storage space for valuable, and necessary, survival equipment that you can die without.
There are more pros and cons but these are just two, I feel, obvious examples that most people can grasp quickly.

Overall I feel that this, so called guide, needs to be rethought.

This is an interesting story because it has very good and very bad points. The good is that you have put a wealth of interesting information here, your writing style is enjoyable and I was actually interested in finding the right answer.
The first bad point is as people mentioned splitting it into parts (you might like reading 5 short stories instead of 1 long one but other people don't). A possible way around this is having five chapters and when someone gets a question wrong sending them back to the start of the chapter.
Another bad point is that this is a quiz not a story based entirely on your knowledge of Max Brooks's excellent book. You could make it into a bit of a story by putting us in real life situations with characters and a plot and choices we have to make along the way based on these questions but it'd still be a quiz in disguise.
A good writing style means we can ignore quibbles about parts and genre types, I'm sure the next part will be just as interesting. Be warned though: people who publish stories in parts usually lack the commitment to write more than one or two parts :)

Why are you doing all the work and then putting it all together? Ever heard the saying "Work smarter, not harder"? All of this just make you come off as a lazy person who simply couldn't be bothered to do work and tries to find work-arounds. I mean putting it together first is a lot better than spamming the site. And it doesn't make much sense to release these seperately and then put them together. So I must ask you, why not do it? Why evade it?

Furthermore, this isn't really much of a storygame and is quite linear. This seems more like a quiz, without the variables. Still, there is a lot of information and that seems interesting.

Also, the Walking Dead is a little different than a written work like this one :P This game took me less than three minutes to complete; one episode of Walking Dead is an hour long while the finales add an extra half hour. If you're going to compare yourself to a WD marathon you might as well make sure your games have the same level as content (which this one doesn't). I think a marathon of hour long episodes from an entire season back-to-back does not equate five-ish small quiz-like "storygames".

In any case I don't understand your justification for releasing these separately, is it really just laziness? that's kind of sad man.

Eh... It's a pretty decent quiz. But if you are strong enough or just used to the weight. There is no logical reason not to take the Kevlar Helmet and Bullet Proof vest. Especially if you have the option to wear combat fatigues or a full body spandex afterwards. Zombies are not the only things you have to worry about in an Apocalypse and any protection is better than none. Combat fatigues are a bit baggy but it's not like they are an inflatable suit. The bagginess should work more in your favor than against it and the fabric could be thick enough to stop bites. The bagginess also leaves open the possibility of the zombies not even biting your arm or leg period. They could bite at a pocket of air then you'd have more than enough time to kill them with a trench knife. Basically if you take the Kevlar Helmet and Vest. You will still realistically be mobile enough to fight effectively and have protection against human beings too.

Yas Love it!

You know, I cannot even buy a gun in my country, so most of the quiz questions are kind of rendered obsolete. Guess I have to die when a zombie apocalypse strikes my neighborhood.

Amazing. I love this.

fun and short.
a nice story before bed.

Actually, m8, a charging grizzly would soak a 12 gauge and probably kill you instantly even if you managed to get five slugs into his eye socket. Those things are tough.

The fact that the Spandex suit was the correct answer made me laugh, because you'd never expect it to be!

Loooove iiiit!!! Very different from the usual storygames.

Well i failed each time..... so when i chose the right choices i was actually happy. Great game

I was about to rate this game higher based on the writing quality, but then I realised it was just about choosing your weapons and armour. That's the whole game.

Oh, apparently "no armour" is the best option for armour. Seriously? No protection from zombie bites at all? Good luck with that. Some of the options were really unrealistic. I have to use a sniper rifle as my first weapon? In the time it takes to aim one of those things, the zombies would have already eaten you alive.

This was very informative and is way more detailed than any zombie story i've read

too many ways to lose. don't play.

I did it! Haha!YES!!!!
*Does a victory dance zombie comes over and kills it.*Okay don't do victory dance during the zombie apocalypse.

Not accurate when it comes to firearms im ex military and the saw can fire one bullet at a time its not just full auto. It can be equipped with a 200 round drum or a 30 round magazine. I stopped after the first page do more research.

this really bothers me. first off guns wise if your half decent pistol would be great, and ever shoot a m1 grand its louder then all those guns except the shotgun. second really chainmail is bad idea. would be amazing if you could get it zombies cant do shit all against it. and the combat fatigues would be fine cause your shouldnt ever be in the situation where a zombie is grabbing your lose fabric. the rest is pretty acturate

I BEAT IT ON FIRST TRY! DIDNT READ THE BOOK! WOOHOO!

The critical choices added a lot of realism. The simulation effect was good, too.

A fine choose your own adventure styled game, great trivia test to see who really read the book AND payed attention.

Alas, I wish there were a much grander animated 3D simulation game, based on this book. A simulation perhaps even good enough for the player to experiment with numerous scenarios and responses to all four different classes of outbreak. Class 4 would obviously be the hardest difficulty setting, and involve the longest play time to complete, several days of play at least.

funny

I didn't like that when choosing a special weapon you said weight isn't a problem. It IS indeed a problem, if you're carrying too much then you can't outrun zombies.

Not bad. Companion Guide was a risky choice, but it's well written. However, being a companion guide, it feels like it requires prior knowledge to fully understand it. Because I really cannot be assed to go buy a ZA guide, I can only give it a 4/8. Howeverr, it is fairly well written regardless.

Correction on my previous comment, I meant to exclude, semi-auto, because I had originally only written about the M1 and later added the Enfield, which is a bolt action not semi-auto.

I should start proofreading my comments for mistakes before posting them in the future.

Pretty straightforward, and not all that hard if you've done this type of quiz before and/or seen or played anything zombie-oriented. I don't really have a problem here; the bad ends are pretty good (SPOILER ALERT... choose Kevlar for a laugh!),and not too random-feeling. That is ALWAYS a plus for me. I look forward to the next installment.

Nice

Short Review:
The Zombie Survival Guide - The Shitty Quiz Edition

Long ( And Useful ) Review:
Good and positive first,
Grammar and spelling is good, I did not notice any errors.
Good amount of choices.

Neutral / Your Opinion,
I personally do not mind the several part story but others might.

The bad part,
While there is nothing wrong with using Max Brooks' work this "story" does nothing unique or interesting with the book, all it does is copy pasting the info in the book to a quiz.
Secondly, while a good quiz normally scores you based on the answers you make this one "kills" you for giving the "wrong" answer.

Sidenote:
The "author" is a complete asshole for saying that people who are giving their own opinion are trolls.

I've read this book/ pack of cards that are this guide. This went alright with them,although you should probably focus on writing more creative and original story games than just making companions and basing off other peoples' ideas. Anyways, the spelling and grammar weren't horrible. Good job. :3

Look, you're welcome to make it however you want, but if it's a small part of a story, it's incomplete and will get rated poorly.

Also, incomplete stories rated under 4/8 are eligible for deletion after 6 months, according to Sethaniel.

I liked it. Not too long (I hate long games so that's a good thing). And I like your writing style. I'm making a game aswell based on telltales wd and believe it or not it's called "Guide to surviving the apocalypse." Or GTSTA for shot. (coincidence I swear.) But looking forward for the next part. 5/8

Well, if you don't like long storries, you are missing most of the best storries here. but it's your choise, after all. But remember, there's allways "save" option.

Why do you people love long stories so much? I always avoid the really long ones, because I like to finish the stories in one sitting. I find it odd that you people think differently.

Ignoring trollish comments, you all can quit your bitching. I'm going to release parts 2 and 3, "On the Defense" and "On the Run," as a single storygame. Not because of anything any of you have said, but just for reasons of flow. (The content of "On the run" is is best when sandwiched between the content of "On the Defense.") It will also read more like a traditional story instead of a quiz, and it will be at least twice as long as this one. (Even though I like the quiz-like nature and brevity of this one. I thought that was kind of its appeal.)

I guess there's no accounting for taste...

Wow, thank you for your anser. Now, I know how to be a zombie, and when apokalipse Will come (never), I'll be sure to byte you first, to thank you ;P.

Thank you for the kind words.

All right, what I'll PLAN on doing is, after I've done all four or five parts, I'll re-issue the whole thing as one single excruciatingly-long storygame. The kind I myself would never read because it's just too fucking long. Why not? "The Walking Dead" always does a marathon of all the season's episodes back-to-back before the finale, so I suppose I can do the same thing.

And about this:
"I'm blind, so I'll stick to being a zombie, heh ... Can zombies even use their eyes?"

That's a very good question, my friend, and I thank you for it.
In the first chapter of "The Zombie Survival Guide," Brooks explains "zombie physiology" in great detail, including how zombies use their senses. I will explain that to you now.
Presuming the deceased had his or her full visual capacities at the time of his or her death, when he or she reanimates as a zombie, he or she will retain those visual abilities... AT FIRST.
However, the zombie's visual abilities deteriorate with time at an even faster rate than the rest of its body, first because eyeballs are just naturally the first part of your body to rot away after you die, and also because, since zombies don't BLINK, their eyes get damaged much more quickly than a living human's. Sorry my blind friend can't do this, but if you are sighted, here's an experiment that you can do so you know what I'm talking about:
Take a pair of glasses. Scratch the hell out of the lenses with a piece of coarse sandpaper. Put them on. See that? That's how a zombie sees the world after just a few weeks of being a zombie. (As would you if you lacked the ability to blink and your body had no natural regenerative ability, as a zombie's does not.)
However, all that said, just because a zombies' eyesight tends not to be great, it doesn't make them any less dangerous. Much like my blind friend, zombies know how to use their senses of smelling and hearing much more effectively than those of us who've been spoiled by being able to rely on our eyes our whole lives.

I hope that helps. Thank you very much for your comments.

Pretty good! I beat it.

Though it had plenty of content, I felt it was too short.

I enjoyed this. As others have already stated, stories that are seperated into chapters are generally frowned upon on this site. Still, this was both educational and mildly entertaining, I decided to give this a 5. My rating would have been higher if it was longer in length. I hope you decide to pack all the segments into one storygame. Nevertheless, good short game.

I personaly like this game, because it remuves some film klisheis. But don't worry about me stilling your wepens, I'm blind, so I'll stick to being a zombie, heh ... Can zombies even use their eyes?

Informative and entertaining, and I'd advise you to ignore Raven47, who has never actually fired a weapon.

I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY advise against "breaking it up into chunks", however. That's going to make you lose points. The biggest story, Dead Man Walking (also a zombie story, funnily enough) is the size of a small novel.

All in all, a 4/8. I enjoyed this, but please don't make chapters. Chapter have become an epidemic on this site.

I didn't make the shit up, dude! It's all taken from "The Zombie Survival Guide" (a thing you obviously didn't read). Don't like the choices? Complain to Max Brooks, not me, because the choices of weapons I offered were the ones HE wrote about in the survival guide.

And those stories you mention are just too long. That's why I haven't read them. Stories in the 4/8, 5/8 and 6/8 range are always best.

Also, there are no limits on what you can write. You can just dump all of it into one storygame. If you don't beleive me, go read Dead Man Walking, Homo Perfectus, or other long storygames.

Hate to say this, but I'm rating this a 3/8. Some of the choices are just.... stupid. But still, a few of them are right. The choice about going to M1 Garand is acceptable I think. But the thing about being killed when wearing army fatigue kind of pissed me off.

Every people have their own opinion on this storygame.

Response to the below comments.

About the Eugene Stoner Colts (M16/M4/AR10/AR15).
Like both I and Brooks make clear, there's no substitute for intimate familiarity. Just like I said in the text, as a US military veteran, of course I'd choose a Stoner Colt. I own an AR-10. But I'm highly trained and experienced in the use of the Stoner Colt. "The Zombie Survival Guide," and this storygame that I based upon it, was written for people with no professional training and little or no experience with any kind of weapon system. And you have to admit, the Stoner Colt is a very complicated weapons system. Not recommended in this situation.
(And besides, you say "you'll never go wrong with a good M4A1?" Uh, dude! Have you ever tried to buttstroke somebody with an M4? It's even less sturdy than an M16! If you ever have to buttstroke and all you've got is an M4, you will ALWAYS go wrong!)

About your second comment...
You've clearly never read "The Zombie Survival Guide."

RE: "You shouldn't make separate chapters. It would be a lot better if you combine all of the parts into one."

Dude, this covers only one fifth of the book, and it's length is already 5/8. If I covered the whole book in one storygame, it would be 25/8. Breaking it up into smaller, more digestible installments is necessary.

RE: "Also, you should allow the players to choose their background and job before proceeding into the game itself."

No, because this is based on "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks. Read the introduction:
>>"This book was not written for the police, military or any government agency. These organizations ... will have access to resources far beyond those of private citizens. It is for them that this survival guide was written -- private citizens, people with limited time and resources, who nonetheless have refused to be victimized."<<
Letting people "choose their background and job before proceeding" would deviate too much from the source material.

RE: "Also, I found it weird how I lose when wearing military kevlar vest. They provide me with additional storage for ammunition, ya know. In my perspective, some of the things here are definitely wrong."

Dude, you didn't read very closely, did you? And you DEFINITELY haven't read "The Zombie Survival Guide." So... I wish there was a more polite way to say this, but you're wrong. Sorry.

Back on the storygame itself:

You shouldn't make separate chapters. It would be a lot better if you combine all of the parts into one. I noticed no grammar or spelling error so far. Also, you should allow the players to choose their background and job before proceeding into the game itself. Also, I found it weird how I lose when wearing military kevlar vest. They provide me with additional storage for ammunition, ya know. In my perspective, some of the things here are definitely wrong.

Nowadays, the M16A4 and M4A1 have replaced the M16A1, which have much better reliability. They're also easier to handle and more accurate. I will take the M16 family rifle over AK-47. They're also more ergonomic. It's not because I like America. It's because I know that you'll never go wrong with a good M4A1.

In this part, there's only one "happy" ending. I figure, if you've read "The Zombie Survival Guide," then this game must be slam-dunk easy. If not, then you're probably having quite a bit more trouble.

So are you guys getting it, or are you all becoming zombie chow?