We've had an awful lot of zombie threads here...but I can't recall anyone talking about something which has been a big part of the zombie fandom since the start;

What do zombies mean?

As in, what to they respresent to you?

To my mind, the most common interpretation, both as the intended meaning and the one an audience takes most readily, is that they represent runaway capitalism. The never ending, all consuming horde, never satisfied, always wanting to consume more. This is probably because it's the most famous intended meaning, it being the main theme explored in the king of all zombie movies, dawn of the dead.

Personally, though, to me they mean a little more than that. They represent a lack of individuality, a group of people who all act the same, as if under the influence of a hive mind. The ultimate conformist symbol, the death of individual thought.

Yes. I did just go all fancy cinema critic on yo' asses.

They represent a currently fictional horde of dangerous former humans to me.

Personally, I try to avoid slapping an arbitrary and unrelated meaning onto events and concepts. There's little point to doing so from my perspective.

Heronblade:
They represent a currently fictional horde of dangerous former humans to me.

Personally, I try to avoid slapping an arbitrary and unrelated meaning onto events and concepts. There's little point to doing so from my perspective.

That is because you are not an ARTEEEEST!

Nah, that's fine, they're that to me as well. It just seems to me that in particular, zombies have been used as a tool to get forth some sort of point in a horror film, more than any other kind of monster/killer.

Zombies are a metaphor for the inevitability of death. You can lock yourself inside a mall, you can load yourself to the nines with guns and homemade explosives, you can spend months planning your escape to the one place in the world where zombies do not exist; but over a long enough period of time, they will get you. You can't kill enough of them, you can't build a wall high enough, you can't stockpile enough food and ammo to last forever. All they have to do is wait for you to make that one mistake and then death claims you.

A fight against indoctrination, a fight against a forced dumbing down of the masses and fighting to keep your humanity against those who would use fear and violence to try and take it away.

Cheapness, can't think of a new enemy just pull out zombies, can't think of a story zombies will explain it all, can't think of weapons it's ok because zombies work with everything, heck you could even use them as weapons... sad thing is some git just got the idea of making a game like this.

Been reading Cracked by any chance?

Mostly I consider them as a justifiable way to imagine killing everyone I hate, but sometimes I'd take it as the herd mentality, and capitalism as you stated in the OP.

Pretty much a dead (without a heartbeat) and primative human that want to comsume the flesh of living human out of basic function.

The fantasy of apocalyptic end-times has been with mankind for thousands of years. It's an extension of the secret knowledge that we are mortals and we will all eventually die. It's also a recognition that we are doing a shit job of being humanity, and perhaps it would be better to wipe the slate clean and start over.

There's many versions. The biblical one is about non-specific angels of death, which could represent nearly anything. At the turn of the century, there was great fear that it would be a nuclear war. Then there were several tries at making a scare out of a worldwide viral pandemic, although I think that didn't really sell.

The Zombie Apocalypse is a variant of the worldwide viral pandemic scenario.

they represent all the army of internet trolls, haters and fanboys swarming towards me while I try and batter them down with reason and logic like "you're part of the problem not the solution" or "don't like it don't watch/buy/play/eat/look at it" but eventually their sheer single bloody mindlessness and numbers mean they overwhelm me.

They mean BRAINS!!! but actually flesh. Idk how that works.

Daystar Clarion:
A way to kill people without feeling guilty about killing people :D

Why thank you Daystar for once again stealing the words from my mouth :D

I think I agree with the OP, about the losing of individuality and the ultimate conformist symbol. I really do hate conformists and value my individuality pretty damn high.

An easy target and a glorious headshot.

Of course if I'm playing one of the early Resident Evil games then they usually mean "Fuck! Fuck! I'm seriously low on ammo and herbs! GAH A HUNTER!!!!"

I view them as nothing more than targets that look like us to mow down with huge machine guns without feeling guilty.

captcha: load of bread

wat

The ever looming possibility of an office temp job.

Also why you should never give Matt Senreich a loaded shotgun.
_{I hate brains}

DVS BSTrD:
The ever looming possibility of an office temp job.

Now that is terrifying. Seriously, I can't think of a place in which more dreams have died than in an office cubicle. Grey walls on all sides and a pile of paperwork that is mostly, essentially, useless. It makes you think "this is it. I'm never going to be special. I'm not going to be known. I've been made part of the horde, and that's that."

Woah. Yeah, you actually did bang the nail on the head.

Esotera:
Been reading Cracked by any chance?

Every damn day. Not sure I recall an article about the meaning of zombies, though.

they mean 2 things to me

1) guilty free slaughter of 'humans' (this of course assumes i harbor any guilt for killing anything in a game i've got no attachment to)

2) the devs way of saying 'we ran out of ideas'. really, they're a pretty lazy 'go to' answer anymore

A slow day in the ideas pitching department. It's 17:59 in the boardroom and the whiteboard is still devoid of input so one of them necks the rest of his vending machine coffee, says "Fuck it: zombies." grabs his jacket and goes home.

They represent things to kill en masse without guilt or consequence.

A living bullet sponge that can kill you.
Plus you can use anything on it to kill it and save your butt. :D

It may look like an important person to you, but instead it is a mindless vile creature you must sent back to whoever created it.