User:DevOhm/The Dead Walker

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About

What is The Dead Walker? The Dead Walker is a zombie "group" that emerged in the Caiger area around September/October 2009 and, according to their wiki page, "experienced a significant period of growth shortly thereafter." A number of factors suggest that this group is essentially a zerg group, not the least of which is their uncanny degree of coordination.

The first hint is their presence on the stats page. As this screenshot shows, The Dead Walker is a large group, with a low average skill level. This is a classic configuration for zerging, as the sheer numbers (and precise coordination) means that low skill is no barrier to success.

Another indication, as noted in the members section below, are the UD IDs of many group members. The nearby IDs represent registration times within minutes of each other – clearly suggesting they were at least created (and are probably being run) by the same person.

Additionally, the zombies display similar skills progressions, notably by taking Brain Rot very early on – presumably to make them harder to DNA scan, so that indications of zerging are less easily revealed.

Finally, most of the zombies grouped together in registration blocs have names very similar to those generated as "suggestions" on the character generation page, which helps conceal zerging more than names, say, that have ascending numerals at the end. This is admittedly circumstantial, but together with the other indications, does ultimately suggest that The Dead Walker is a "group" largely composed of zergs.

Members

The superscript numbers indicate blocs of members that registered within minutes of one another.

  1. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1157929 - Skulmar
  2. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1158456 - Skulmarg
  3. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1161567 - Athelor1
  4. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1161578 - Skulmar Hyst1
  5. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1166577 - Felmarg2†
  6. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1166727 - John Barling2†
  7. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1168433 - Bill Zephyrinus
  8. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1169100 - Ladril3†
  9. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1169930 - cescage3†
  10. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1171140 - Lorlan4
  11. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1171146 - Giorno4
  12. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1211091 - Laie
  13. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1212922 - soluoo
  14. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1601455 - Ominorej
  15. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1614840 - Atell
  16. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1617546 - Christopher Alderson
  17. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1626753 - Sam Geldeard5
  18. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1626754 - Bob Schalch5
  19. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1626755 - Stephen Bowdich5
  20. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1626757 - Geoff Ormrod5
  21. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1626770 - Penny Augarde5
  22. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629798 - Isabel Egleton
  23. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629809 - Michael Potter6
  24. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629811 - Ralph Bullimore6
  25. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629816 - Alexander Trevelyan6
  26. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629821 - Alexander Hardyman6
  27. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1629822 - Joseph Aris6
  28. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630573 - Shaun Gray7
  29. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630575 - Robert Aris7
  30. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630576 - Michael Bidgway7
  31. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630577 - Donald Bussell7
  32. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630578 - Ralph Olsen7
  33. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1630581 - James Osmonton7
  34. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631254 - Paul Swonnell8
  35. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631257 - William Swonnell8
  36. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631258 - Joseph Wisby8
  37. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631259 - Ralph Otto8
  38. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631263 - Stephen Bousfield8
  39. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631265 - Stuart Terrell8
  40. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631267 - Neil Pickford8
  41. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631269 - Shaun Monroeville8
  42. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1631270 - Rubber Jonny8
  43. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1632340 - Geoff Bailey9
  44. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1632343 - Anthony Sixtus9
  45. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1632346 - Paul Stacey9
  46. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1632460 - Robert Ames9


†Registered within hours, rather than minutes.

Proof

Ackland Mall

The following four iWitness reports show The Dead Walker to be almost the entire occupying force of Ackland Mall.

At the time these iWitness reports were made, The Dead Walker zombies had not moved for several days. Note that this sort of passive squatting avoids tripping most anti-zerg mechanics, which mostly rely on interaction with barricades or other characters to be flagged.

Speculation

It seems likely that The Dead Walker was not originally intended to be a zerg group. Early registration blocs (1-4) were probably just new players registering new characters after having played their first 50 AP and wanting more. It can't be known, but at the beginning, these players probably only had 1 character each in the Dead Walker, since these registrations all took place months before The Dead Walker formed in September/October 2009.

It appears that the early, non-zerg version of The Dead Walker operated for a few weeks before leadership began to grow weary of being unable to make a sufficient impact. The period of intense zerg generation, starting with registration bloc 5, began at the beginning of October, marking the end of the hypothetical non-zerg phase of The Dead Walker. Note that the "characters" from this phase are qualitatively different from those earlier – they are given generic names, have no descriptions, and follow predictable skill progressions. It's likely that at this time the players responsible for the early registration blocs brought their secondary characters over to join in The Dead Walker's new incarnation as a full-on zerg group.

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