User:MHSstaff/PropGuide

Introduction: What is Propaganda?

Propaganda is anything that makes you/your group look better, and your enemies worse. It is anything that establishes an idea, no matter how far-fetched or ridiculous, as the ultimate, groundbreaking truth.

Propaganda is typically encountered in

• In game graffiti tags
• In game radio messages
• In game chat / zombese
• Group Wiki pages
• Metagaming forums
• The login screen of Urban Dead.

The last one is subtle, but it is there:

Urban Dead is a free-to-play browser-based multi-player game where you play the survivor or victim of a zombie outbreak in a 
quarantined city centre, alongside tens of thousands of others.

Sounds pretty sexy, right? Except, most people do not want to be a victim of anything and so playing a survivor already appears to be the more attractive choice. Combine this with the perception in films and books that the zombies are the “mindless enemy” and survivors are “heroes, who save the world, and get the girl,” it is clear that as zombies, we face a steeper climb in winning over the public to our cause.

This guide is designed to help counter these perceptions, and to introduce zombie players and horde leaders to basic propaganda techniques. When possible, specific examples will be given.

Decide the main purpose of your zombie propaganda

Before you begin creating propaganda, decide your main goal, which is what you expect your propaganda to convey or accomplish. Different goals require different approaches. Are you:

• Recruiting?

Then, your main purpose is attracting new players to your group. Your propaganda should reinforce the idea that your horde is a)fun b) effective and c) different from the hundreds of other zombie groups in Urban Dead. Most importantly, it should make it clear how new players should contact / join your horde, and where you horde currently is.

• Increasing Group Morale?

Then, your main purpose is to show how badass your group is, and how much your members have accomplished within the horde. Your propaganda should show individual members dragging screaming survivors into the street, how much you streamrolled Yagoton, and how quickly your destroyed that auto repair show in New Arkham. Yeah. You totally slaughtered that little auto repair shop. The idea is to convey that your horde is winning, and more importantly, that your horde is winning because of the individual zombies within the group.

• Advertising an event?

Then, your main purpose is show how badass your new event is, where it takes place, and when it takes place. Yes, zombies routinely flatten entire suburbs within Urban Dead, but your event is different; it is special, it is unique and it is definitely sexy. Your propaganda should reinforce just how different and unique your event really is, and that it goes well beyond Mall Tour XX redux. Essentially, you want to convey the idea that if another zombie misses your once-in-a-lifetime event, they should go back to playing some loser game, like Left 4 Dead.

• Proclaiming your love of barricade strafing?

Well, this guide may not be for you.

General Zombie Themes

The conventional theme in Urban Dead is that this is a zombie apocalypse in which survivors are valiantly trying to hold out against the mindless undead. While the conventional theme is useful at times, it may be more effective to flip that perception and approach your propaganda from a different perspective:

• Malton is and has always been a zombie city.

The rightful zombies of Malton are mostly peaceloving citizens, interested in art, culture and advancing social agendas considered important to zombies.

That is...until the dark times..until the murderous survivor hordes invaded Malton, hell bent on shooting zombie children in the streets, murdering zombie elders in the homes, and conducting a campaign of genocide and terror against our kind. We fight this war, not out of a desire to enslave or eradicate humans, but merely to reclaim our rightful homes. Malton will be free once again.

The general idea is that zombies are heroic, resistance fighters, fighting to save their lands from a merciless, invading enemy.

• Survivors are neither our friends, nor our enemy. They are a resource to feed the valiant zombie war-effort

Simply put, survivors are merely a commodity to be harvested, to feed our bellies and to sustain our future. We encourage them to freeroam among Malton, and exercise their muscles and their brains for the future harvest. Some groups maintain that wholesale slash-and-burp harvesting of entire suburbs is required to support the Brains economy in Malton. Others, appalled at the dwindling supply of survivors, feel that a more conservative approach should be taken.

The general idea is that survivors are a resource, and nothing more.

• Survivors are a lower lifeform, barely worth our attention.

Their technology is inferior to ours, they are plagued by infighting and they fail to grasp that their time as the dominant species in Malton has ended. It is our duty as zombies to remind them of their place in Malton: beneath our boots or within our belly. They exist for one reason, and one reason only. They are here to be killed.

The general idea is that survivors are here for our murderous amusement.

• Malton is a multicultural city composed of both survivors and zombies.

Unfortunately, survivors have completely failed in their management of the city, turning a once, beautiful city into an barricaded, filthy urban wasteland. They have failed to provide basic fire protection, basic police service, and basic medical service. As zombies, it is our duty to step up and help correct the mistakes of survivors. We must enforce the city's laws, and care for its people, one genocidal campaign at a time. Some may say that mauling sick survivors is barbaric. It is not. We see it as proper medical treatment.

The general idea is that survivors have completed destroyed the idea of a civilized, cultured Malton and that it is up to zombies to correct the unbalance.

• Malton is your typical zombie apocalypse.

This is the traditional view of the zombie genre, and it basically conjures up images of the mindless undead trying to overrun some rag-tag band of survivors. Except we are not mindless.

We are heartless killers.

Flip perspectives as the situation demands. Is that local survivor group giving you some trouble? Remember, they are not there to fight you. They are merely a resource to harvest and feed your horde. It would surprise you how everyday human tasks - going to work, eating dinner with a family, shopping at a local store -- can be switched to the zombie perspective for fun and profit.

General Propaganda Techniques

Keep your message simple and easy to read / understand

Do not to try to change the world with one wiki page, one poster, or one in game tag. Instead, focus on one thing at a time, and make sure that message is both clear and concise. If you are recruiting, focus on recruiting. If you are mocking a survivor group who is barricade strafing for teh win, then focus on that. Keep it simple and try to sell one idea at a time. This means that:

• Images should be easily recognizable, have something to do with the message you are trying to send, and probably shouldn't overwhelm the page or poster. Making people work harder to read / understand your message of zombie dominance is a "bad thing."
• Make sure you can actually read the text. Text and fonts should have high contrast against the background. If they can't read it, no one is going to care what you have to say. It might surprise how easily text can be lost against (link) busy, low contrast backgrounds.
• Unless you are using it for effect, make sure you are using correct spelling and grammar if you want people to take you somewhat seriously. Yeah, I know. Proofreading helps every now and then.

Use loaded words

Help push your message of peaceful, harman genocide by using loaded words. “Survivor,” for example, implies that your opponent is doing something right; they are “surviving” and thus are somehow avoiding being ground into dust by your righteous, undead, war machine.

Instead,

• “trenchcoater,”
• “mrh-cow,”
• “tasty, infant-sized, midnight-snack,”

convey exactly where survivors stand in the UrbanDead hierarchy.

Remember, there are also no such things as

• “safehouses.”
• "safe suburbs"
• "security zones"
• "effective barricade plans"

These are merely illusions to foster the impossible idea that survivors are somehow safe in Malton. They are alive because we allow them to be. The privilege of breathing for another day is nothing more than our generous gift to survivors until we are ready to feed again. Loaded phrases like

• "garbage-strewn filth-house”
• “fire-deathtrap”
• “harman food storage combine”
• "super, happy family fun death house"

may work better as descriptors, particularly for a survivor group who believes their magical fortress is the be-all, end-all to safehouse greatness.

Choose an appropriate loaded word depending on how extreme you want your message of enlightenment to be. The point here is to help counter the idea that survivors are safe, and instead, promote the idea that barricaded safehouses are pointless deathtraps and chances are, survivors are going to wake up the next morning dead, regardless of what they do.

You have to be a little careful with loaded words, especially when it comes to recruiting. Remember, players in Urban Dead often play both sides, so if your description of survivor group XYZ is a little too charged, you may turn off some players who might otherwise be willing to “see the light.” Extremely loaded words may be better used generally rather than as descriptors for specific groups. Remember, internet browser MMOs are serious business.

Use association

There is a reason why advertisers tend to associate cars, beer, and razorblades with scantily-clad women. Sex sells, and by juxtaposing a can of motor oil with a swimsuit model, advertisers are hoping that you too will make a similar association with something desirable , and thus be more likely to purchase their brand...of motor oil...I guess.

My point here is that you too will want to associate your horde with something desirable as well. In this case, you want others to make the association that your horde is

• Fun
• Effective
• Unique.

Conversely, survivors can be associated with the idea that they are

• Boring
• Incompetent
• Cliched/Unoriginal.

For instance,

Is barricading all day for the man really how you want to spend your precious AP?

Again, the caveat is if your association is a little too loaded, you may turn off some players. Like loaded language, association techniques are better reserved for either promoting zombie groups or demonzing survivors in general, rather than attacking specific survivor groups. They are, however, wonderful for recruiting, especially if you can effectively get the idea that your horde is the "fun one" in the game.

Everything you do is Right. Everything they do is Wrong

Pretty simple really. Everything you write is the Truth. Everything you draw is Gospel. Everything you mention is Holy. There are no defeats; there are only victories. Glorious victories such as breaking into a building, discovering that it is empty, and then ruining it for the win. The type of victory that only comes in the fast-paced world of Urban Dead.

Your propaganda is always right because you made it. No matter how many times someone calls you out on it, they are wrong and you are right. No matter how many times they say it is impossible to infect fifty-one survivors in a row in one AP cycle, it is not if you say it is not. If they have proof you are wrong, you then have to do the right thing.

You ignore it completely or address it humorously.

Examples

Zombie Propaganda and Recruiting

Urbandead is a cyclic game, which means that aside from a few diehards, players come and go. Successful recruitment requires demonstrating three fundamental things:

• That your group is successful
• That your group is fun, and cares about its members.
• That your group is unique

Your group page is one of your more useful tools, so make sure it looks professional, and make sure it has the basics of where you operate and how to contact you.

Zombie Propaganda and Events

The typical day for a zombie is knocking down some barricades, mauling a survivor, and if they are lucky, killing a survivor. The typical day for a survivor is dying. Events can be one way to help break this monotony. Effective graphical and written propaganda can help foster excitement both inside and outside your horde for your event.