User:DevOhm/The Dead Walker

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 - Felmarg^2†
6. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1166727 - John Barling^2†
7. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1168433 - Bill Zephyrinus
8. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1169100 - Ladril^3†
9. http://urbandead.com/profile.cgi?id=1169930 - cescage^3†
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.

• Ackland1
• Ackland2
• Ackland3
• Ackland4

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.