
Zombie Theme Park in Detroit - soleimc
http://www.indiegogo.com/zworlddetroit?c=home
======
peterwwillis
Aesthetically, the idea of a 'zombie theme park' is pretty weak. I get it;
there's a lot of people who think zombies are the bees' knees. But a theme
park dedicated entirely to them? You know how one dimensional zombies are?
After running away from moaning, stumbling zombies for an hour, this would get
boring as hell. And most people don't even commit to the acting (lame).

Practically, what the hell is the matter with people? There are homeless and
poverty-stricken families and individuals all around Detroit. At the very
least the structures could be used to house people who are at risk of heat
stroke in the summer months and of freezing in the winter. More ambitious
plans could be proposed which puts small businesses up rent-free, possibly
getting the homeless jobs that could help them work their way out of poverty.
Communal living spaces could be erected, or shared housing for artists and
students. But instead they think it'd be fun for a bunch of middle class white
nerds to run around going "Braaaaaaains!!"

This is a great example of a more practical use for the neighborhood:
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/13/charismata-homes-
of...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/13/charismata-homes-offers-
detroit-homeless-mothers-shelter_n_1510219.html)
[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/garden/in-detroit-help-
fo...](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/garden/in-detroit-help-for-the-
formerly-homeless-q-and-a.html)

~~~
detst
And there are starving people in Africa, too. All that you suggest is already
being done in Detroit. Personally, I think I would be bored after about an
hour like you say but it would be really cool if they could pull this off.

The Detroit area (including parts of Detroit proper) isn't a complete
wasteland. There are a lot of people in the area that want to have a little
fun in their life, like anywhere else in the world. There's nothing wrong with
that. If they pull it off, this would attract people from all over the region
(and I'm sure far beyond), which can only be a good thing for the economy.

FWIW, I don't think they'll pull this off, especially for $145,000, but I like
that someone's trying.

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fredley
As a British person, I can't help but worry about how they're going to make a
200 acre expanse of Detroit safe enough to play this game. Making sure that
the structures are sound, that there isn't dangerous debris around etc. The
job of clearing up alone seems like a massive undertaking.

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tatsuke95
Cute, but completely unrealistic. Is this a middle-school project?

It's a liability waiting to happen, and I have no idea how $145,000 in capital
will get them started; try at least two orders of magnitude more. Theme parks
aren't exactly killing it nowadays.

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antidaily
_While we like the positive developments we’re seeing in Detroit’s downtown
and along the Woodward corridor, we lamented what happened to the
neighborhoods._

This would not be a positive. The Mower Gang and urban farmers -- that's a
positive. The RoboCop statue kickstarter was at least funny; this is just
dumb.

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arctangent
Something similar to this already happens in the UK, except it takes place in
the middle of cities rather than in abandoned areas:

<http://2.8hourslater.com/>

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antonioevans
Sounds like a legal liability ready to happen. Ambitious, but one step on a
rusty nail and lawsuits ensue. Though I like the creativity of solving the
inner city blight.

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laaph
Meta: For a website discussing startups, this discussion seems quite
pessimistic to me. I am not aware of all the technical difficulties, I am not
certain it will be the most fun project in the world, but I wouldn't give it
the disparaging remarks I see here. I am certain they'll have difficulties
with the local government and who knows if it will be successful, but I am in
favor of people trying strange new things.

Even if it is a "completely unrealistic ... middle school project" or a
"poorly thought out idea", the worst that could happen is that the people
trying to put this together will learn a lot, and hopefully use that
experience to try something awesome later. Considering what they are trying to
put together, they clearly think this is awesome, and in that light I'd say
it's worth the risk of doing.

<further muttering about "armchair entrepreneurs" and such would go here, but
toned down to avoid rant-type material>

Disclaimer: I'm from near Detroit. Not sure how much that changes my opinion
on this, though.

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mikezupan
To me 90% of the fun of living out a zombie apocalypse is taking a baseball
bat to the side of a zombie's head. I don't really want to run around and hide
all night.

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rmason
This is a poorly thought out idea. If the city took two years (after initial
opposition) to agree to a tree farm I can not imagine they'd ever get support
for this idea.

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230489870457747...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304898704577479090390757800.html)

What happens when someone running from 'zombies' gets injured inside one of
the buildings? Just making the structures safe for the game would run into
millions of dollars.

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HeXetic
I can understand taking over an abandoned mall to make a "Zombie Theme Park"
like was done in the UK

<http://www.zedevents.co.uk/the-mall/>

but 200 acres is pretty big, and outdoors makes everything more complicated.

~~~
roc
And decades of dumping. And slum lords. And wild dogs. And squatters. And
massive pollution. And peripheral crime. And dodgy-to-nonexistent
infrastructure.

People see cheap building sales in Detroit and they don't realize those almost
always come with requirements to pay back-taxes, tear down all the structures,
decontaminate the grounds, etc.

There are good (read: expensive) reasons that much of Detroit remains
abandoned.

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michaelbuckbee
There is already kinda sorta a MVP for this in form of Zombie 5k challenges
like 'Run for your Life':

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4XvnVz9qDQ>

The Zombie Theme park would seem like a scaled up version of those as it seems
to have similar limitations (no weapons) and rules (if you lose your tags you
become a zombie).

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nrj
Paintball guns could make this more interesting.

~~~
hk_kh
Near my city there's an airsoft field where weekend zombie events are
organized.

Basically, you assemble a group, pay the entrance, and a group of actors
disguised as zombies attack you in the forest.

Being paid actors, they play it real, safe, and "correctly" die when they
should.

~~~
thesis
That sounds pretty miserable being a zombie. It would suck getting within 5
feet of someone and getting unloaded on.

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pan69
My first question would be; Who's gonna be the zombie? Are they gonna hire
these people? From what they are trying to do it seems they needs "lots" of
zombies...

I don't think this project will be financially viable and a big liability on
top of that..

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opminion
The most interesting aspect of this: What can be done with an area like that,
in a way that involves maintaining the current aesthetics?

We've done that before, with old power stations and churches.

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bmm6o
Are we at peak zombie yet? This infatuation seems almost unkillable.

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geekfactor
Can someone say "liability issues"?

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vitno
how am I supposed to kill zombies?!

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toomuchcoffee
I thought Detroit itself was already supposed to be something like a zombie
theme park.

