Game Theory: Real Tips for SURVIVING a Zombie Apocalypse (7 Days to Die)

hop on a train fly away on a plane build afford your bed stick a knife through a zombie's head seven days to die you've got seven days to die seven days to die you die [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello Internet welcome to game theory researching the science behind apocalyptic zombie outbreaks like our lives depend on it because they will and that's no joke sure we all laugh the idea of the Dead coming back to life to hunt us for our brains there's more than one way to make a zombie my friends zombie is at its most basic a relentlessly aggressive human driven by some type of blood-borne infection very real very deadly diseases like rabies and variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease aka human mad cow disease already fit the zombie bill pretty darn closely showing similar symptoms what we normally associate with zombies being spread through bites and infected me to tear your rating the brain heck rabies even makes you avoid bright lights and hear the water what would really take is one country I'll drink these guys just a little bit and then dropping it in the middle of a populated city and then BOOM and all-you-can-eat brain buffet and it's that happy thought along with a brand sponsorship that leads us to the goal of today's episode we're on the end of the video you will know the single best place in the world to ride out the inevitable zombie apocalypse start calling your travel agents now my friends because this one is the vacation of a lifetime so like I mentioned today's episode is inspired by the game seven days to die an open-world zombie survival game that was recently launched on consoles for Xbox one and ps4 featuring a two-player split-screen mode supporting four players online and player versus player co-op survival and co-op creative modes hashtag sponsored it's basically Minecraft with zombies well minecraft already has zombies in it so it's like minecraft with zombies that aren't cuboidal I guess you punch things you probably shouldn't be punching like rocks and trees in order to mine resources and then you craft them into all manner of anti zombie weaponry like stone axes you also use those resources to build elaborate bunkers sometimes really elaborate bunkers to protect yourself from the coming zombie hordes and oh yeah they're coming like the title of the game says you pretty much have seven days to prepare yourself before the Horde comes at you like a naked Miley Cyrus riding a wrecking ball so hopefully you used your time and sources effectively to weather the storm I like to think of this game as a school fire drill except featuring the undead first thing that I appreciate about seven days to die is the fact that you have time to prepare most zombie fiction has you debilitated in some way suddenly waking up into a world that's already gone to chaos or the infection spread so quickly that within a day the entire world is already gone but honestly that's not how the world works just think about how the media operates kunis one person comes down with Ebola or Zika virus it is everywhere and usually it's on Twitter hours before those stories start hitting the airwaves if zombie-ism was truly becoming a thing and you had a computer it shouldn't be catching you off guard but the question is how much time would you actually have to prepare honestly it depends a lot on where you are and the type of zombie-ism it is luckily I have an answer for both of these seven days two dies official wiki explains quote an unknown virus is transforming human beings into bloodthirsty zombies nobody knows how nobody knows why and nobody knows how to stop it but for as much of a big cop-out as that might seem it actually helps us a lot as we talked about earlier this aligns with the more modern and realistic interpretation of getting infected by a zombie disease and epidemiologists the people who study diseases have done a ton of work to model how fast all sorts of diseases spread and no joke this includes stuff like our zombie virus for this epidemiologists use special disease models like the s ir model which stands for susceptible infected recovered using this model you can see how fast disease spreads through a population this page shows models for a whole bunch of our favorite diseases and what happens to a population of a hundred people when they get it flu chicken pox and measles all spread fastest but smallpox and Ebola are actually the most deadly it's like the classic Babel The Tortoise and the hare slow and steady kills the human race problem with using these traditional models for zombies though is that in general for regular diseases you either get better where you die it's everything all neat and tidy life but for zombies neither of these things really happen you just keep on undead living and infecting things this means that zombie epidemic spread much faster than a regular disease and because people are zombies they don't realize they're sick they don't go to hospitals they're not quarantined nothing it's also not a debilitating disease where you're stuck in bed recovering being a zombie actually compels you to specifically seek out uninfected people so how do you know how much time you actually have in the event of an outbreak well turns out I'm not the first person to ask that question in fact in March of last year Cornell did a full epidemiological model of a zombie apocalypse based on blood borne virus models in short it's exactly what we need glad to see those college tuition dollars at work there guys tackling the questions that truly affect us all cancer yeah the cure for that can wait more zombie studies anyway this modeling tool allows us to set our parameters and see just how long it will actually take a country like the u.s. to be overrun by a zombie horde in this particular simulation we can enter parameters for the spread of the virus like kill bite ratio how many people are killed for every bite now we know that almost everyone gets bitten by zombies goes on to become one so we're setting this ratio as very low 0.2 we're also gonna be given the zombies fairly decent mango legs a 15 minute mile which means these aren't your grandma's shamblers aam be so no these guys are gonna be briskly walking between slaughtering innocent victims we also want to make this the worst case scenario possible so to do that we're gonna have the outbreak start in the city with the busiest airport in the u.s. surprisingly that's not New York it's Atlanta Georgia followed closely by LA then New York and then Dallas press the button and here we go let's watch as millions of people get eaten alive in front of us here you can see the zombie outbreak spread on a national scale in front of you and while it may look like it's slow going let me give you a sense of what you're looking at exactly once this virus lands in New York City you have less than four hours to get off the island of Manhattan before statistically everyone in New York is a zombie for hours because we started the outbreak in Atlanta which has so many flights to other cities it also means the epidemic isn't gonna stand Atlanta for very long as it reaches almost every other airport hub in the u.s. within the first 24 hours two days in and New York Philly Boston and Rhode Island are all gone New Jersey is - but it's not like you'll be able to tell the difference most of the west coast is knocked out once Pyrus reaches San Francisco in Portland at hour 42 Florida is gone in 50 which means a lot of zombie retirees will be headed north looking for blood and their Social Security checks in a little over three days the whole eastern seaboard is gone except for like the toe of Maine if you're there there's basically no escape so just enjoy some nice Lobster and wait for the Horde to arrive at five days in most of the southeast has been hit and from the west coast the virus is in the process of hopping over the rocky mountain at a hundred and ninety two hours or exactly seven days about 50% of the u.s. is entirely wiped out yeah it moves that fast now don't get me wrong it's definitely faster than literally any disease in recorded history but at seven days there are still plenty of places that are zombie free and from here on out the disease starts to lose steam according to our model there would actually be huge sections where you could be safe for a lot more than seven days sure it's decimated the populated cities and their surrounding areas but getting to more rural parts of the country is gonna take a lot longer in fact according to our model it would take about a thousand hours to cover the entire u.s. thousand hours translates to 41 days well over one month of prep time not too shabby but now that we know how much time we have to prepare what we do with it seven days to die presents an interesting case because it doesn't have a win scenario it's all about surviving as long as you can against the waves of oncoming zombies it's about establishing a new stainable life were just one of the normal daily hazards is the occasional run-in with a zombie or 20 my trick hips start to act up whenever there's a zombie horde to come in it's like the weather up planning for rain today bring the umbrella up planning for the zombie horde today make sure you bring the pickaxe and shotgun that's something most zombie media never addresses that if this were truly happening in real life there's a chance that there's no endgame I mean sure maybe over hundreds of years all the zombies in the apocalypse die out and humans start to repopulate the earth but most of the time the best you're gonna do is find a way to survive basically until something normal kills yeah like heart disease or a vending machine crushing you Kazaa you died in a normal way a winner is you so with that light hearted goal in mind in the time that you have it's time to travel to the part of the world most conducive to long-term post-apocalyptic survival and then start building the base of your dreams but that leaves the big question where are you gonna go to escape the zombie hordes and live in your self-sustaining utopia well let's stop and realistically think about the resources you'll need first major cities are definitely out too many people so you're looking for a place with a low population density ie a low number of people crammed into every square kilometer of that city this map shows the different population densities across the world and you can already quickly eliminate the coastlines of most continents including Australia all of eastern Asia most of the Middle East and India and everywhere in Europe seriously look at it everywhere in Europe no joke all you European theorists out there if a zombie apocalypse is coming you best make like the UK and brags in natchez from there we need to think about the survivalists rule of threes which states that you'll be dead in 3 minutes without air three hours without shelter three days without water and three weeks without food of all of those having a reliable source of fresh water is going to be one of the most important and hardest to find since we can't expect the zombies to be manning the water purification plans in the middle of their busy schedules of shambling and generalized error knowing that most coastlines are too dense with people to be safe we need to look more towards lakes and rivers in the middle of countries as our potential solution this map shows us the major freshwater deposits of the world helping us to quickly narrow the field with the Great Lakes here in the United States and Lake Victoria and Africa really jumping out as some of our top contenders however there's another major factor at play here insects with our zombie-ism being carried as an infection in the blood insects like mosquitoes become a huge risk factor especially once we start talking about setting up shop in the vicinity of standing water zombie insects yep the scariest biters you never see on the walking dead car we got to protect ourselves from the batter's just light a citronella candle ban and based on this map of mosquito distribution you see that most of Africa and huge chunks of South America are just gone the northern part of the Great Lakes though is still a fair option as the climate in Canada gets cold enough to kill off most of the threatening insects and this applies to the blood sucking ticks too that brings our other rule of three consideration into play food does it get too cold to grow food there because remember this is a game without an ending you got to survive indefinitely and you can't be waiting around for the Super Walmart to open its doors again my friend that four thousand dollar Costco zombie survival kit which is an entirely legitimate product that they sell full of dehydrated and canned food is only meant to last you for four years if you have a family you can bet that that's gonna disappear fast if you truly want control over your own destiny eventually you're gonna have to farm your own food something it's worth mentioning that you see in all the most successful bases in seven days to die internal agriculture looks like farmer Rick may have had himself a good idea Karl I got a 10 - the goji berries so at this point I got to ask are you sick of maps well too bad this is a matter of your life or death so here's one on agricultural sustainability across the globe as you can see there are just some climates that are too cold like Russia and too hot like the Australian outback but it looks like the northern Great Lakes are still at play getting warm enough to allow for harvesting crops but still cold enough at different times of the here for killing the deadly zombie insects before they pose a threat plus with its strong variation in temperature across seasons you can grow yourself a healthy mix of fruits and vegetables like apples cherries and blueberries in the summer and even nutrient-rich leafy greens like bok choy even have themselves a new super berry the Hass cap oh yeah I looked up agricultural trends in Canada for this one I now know planting seasons like a mofo up in this his house we should add in some 90s era like hip-hop Snoop Dogg that like high-pitched street vibe thing that you get so we can have a picture of me with like deal with it sunglasses photoshopped on top just ask me about plant hardiness levels I can tell you and if you're looking for me well first off be careful cuz it might be infected but secondly go fishing in the Great Lakes another awesome perk of the location so there it is Ontario Canada the best place in the world to escape from the zombie apocalypse complete with a low population density plenty of fresh water for drinking fishing and protecting your tasty flesh from zombie hordes temperatures low enough to kill off pathogen carrying insects but also high enough to grow a wide variety of foods to supply all of your essential nutrients dear Ontario feel free to slap that one on to your tourism brochures Ontario you won't get bit but I wasn't content to just rest there I don't even deeper to find the exact county that would work best in a zombie apocalypse and it is drumroll please we still don't have good sound effects for this sort of thing whatever it's nor faux population density 14 people per square kilometer you are out there on your own my friend right next to the water with some of the best farmland in Canada booked your tickets now my friends start learning how to tap trees for maple syrup and get comfortable cuz you're gonna be there for a while except maybe not in an ironic twist the sheer fact that I've talked to you all about it on the show now nullifies its role as a non brain-dead utopia you all will see this video and when the fecal matter actually starts to hit the fan some portion of you might actually have there even if it's like 1% in this videos viewership lifetime it might equal over 10,000 people all fleeing to the same tiny town in Canada thus eliminating the first criteria that we started this whole thing with priority number one lack of people well it was fun while it lasted and since the number one spots been overrun I guess that means you'll have to be heading to the second best place which is yeah right I'm keeping that one to myself my friends no hard feelings but hey that's just a theory a game theory thanks for watching if you love zombies and want even more click right here to hop over to film theory where I've covered the science behind zombie decay rates to predict the ending of The Walking Dead which is shockingly much closer than you might think or if you just feel like hanging out on game theory then click here to watch this scoober old video on the channel which features me in a desert smashing watermelons all in an attempt to test out zombie murder tools real talk it was all just a glorified excuse for me to get to test out a new camera that I had bought at the time but man it was super fun and finally one last thanks to 7 days to die for sponsoring this video without me having to say a bunch of corporate schilling at the end of the day I feel like we did some good work here giving me an excuse to prepare the world just a little bit more for hacking away at our fellow undead neighbors so that's all for today next week a very real very shocking expose on a topic that could very easily affect videogames and the way they relate to the Internet see you then [Music] you [Music] you

Channel: The Game Theorists

Views: 8,067,787

Rating: 4.8654661 out of 5

Keywords: zombie, zombies, 7 days to die, zombie apocalypse, how to, horror, survival, how to survive, zombie survival guide, zombie survival, survival horror, best place, best place on earth, how to guide, game theory, matpat, game theorists, survival theory

Id: 8-sLhsSofnU

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/RandomRedditor44]

Hey editors, is a Game of the Year is Rigged episode (or at least a meta theory) coming up next week? Because that's what MatPat said at the end

Regardless, I love the theory! Great editing as always! ;)

/u/TheGeeNee /u/tehfurst /u/LokiPie

[u/TomatoFork]

Wait a second, how exactly does he think the virus will spread through airplanes if the only way to infect someone is to bite them. If the plane is full of zombies, it's gonna crash halfway or earlier.

Unless we're talking about an actual virus that only turns into zombies much later it wouldn't spread nearly that easily. And if that was the case it'd contradict his other statement about people of Manhattan being zombified in 4 hours.

[u/Spartaness]

Ontario's attached to a continent, therefore it'll get affected by population density. Islands are supremely better, since zombies are traditionally affected by water. Scotia Nova, New Zealand (South Island), Falkland, Pitcairns, Nuie are all great alternatives of agriculturally-sound, temperate environments with the most important point: massive amounts of water separating zombies from you. Unless those strollers suddenly learn how to survive long distance water travel, you're pretty safe.

[u/[deleted]]

...Did he just say that 7 days to die was a game for Xbox and Ps4 without mentioning the long lasting PC version?

[u/ImDuckDamnYou]

Nah, man, you wanna go for a small island without too high of a population. Like many people suggest their homelands, I'll suggest my own. Tasmania.

I know you discounted Australia (twice!) but I think Tasmania is most ideal. It's a low population island with a lot of fresh water. The climate here is also ideal for farmers, it's never too cold to grow vegetables nor is it too hot and the bug population isn't all that high.

[u/Niquarl]

Mosquitoes wouldn't be a problem. It's like Aids, they don't give blood diseases.