I'm not a gamer. Even when I wrote docs and marketing for games, I never really got into them. This past summer, I fell for Plants V Zombies. And just this month, Valve offered the new Left 4 Dead 2 for the Mac for about $6.50 (usual is $19.95). It must be a coincidence that both games deal with zombies. And I'm hooked.

The L4D2 zombies don't bite. Instead, they're more like "teamsters of the living dead" hitting, pushing, kicking, stomping, all of which exacts a heavy punishment that can kill. There is a "hunter" who will rip you to shreds, but it's a game, so if your fellow survivors save you, you can get patched up and be good as new. And that's what I like about the game. Most of the blood, and there's a lot of it, comes from dispatching the zombie Hoards. When your character dies, he or she lies in a small, tasteful pool of red, no wounds are visible.

L4D2 is an on-line game and you are virtually assured of playing with at least one other person and often three (there are four survivor characters and you're one of them). L4D2 is a team effort. You have each other's backs, meaning you take out zombies who are attacking your fellows, patch them up, help them from ledges, slow down to make sure they're not taken out by zombies or worse (and yes, there is "worse"). And, like a Facebook from beyond the grave, you can be "friended" in L4D2. Who doesn't want to be friends with somebody wielding an M40?

The goal is for everybody playing L4D2 to get to the rescue point alive. And if you don't quite make it, but one of your team does, you are cheering them on all the way (you can access every player's point of view). Each of the survivor characters has his own voice over and interaction with the other characters (Coach is the old black dude who says a prayer for deliverance; Ellis is the good-ol'-boy NASCAR fan, etc.). Players with headsets can talk over what their character are saying and this helps with strategies and survival.

There is an assortment of automatic weapons and shotguns as well as "melee" weapons that include cricket and baseball bats (so international), swords, frying pans (very effective), and even an electric guitar that makes a satisfying string plunk whenever Fender meets fiend.

My one disappointment is that the game writers felt the need to use the occasional cuss bomb to make it "mature." I'm mature. I don't swear. Why do my L4D2 characters need to? OK, another disappointment. In one room, there's a piano and when you shoot it, it doesn't make a sound. Sigh. Talk about quibbles.

It wouldn't be a game featuring African Americans without controversy. The game takes place in New Orleans and it's surroundings so there must be racism. You know, the South, where there are carnivals, shopping malls, hospitals, the usual racist environments (all featured in the game). Instead of celebrating diversity (at least half the survivors are Black), the game just might be racist because some of the zombies are black, too. Quite a few are women and I'm pretty sure there are some SEIU and ACORN zombies, too. This, written by Willie Jefferson (Houston Chronicle14 July 2009), explains the usual:

"I am disturbed by the growing trend of racist undertones that are cropping up in video games. One of the games that comes to mind is "Left 4 Dead 2." Though the game isn't out yet, it's already causing an uproar. Set in New Orleans, players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of them who appear to be African-Americans. When I saw the first trailer for the game, all I could think about was Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. Setting the game in a city that was scene of dead, bloated bodies floating by so soon afterward was a bad call, IMHO. The city has had enough to deal with -- Valve, you should have spared them, even if it's just a video game."

No black people in your game? Racist. Black people in your game -- even as heroes -- racist. As I recall, the original Night of the Living Dead had a black as its main hero, so L4D2 continues a great tradition. By the way, in L4D2, I randomly appear as Rochelle, a svelte black woman who has a caring voice and a way with a grenade launcher and a chain saw. I'm a white Tea Partier, so I must be racist to be playing a black woman.

Valve responded to Jefferson (destrocoid.com, 30 July 2009):

"There are mixed races of zombies, there are all different races of zombies that you shoot, and since we placed it in New Orleans, that makes it racist?" Faliszek told Destructoid. "I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times ... but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it's a weird thing to be accused of. We're like, 'how does this work'?"

It doesn't. The race card is played mostly by Democrats even though the Democrats have an extremely sorry history of dealing with blacks from the slave trade to the civil rights era. L4D2 also has an unmistakable pro-gun message. One game, Dead Center, has the following typical government sign: