Dictionary — ontologydriven

walking dead en · ADJ

(not-comparable) Corresponding to an unwinnable game state, where the player can still act in the game world but victory is impossible.
- The term I've typically seen used for the latter is "walking dead" -- meaning you can still wander around, but no progress can be made, and therefore you have effectively lost the game -- ie "died" -- and just don't know it. 2005 March 4, M. Damian Dollahite, “Re: Boundlessness & IF”, in rec.arts.int-fiction (Usenet):
- [I]t’s inevitable that we’d have some walking dead scenarios. Regretfully, I hit one. [...] I left my Boysenberry computer at my house when I headed off to the airport. [...] I [...] jumped into a cannibal-infested jungle before discovering that I lose immediately if I parachute in without the computer. 2021 February 23, Joe Pranevich, “Missed Classic: Bureaucracy - Won! And Final Rating”, in The Adventurers Guild:
- There are numerous ways to instantly get killed, as well as walking dead situations, which were practically banned across all other adventure games when this game was released in 1996. 2018 October 3, Kurt Kalata, “Dragon Lore II: Heart of the Dragon Man”, in Hardcore Gaming 101: