LansEllion

First time I went to Namalask I had a pretty interesting run in. I spawned in near the dam in the middle of the night. It was barely bright enough to see but I was still able to make my way toward the bridge. Since I had nothing to lose I didn't really care if I got shot so I was waving my flashlight around like an idiot when all of sudden my light flashed across a figure standing on the roof of the factory building. I brought my light back up to the roof but I was far enough away that all I could make out was the outline of an unarmed survivor staring in my direction. Next, I hear "hello," a pause, and then as the creepy background noise of the child saying "help" plays the figure takes a slow step and plummets off the roof to his death. My girlfriend was watching over my shoulder at this point and just kept saying "what the hell was that, what the hell was that?" Totally creeped me out, and I was on edge for the next 30 minutes. I ended up talking to the guy from the roof later in the game and laughing about it, but it made for a damn good introduction to that map. Props to that guy. My only other weird experience was on Celle. I was running through the woods in the middle of nowhere. I was in the middle of wooded section so it was fairly open except for trees. As I approached the thick brush on the edge of the woods I looked for a way to run through that was clear of branches. All of sudden I hear a loud sound like crunching bone breaking and my health jumps from full to nearly empty I go down and I bleed out seconds later but I noticed that strangely the broken bone symbol didn't pop up on my screen. I of course assume I must have accidently gotten too close to a tree and glitched into it killing myself so I run back to collect my belongings. After 30 minutes of running and searching the woods and swearing I'm going to blow up what ever tree killed me I finally find my body. But its nowhere near any trees or branches so as I loot my body I'm wondering how in the world I died. Suddenly I realized that I was hearing faint footsteps so I got off my gear screen frantically pulled my ak up and looked around for zombies or other survivors but I didn't see anything. At that point, I quickly grabbed the rest of the gear off my body and bailed. Probably was just a glitch but I still kinda wonder if there's something in those woods snapping peoples necks from behind.

I know people have argued the whole bandit/hero idea and whether or not to punish bandits to death but I had a different take on the issue. One big problem with day Z is the high percentage of psychopaths (people with no sense that killing is wrong and who kill other people merely for fun). Day Z is supposed to be a survival simulator that simulates a real life survival situation but the problem is the percentage of psychopaths in Day Z appears to be much higher than we see in real life. This is obviously because in real life most people have some sort of moral sense that it is wrong to kill and so tend to avoid doing so. However, in a video game there is no real moral reason not to kill, because its just a game, and thus we end up with a higher percentage of those who feel no moral aversion to killing another player. Of course some players don't kill because they enjoy helping others and that's just how they play. But, it would be nice to do something to add back in a little bit sense of "its wrong to kill" into the game and I think an unseen karma system could do this. A Karma system could simply create random bad luck that might happen or might not happen to players who do things that we typically think of as morally wrong that persists even after you die and respawn. For example, a person with low Karma might suddenly be heard by Zombies that wouldn't have otherwise heard them, they might get hungry faster, they might get sick for no reason, their car might break for no reason, they might spawn in bad locations, might spawn in surrounded by zombies, break a leg more easily, or nothing might happen. Bad Karma could be worse from sniping players or shooting unarmed players, etc. and Bad Karma should be hard to detect so players will only wonder "was that bad luck from when I sniped that survivor who just started?" And the Karmic reaction could get worse depending on how bad of things you have done. On the other hand some bad players might never get bad luck from their bad Karma. And players also shouldn't be able to tell if they have bad or good karma or even whether this system actually exists in the game. This system would work best if it was never announced and simply added and then over time people would slowly realize that murderers have worse luck in the game. The whole point of the system would be to create a vague sense that its wrong to murder and something bad might happen if you do it but at the same time you might get away with it. In real life many people are superstitious, religious, or have other beliefs that prevent them from killing and make them think they will be punished in the after life if they do kill (Karma would literally allow punishing in the next life). Adding in a hidden Karma system that might give bad luck to murderers could add that extra second to pause before shooting and wonder if its worth it while at the same time it probably won't worry those who are killing in self defense. This also avoids more unrealistic solutions like bandit skins. And just maybe it might reduce the number of psychopaths to a more realistic level.

I agree that there should be freedom, but it is a video game so our freedom is already limited by the rules, structure, and limitations of the game. And right now the structure encourages everyone to be a psychopath because real world consequences like actual permanent death and need to build a stable society to survive don't and can't exist. My main point isn't about punishing bandits but is instead about trying to add a little more realism into the game. Of course, many will disagree because they like the game how it is and maybe they are right, that it is just a game and lets play it how it is. But I think it would be fun to have people question whether or not they should kill. I think the best solution would of course be one that structures the game in a way so that its simply advantageous to assist other players on occasion like it would be in real life (as suggested by Shadow Man #19). But, a video game is limited by the fact of being a game. Of course in a post apocalyptic world there will be chaos and many people will fight. But at the same time in the real world real survivors would see the faces of others, hear their real voice (not a microphone version of it) which might trigger some innate moral sense for some people that killing is wrong. I fully admit that a Karma system is unrealistic and imposes an outside version of morals on the game, but at the same time, if we don't have some way to throw back in the innate sense of morality that many people have in real life (as shown by numerous psychology studies) then the game fails and is unrealistic in that sense. To me its a catch 22 situation, if you add in a Karma system it's unrealistic (sorry to those who believe in Karma), but without some way to add more of a human element its also unrealistic. So really this idea isn't about policing, forcing people to play in groups or even trying to prevent bandits. Its about trying to add back in realism that doesn't exist due to the fact that it's a game. That is why I suggest an unseen system that almost seems to not exist (because I hate the unrealistic idea of obvious evil characters with bandit skins). Hopefully, existing just enough to encourage some people to be good while others won't believe it exists and will continue on their merry way slaughtering people on the beach. Maybe I am just being a reality freak and trying to impose an element of reality that just can't and shouldn't exist in the game, but it sounds fun to me to add in some way to make some people hesitate before shooting. I would have a lot more fun if I was sitting there with someone lined up in my sights who has way better weapons than I do and I was forced to pause and think: "should I do this?"