ElectricHead

Well that's my morning entertainment. Thank you. I don't know whether this game in particular attracts a special breed or whether it just lets them shine, but either way I'm happy.

Who leads the more action packed and exciting game? The stalker surviving 10 random encounters solo through wits and stealth or the clan member surviving 10 firefights? It's entirely subjective and saying one is more boring/exciting/successful than the other is entirely arbitrary. Congrats OP, I also think killing zeds results from screwing up most of the time. Discharging firearms is saved as a last resort only and is generally to be avoided in my view*. Doesn't mean I don't know how to pull the trigger... *this also allows me to pretend ammunition is a rare commodity by not looking for more <_<

I probably play a few hours every other day and have done for a week or two. I've encountered teleport hacks twice (the second I escaped, idiots), but not for a while. Might be the times of day but whilst I'm conscious of the problem (especially as my gear and effort put into continued survival increases) it's not really stopping me. Worst case I start over and don't feel safe stalking again. I think the hacking can be overstated. I would say generally I don't have problems finding decent ping public servers w/ 20-50 people unless it's a silly time of day. That's enough people for me. I'm far more interested in rare encounters than it being a constant firefight anyway.

I'm not sure, but the ArmA II engine employs 3rd person for good reasons and it seems to be less-than-common knowledge. In most FPS you are a disembodied perspective. In ArmA your body is more intrinsic to your presence in the game environment (hence head bob, "clunkiness" etc). In reality as three-dimensional beings we have an intrinsic connection to our bodies and an appreciation of our relative positioning within an environment. You don't get that in a virtual representation of 3D in a 2D medium (let alone the fact there are no physical sensations of pressure or contact). 3rd person facilitates this. FOV is also affected (although you can tweak this in 1st person obviously). The "downside" is the ability to "peek" over walls, round cover, etc but whilst this is not perfect, I see this is a representation of having a mirror on a stick, or slight re-positioning to get the view, hoisting up onto a wall to look over, etc. Fair enough if you think it's "cheap", I can understand that I guess (and this could maybe be restricted with limitations on the 3rd person camera angle?!), I just think it's a reasonable compromise for realism and I would miss it as a feature as it would, ironically, decrease immersion for me. Actually, I could make a similar argument for crosshairs (though this is far less important) and whilst no kill messages would be "realistic" this is a game in the end, and I'm not sure I see the benefit there. Bottom line: Expert with 3rd person enabled, I'd be fine with. Without? I'd cope. I'd prefer that over easy aids though, I not interested in name tags and definitely map blips on Day Z. Options are nice, though, and I think for many (including me) that's too much/specific. There's a reason why the "expert" servers are empty isn't there? Because it's not popular for whatever reasons.