LaurenDanger

When it was just a mod and it was bean warz on the coast, I was upset a lot. But then I remembered that it was all just zeros and ones, just a game, and it was a challenge. Other people could make it annoying, but I could try again. I've gone from 'raging eights' to maybe an exhasperated three if someone is being a bully but generally, taking a moment to remember that it's all just signals in a bit of wiring makes me feel better about it. Paid one price, no being upset about having to pay to play again, losting a quarter or token (what is this 1980?) or having paid a monthly fee to take abuse. But whatever the reaction, we all keep coming back, so the game has done something right.

I feel revitalized. I have that same feeling i did back in May 2012 when I first started with DayZ as a mod. The zombie slaying lady within is quite pleased with the challenge and adventure ahead. "But Lauren," you might say, "It's alpha, it's buggy, it's this and that and whaaa wha wha." So was DayZ the mod some sixteen, seventeen months ago when I first read about it, consumed some Youtube vids and started playing. I loved the experience back then. The mystery, the struggle, the learning curve, the deaths to zombies (I have since learned to ignore the annoyance over the reality that I will be killed. The mod taught be that back when I was spawn sniped for a can of beans and a makarov mag. Yes, way back when those were starter items!) There's something thrilling about being there at the beginning, about finding the bugs, about learning the new techniques, and while I am not quite so pleased about the shuffling fleshbag of infection that survived multiple crowbar hits and knocked me out when I had finally escaped the coast with a good setup...I laughed anyway and respawned. Next, I had a delightful night-time encounter with someone who tried to punch me and bully me until I stopped running and pulled out the hatchet. Then he went quiet and ran. Ha! Of course my poor t-shirt became bandages. It gets cold at night in the game... Whatever the flaws are, I don't care right now. It is a wonderful new challenge in a familiar world, but new houses to enter, new loot placement, new rules, new commands, new menus, new looks, and same old player base of weird folks. THIS is what it felt like to me back in 2012 and this has rekindled the fire of DayZ for me. I was done with Epoch, base building, Overwatch hide and seek, and mods not working because of all of the changes needed, and I was ready to move on from the mod. Standalone has brought back the magic and the chaos. I look forward to being there through it all, even if the crowbar is still weak. ;)

Time to wade into the chaos! i think that on some servers females that existed from older versions, such as my Chernarus 184 day survivor I had, will remain until you perish. Then if you are somehow placed into the great mystery beyond life, you are subject to the new patch and the server settings. I suffered the Mike Tyson Knockout, or what I prefer to call a Bruce Lee zombie Death Punch, died because I didn't wake up to be able to try and shoot again. 184 days on the regular public server system (okay I played that twice a week for the last few mo nths and mostly when the server was night, or as far from the hot spots as I could go), I did not get the option for gender when I went to spawn in again. I was just in the male version of a survivor when I spawned. As a lady who likes video games from time to time, I prefer the female skin because, well, it is a reflection of me. I use the microphone from time to time in direct chat, and the image and the voice match up and it makes sense. As you may have read in other threads, my play style is not to ghillie it up and snipe or any such thing as that. I enjoy helping people, and apparently crashing aircraft and surviving. So I suspect that it may not be an option because of the whole skins thing, but if there was a female character from before, the character will continue on. It's just disabled as a spawn option. On some different note. I remember being on Lingor and spawning as a female in a grey hoodie and camo pants. So it has to be possible to at least change the colour scheme easily enough. Not that it was very stable but still. It can be done, and with the ghillie suit the character model becomes a walking tree so there should be a way to make it work without much effort, at least for that. My ranting is complete. go forth and lay the undead into a proper, eternal rest.

These posts are fun. We need silliness and mythology. Thus, I emailed *** Mina, my expert on Chernarus history, and this is what she had to say. Kamenka, is not exciting. But I remembers, I do, papa he tell me story, five hundred year and more past, battle fought when bridge was just wood, small thing over river. Winning army, they know not what to do with prisoners. The leader, he no want to feed them. They cut throats, one by one, and push into river. Prisoners scream for mercy, but none given. Fifty men die, all in pile that choke river, turn it red. Leader, he move on, bring army home, but on way, men fall ill. Plague spread, and soon, only leader left, alone in wild, lost and mad. He lose way forward, can only follow bodies back to Kamenka. There, villagers see him stand on bridge, raising voice to God and beg forgiveness, offer his life to atone for cruelty. He take long knife, stab into chest and fall into water, giving life in hope of salvation. Now, plague come again to Chernarus, plague again near Kamenka. Maybe to atone for sin, many hear the voice of old leader, hear the call to offer life, to atone for sins of man and make right the world. Maybe. Is all I know. Ask *** no more, I not remember. Was long ago papa tell story. I rest now. Use computing machine to message after. Signal is no good here where I hide. Green Mountain make strange noise again. An ancient curse in times of plague and sacrifices to make up for the plague, then. ;)

Scripted events with NPCs in limited locations can create interesting events that might bring people together to complete a challenge. Should it be normal? no. Should it happen? Sure. If you make 90 per cent of the map a regular zone, but have some spots which are rumoured to have warlords and gangs or who knows what, then the player can chose to either play the normal way, or dare to take on that limited area. You can have both if you build it the right way. Life should never be an exercise of "all or nothing". :)

Who will tend the gardens and care for the cattle if you slaughter everyone? Who then will ensure there is food and drink beyond the supply of cans that are no longer made? If humans were as barbaric as people claim they would be, we would not have achieved the civilization we have now. Despite what video games might make us think, humans are social creatures, who look for acceptance in social groups and work together to survive. We are led to believe that there would be a great number of factions fighting one another, gangs everywhere, but this is based on the concept of entertainment. A movie, a TV program, a comic book, none of these things are exciting if they say that zombies came along, and we banded together, chased them off and rebuilt society and got along. There isn't a prolonged source of revenue in that story these days. So things have to be gritty and brutal and have everyone posturing to be the biggest bad-ass on the playground. Not that we should cry too much about being killed in a video game, but some people are frustrating with their need to snipe everything, and some of us like to point out that frustration. .

It's not that I want to be a noob now, it's being a noob back when the mod was just growing, getting in well before there had been a million players, or even a quarter million, and sure there were bugs, but everyone was still learning and people were teaming up. Then the noob hunters came, shooting the new spawns for that can of beans, and the mystical bean wars began, and then startng gear was changed to make the fresh spawn less appealing to kill, and so much more has happened since those early days. There was a time when everyone was a noob, and that was when things were the most fun. If we could al go back there, we'd al have a lot of fun.

Do new maps mean character resets? I suppose it would. It's fine if the change is known, but I have had servers where I finally manage to get some decent mid tier gear and fix a vehicle, only to have the map change the next day. Three times this has happened so far. Not a complaint, just a nice to know before getting into a situation. That's all. I like different maps, keeps things fresh. But I also like finally fixing that vehicle and getting ready to help people. Or be blown up by them. Boring storing involving an attempt to start a Taviana bus service but with explosive ending and a long run as the epilogue.

The we go, making friends, getting people to know you by voice, that's excellent. We're all just graphics without a voice, without personality, so I would say you are going about it the right way!

I didn't combat log, combat was well done and over. Had they engaged me in conversation and distracted me with it while they regrouped, fine. But after minutes of trying to get some response and not having anything happen, I decided on a different outcome than being killed or having to kill anyone. All done within the limits of the combat timer and the way the game is set up. And hand holding is fun, it's nice, but maybe I don't want to hold hands with you. Not unless you wash the blood away first. Eww. ;) Oh and there is no rule to the game that says kill or be killed. That applies to shooters, but this is a zombie survival game, who says there has to be killing? Most of the time I don't even need to shoot the zombies! You play your way, I play mine. If you kill me then fine, but nothing says I have to kill you. Not unless I missed the debut of the BottleRocket official DayZ rule book. Which is possible.

well the dude part is fine, it's become a generic friendly bit of slang. But sis might be better. You know, bro? No offence taken, I was being silly, since, well, I don't get upset about the little things. May your vocabulary make slight recoveries, but still represent who you are and all you have been through.

Hackers have changed people into rabbits and para-dropped cows everywhere, so having a hacker be a rabbit makes sense. There are YouTube vids enough about it from the days when hacking was everywhere at all times. While it would have been interesting to see what was in store, logging out was just as safe of an option given that you might have found yourself descending to the pavement of an airfield from a few thousand metres in the air.

Well, apart from the crashed Osprey I am not sure they even knew I was there, but then, that might be why they fired at me to start with. But yes, a very good point, I have seen side channel conversations where people teased someone who had been lured in. Yet I've taken the chances when asked for help and I am about 50/50 on the outcome of friend versus trap, and surprisingly good at escaping vehicle wrecks even when someone's fired at me. I still miss that bus. But no matter. I've managed to scrounge my way from the shore enough times to make the threat of death pointless. They could have asked me to surrender, tried to bluff, said something. Still so strange. We're at an airfield, plenty of good gear for everyone, no need for shoot outs.

Well I don't know about the bro and dude part, but the rest makes me smile. Thank you for your awesome assessment of the story.

Thank you, and no need to be jealous, being a writer is a skill anyone can acquire with practice and time. But loving the written word is whe it all begins, I suppose. :)