Waysider

Had several moments like that last night. Crouched on the perimeter of a small town, taking a few minutes to watch for any movement. Suddenly find myself distracted by the environment - the sounds, the stars. Love this game. :)

Knives. More knives. Throwing knives and a selection of sheaths. Also traps. Tripwires, bear traps, caltrops. Improvised weaponry. We'll no doubt get our fill of conventional, balistic weaponry. I'm more interested in unconventional, quieter, less ammunition dependent options.

Forget guns. Knives are superior. Here's hoping Rocket implements the ability to THROW knives. Do want.

Increasingly noisy and frequent stomach growls will do for hunger. Gradual greyeing out of vision and/or increasingly loud heartbeat noise would do for blood loss. Not sure what non-icon/text solution could be used for thirst, but I'm sure some creative person could sort that out. Maybe an increasingly raspy breathing sound. Immersive survival game is superior to walking cyborg simulator with blinking icons and floaty text all over his field of view. I'm completely in support of a minimalist UI.

Want. Want want want. Hoping this is just a sign of things to come. "Uncle Rocket's guide to the great outdoors", anyone? Schematics and recipes via books and magazines perhaps? Do want.

Eh, except it hasn't "arrived" yet. So...don't feel pressured to bring yourself to any action just yet. I think that "its finally arrived" misconception is what has led many people...many angry, bitter people to stomp and shout over the current state of things. Want the best DayZ experience possible? Go away and come back next year when it's eyes are open and it can sorta hold your finger and make cute baby sounds. Want to lend a hand during the birth of the game in a semi playable form, with all the messy...drippy sights and sounds and...smells? Step right up and make yourself useful. Just don't go giving the doctor guff when the afterbirth flops onto the floor at your feet and ruins your shoes. /best analogy ever

Developers know that there are some people out there who share a vision and have faith in the dev team to deliver; people who are eager to help in any way they can. Money is often the easiest way to assist, and offering an early alpha for money is the obvious choice to give those people a path to be involved in the development in a tangible way while fueling the development of the game - which, you might be shocked to learn, costs money. That money has to come from investors of one sort or another. We're fortunate enough to live in an age wherein we the gamers can choose to BE those investors, and cut out the middle man in the process. Middlemen who often push their own agendas to the detriment of the end-product. Apart from the money, paid alpha access also has the benefit of filtering the initial testers of the game down to those who are literally invested in making the game a success. You tend to get much more valuable, productive feedback from that group. If that doesn't make sense to you, don't stress over it. It just means you're not part of that group. If the game, the company, or the idea isn't compelling enough to make early investment appealing to you, by all means - do NOT spend your money on the alpha. Wait for the finished product, THEN decide if its worth your money.