I wanted to avoid creating a new thread on this suggestion, as instructed in the "read before posting" thread. But the only thread I found on this suggestion, was poorly written and had quickly turned into a sass-queen competition.
Introduction
I have played DayZ only on the PS4 since it's release. I will be speaking from a DayZ PS4 official servers standpoint ONLY. I am aware that the game is relatively new on console and may not be optimal, however there are a community of players, of which I'm included, that the game has been distributed to. I would hope, despite all, this gives my opinion a sense of validation on the matter.
The majority of people who excel at this game and if not excel, continue playing anyway, are people who have fantasized about or enjoy playing a hardcore, open world, survival experience/simulator set in a zombie apocalypse world. While I think that this game caters for lots of people, I feel like it deserves a lot more attention than it is getting and one of, if not the most important aspects of DayZ is multiplayer. This is why keeping the game full of fresh and regular players for as long as possible will benefit both the player experience AND the business.
Moving forward, I would like this suggestion to receive careful but serious consideration.
Suggestion
Players who want to start fresh characters of up to 4 players in a party, should all be able to spawn together, at a given spawn point.
Reasoning
Currently, new players starting out in DayZ, spend a significant amount of time figuring out; melee, the inventory system, bandaging up, equipping items, the idea of staying warm, the condition of items, where they are or should want to go.
Additionally, they are told; to download the 'iZurvive' app on their phone, that they need to make a fire to cook food, not to eat with bloody hands, to combine a screwdriver with a can of spaghetti and then, if it hadn't already, the sun goes down.
If they have an existing friend who plays DayZ, they are constantly asked to find a road sign, butcher the name of the town that they're close to, and told to stay there while the experienced friend rushes to them with supplies, hoping their beginner friend doesn't die of starvation or encounter another a player, a zombie or god forbid, a bush. (I had a friend who once cut himself on a bush and couldn't figure out how to bandage up in time.) survival of the fittest and all that, I know.
In my experience, most new players stop playing at some point mentioned above.
While this learning experience can have its positives, funny moments and contributes to the game living up to it's genre, I believe this suggestion will not sacrifice too much from the latter qualities. Bugs and lack-of-intuitiveness aside, DayZ is difficult and time consuming (which it should be). However I feel the game demands too much from someone who is dealing with all the previously mentioned factors and learning the mechanics of the game for the first time on their own, especially the average PS4 player.
This suggestion would allow new players to start their learning experience with a friend, or allow two or more brand new players to enjoy the learning experience together.
Foreseeable Affects on Gameplay or F.A.G for short
Understandably there cannot be an easy way to make the game more enjoyable for new players, without drastically changing something that affects the experience for everyone.
I think a certain shift of gameplay experience in coastal towns would occur. Players who start together would be able to ravage a town of all its loot, leaving nothing for the sole survivor. There could potentially be bare knuckle boxing wars between two groups of players who have started together in the same town. This would possibly make it harder to survive on coastal towns, but as far as I can tell, as the player/s moves inland, and beginners become more adept, the adverse affects this suggestion would bring on gameplay should disperse without any significant impact on the overall experience.
Thank you for reading. I would love to hear other opinions on this suggestion and let me know if you think I've missed important details. Also I'd like to I apologise if this has been a common suggestion, despite my efforts to search for a decent thread on this topic.
happy holidays to everyone.
b4_sunrise