Drake Sigar

You join a server and try to start a group, but are casually shot down by snipers watching your messages or the people you were meeting. "Solo it is" you say, since your only friends can't join your full server and the direct chats aren't working. You head north, quaffing your bottles of water, and end up at the airfield to grab yourself some nice hardware. Unfortunately you are greeted by the sight of tin cans and barbed fences sectioning off important areas. Your spirits rise when someone claims they've found a car in Zele. When you announce your precense and say you bring gas cans, he immediately tries to shoot you in the face. Luckily you were faster, and find on his body a hunting knife & matches. You head to the forest to live the next few days in total isolation. As the days progress, you are reminded of the movie Groundhog Day in which Bill Murray is forced to repeat the same tiresome experience over and over until he tries to kill himself, yet even that won't end his suffering. Server numbers are starting to thin, a good opportunity for your friends to finally join you if they didn't already think Day Z: Deathmatch had run it's course. Finally, one day, its enough. The game becomes dire, there's no incentive to leave the empty forests. You log off, and play something more rewarding. But not Diablo 3, because it blows. Now, this might not necessarily be what I believe (except the Diablo 3 part), but what makes this story less plausible than yours? :P

Would you like a side of Super Mutant with that?

Sorry your experiences haven't been very positive thus far, it really is that much sweeter when you finally locate someone who isn't trigger-happy. I recommend you never approach another player you intend to befriend without announcing yourself first.

This. Trying to form a drug-dealing relationship with the player is despicable. It scares me listening to what some of the MMO executives think of their own player bases. The ArmA devs hare more respect than that.

1 & 2 - They appear to be randomly generated in one of several pre-determined spots much like spawning a new character. Vehicles save every time you add/remove items, (not so sure about when you get in/out) and the action menu option is a safeguard letting you know for sure that you've saved it to that spot. Refuelling requires using full Jerry cans. Jerry cans can be filled at fuelling pumps (big cylindrical structures often near gas stations). This thread can assist you with your storage questions and contains other useful information about vehicles: http://www.dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1362 3 - The thread I mentioned also covers tents. I haven't noticed any problems since they were fixed. 4 - You don't expect me to tell you about all my local haunts, do you? :P 5 - The first question every beginner asks is "Winchester or Enfield?" The former is surprisingly quiet and has buckets of ammo. The latter has a terrible fire-rate and draws every zombie down on you within a town's radius. The CZ Hunting rifle is equally terrible in that regard, but is a prized weapon for player killing. I haven't noticed much difference between the assault rifles besides how easy or hard it is to find ammo for them.

I say Day Zed because if I don't, my friend punches me in the stomach.

You'll note that they promoted their opinion as fact, by saying "everybody is going to do this", whereas it is possible that not everybody is going to do that exact thing. There may be some (or many, or even most) who choose a different path. I like forum opinions which act more exact, and say stuff like "87% of people will do this" as if they personally went door to door and asked everyone. ;)

The respawn function doesn't seem to work on this screen (anyone is free to correct me, I haven't died in a while so they may have fixed it). You need to log out to the lobby and log back in. Don't disconnect entirely from the lobby and try to reconnect to the server because someone will have taken your spot.

The game saves at certain intervals (I think it's currently every two minutes) and automatically when you log off. Your character will keep all the items he's carrying. Items you leave on the floor will disappear over time. If you find a tent or car, you can store extra stuff there.

The servers are overloaded captain, she canna' hold! We've probably got thousands more recruits on the way now that Day Z has received coverage from more publications like PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun. If any of us can get on during the weekend I will be shocked - SHOCKED!