Posting shit like this in a new players forum is pretty lame...

I'm guessing everyone saying "lol go back to COD" was lucky enough to either a) start playing when you spawned with a pistol or B) have friends to help you. Either way you're not helping anyone with that attitude. OP made some very valid points, the mod is BRUTALLY difficult for new players. These are DESIGN decisions which cannot be dismissed with "it's only an alpha". This, combined with the fact that you have Youtube celebrities like the Yogscast making videos which essentially make DayZ out to be a large-scale Left4Dead is going to result in some very pissed off "customers" who buy Arma2 specifically for this mod.

Thanks for this, I was getting sick of "tutorials" where the player either a - starts with a pistol b - miraculously finds a dead player to loot within 5 minutes of starting the game Seriously, the HARDEST thing for a newbie to do is actually entering a building and getting a gun, something most tutorials just completely skip.

I'm with you. It's way too hard to get a gun. The guns are in buildings... the buildings are guarded by 3+ zombies... you aggro zombies trying to get into the building... you train the zombies to another building... you get killed while trying to loot whatever you find in that building because you have 6+ zombies swinging at you.

Brand new player, just installed and stuck on loading screen...