FreshmeatDK

I followed the discussion here with some interest, and just thought I wanted to bring in my own perspective. Personally, I have shot with intent to kill twice in this game. First time a clanmate of mine walked out of a door into a hail of bullets. The killer tried to get me, but a crossbow bolt made him think the better of it. A couple of days later I logged in inside a barn, and got shot in the back without warning after a few steps by a guy on second floor. Even later on, I am looting the supermarket in Elektrozavodsk when I hear coughing in the room beside me and hit the deck. Sure enough, soon after a person come crawling into the backroom, but he does not see me. He is, however, carrying a long gun of sorts. At that point I took the decision to open up on him with my M1911. I do not kill him, but he is trapped in a room and is forced to log out. So why did I shoot? Well, I had just found most of the tools necessary to survive in the wilderness, including a czech backpack. Never before had I laid my hand on so much wealth, and given that the other guy still had a coyote patrol pack, I could not be 100% positive that he would not kill me. In fact, no matter his amount of gear relative to mine. I could not be certain that he would not kill me, simply because he could not be certain that I would not kill him. This has nothing to do with either of us being sociopathics, douchebags or evil, just scared. All of this lead me to think that the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes is extremely relevant to the game. His theory of state is based on the assumption that anyone is in a position to kill anyone, and thus the rational choice is to subdue everyone else. His unfortunate implication is dictatorship to ensure a monopoly of violence. The gaming equivalent would be disabling PvP, something that would kill the suspension in the game. If we want this to change, there has to be a much stronger incentive to abstain from killing. It might be that zombies are able to smell human blood from very far away, so you have to evacuate the combat zone immediately. Zombies being attracted to gunfire ought to put down some of the more triggerhappy campers, especially if their pathfinding improves to get rid of snipers. But for now, I shoot people I cannot avoid. I'd rather hide and evade, but I cannot afford the risk. Hobbes wins the day.