chernojourno

For those of you who aren’t aware this is here is the website www.extralife.org where basically gamers play/stream for 24 hours while raising money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Since I ‘m unable to do 24 hours I am helping out by joining TheThintanker’s stream for 3 hours and holding my kidnapping event. So the idea is very simple but filled with all that great DayZ tension. I will stream my feed on a server live for 4 hours http://www.twitch.tv/cherno_journo During this time I will spawn in at Cherno and I’ll stay in Cherno until I am kidnapped. If you want to kidnap me just fire a weapon over my head or nearby and I will comply with all orders. I need you to fire a weapon to prove you have ammunition as last time a guy with no ammo tried to kidnap me. No shot - no compliance - simple. Once I’m kidnapped do what you want to me – except kill me – killing is bad and all that happens is I respawn far away from you. You can take me anywhere, break my legs, disarm me, barricade me into a building. I won’t ALT-F4 the whole time. The only thing is you can’t take me any further north than the line from Zelenogorsk to Solnichniy to give the other side a chance to retrieve me. The catch is I’ll have bodyguards and like the President they will defend me to death. And once you have me they will still be able to watch the stream and set up a rescue attempt – I hope. The stream never stops and I’ll be broadcasting my location over side chat every 10 minutes once I’m kidnapped. There are a few rules. 1) I may be armed but as part of the ethics of the Chernarus Free Press I will never fire upon another player. So if you are a kidnapper you have nothing to fear from me killing you. 2) I will only comply with any kidnapper’s orders once there are no bodyguards around. You need to kill or incapacitate them first before I will comply. I will never follow an order to kill another player or myself but other than that it’s fair game so be creative. 3) Once I’m kidnapped I will make attempts to escape if there is no gun pointed at me. Again I won’t shoot any kidnappers but I will try to run away, jump out of cars, etc. You’ll need to find some way of restraining me, i.e. break my legs or barbed wire me into a corner. But if I’m escaping I won’t stop because I’m ordered to. You’ll need to break my legs to stop me at that point, so I hope you’re a good shot. If you have a gun pointed at me I won’t run so it’s best to have a guard always on me. But that’s all the rules. Kidnappers can infiltrate the bodyguards and take them down one at a time if they wish – Lava did this last time and it was a great reveal. I’ll only communicate in direct chat but you’re welcome to use any TS to speak with each other. I’d encourage any well organised squads to teams to join up and have fun in either role. There some time for you to log in and gear up before the event. And any other streamers it would be great to see it from your perspective as well. So onto the important details. Server: Billy Mays Remembrance Foundation. This is a whitelisted private hive so you’ll need to sign up here http://bmrf.me/ to be whitelisted. Once you make a forum account whitelisiting is automatic so you can join even if the event is in progress. They have 3 servers and I’ll announce which one on the stream. The servers all share a hive so it doesn’t matter which one you pick to gear up on but there is a 10 minute timer on server changes to discourage ghosting. Time: Saturday, 20 October 2012 at 21:00:00 UTC. Follow the link to see what time it is in your part of the world. Duration: 4 hours To Donate: As I’m not playing the full 24 hours I’m not a registered participant so if you’d like to donate please use Kyle Meeks donation link Kyle Meeks Extra Life Donate Link If your US based the donations are Tax Deductible. Let’s have a great time and raise some funds for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Mods if this is the wrong spot please feel free to move it.

I've now uploaded the stream kidnapping video to my YouTube. There was fours hours of footage that I've condensed down to 1 hours in four parts. The entire playlist is here and I've embedded part 3 which has the most action including two successful escapes.Thanks to all that were involved I'll be announcing another event soon with a weeks notice so that all players have time to gear up and prepare.

mpj808, I'm glad my play style has inspired you to be a bit more fearless and friendly - and although as part of the Chernarus Free press I would never kill another player - your story of revenge did still bring a smile to my face. It is a shame that this time you were killed on sight - it happens often to me still. Never give up on humanity though there are plenty of decent DayZ players out there ready to join you on some fun and frivolity.

So apart from interviewing DayZ players and sharing their stories I've also been writing a DayZ which is currently in second draft with my editor and sits at 90,000 - an average novel sits between so 80,000 and 100,000 words. Lots of people have said they're interested in grabbing a copy so this is just a reminder to those that the crowd funding Campaign is down to the last 24 hours - so if you want to secure a copy this will be your last chance. To read the 120 page (25,000 word) sample, and I hope you're a fast reader, or to contribute to the campaign just head over to the following link http://www.indiegogo.com/DayZNovel Unlike Kickstarter the project goes ahead even though it won't meet it's lofty and definitely unattainable goal of $50,000. So ignore that number and judge the novel on the quality of the sample.

Happy to be interviewed for the podcast, however you do your other interviews (eg Skype, TS whatever) But I'm not doing any further interviews until i complete the novel and clear the backlog - if that's an issue then let me know. I just need to be clear and across the board on that - regardless of the player I am not interviewing anyone else until the DayZ novel is completed.

Thanks for the podcast shout out. As for the criteria to be interviewed it was just a matter of asking. Occasionally I'd stumble into players and interview them off the cuff but usually the interviewees would make contact via the forums, reddit, youtube, facebook, twitter - I've tried to make it as easy as possible to meet up. One of the issues was with my increasingly popularity was that I'd get lots of requests for interviews. I've always said that everyone who plays DayZ has a story to tell so I've never turned down an interview request which has meant I've run the full spectrum of interviewees from the great to the not so great. Some weekends I'd be spending almost the whole weekend (18 plus hours sometimes) running from location to location to meet up with interviewees. I found it usually takes 4 interviews to get one good enough to go up - sometimes there would be a massive dry spell of not great interviews that would almost make me wonder why I do this. Also not wanting to look like a douche I'd never cut an interview off short - even if i was sure it would never work out because of poor communication skills, mumbling, or just not an interesting story to tell. Everyone wants to tell their story and I think that's what made DayZ and the Cherno Journo interviews so great - you can relate to the stories I've recorded. I always considered it a privilege to record the stories and share them with the greater DayZ community and I still have 30 interviews in the can waiting to go up, of these there are 8 that will definitely make it. As for the novel it will never exist in this form again, the Indiegogo campaign was for a special edition DayZ novel with lots of cool extras including interview transcripts, my own survivor diaries etc. I'd still be very happy to be interviewed by the Donutzombies podcast so long as you can put up with my voice.

Thanks for the kind words. Still plenty of interviews to go up - the next one is another of the good guys of DayZ stories - featuring Adamius and Mafia Snitch. I've also got some fun clips from the kidnapping stream and random interactions with players that end well and not so well so content wise the YouTube channel has lots more to come.

Ryahn, I'm glad this has been resolved. And nikizor I hope that if you did get ripped of by paying a coder who stole from the SurviveDayZ team you rip him a new one and then teabag his corpse.

So I posted before some advice and got lots of beans - thanks to all that shared. Unfortunately the person who should have really taken heed didn't and this is the result. http://youtu.be/WpcE-BwsdIg Ahh the naivety of youth

Reminder Bump. Starts in 1 and 1/2 hours time

Why steal someone elses code douche bag? Are you that creatively empty and that morally bankrupt that you can't come up with an original idea of your own?

It would be hilarious if I ended up getting shot by the bodyguards in a friendly fire incident. For those who are keen but not so great at the ARMA2 shooting mechanics, like myself, there's still plenty of roles for spotters and sentries etc.

No need for PM as I'll be screaming out for help on the steam anytime I'm captured. Also I'm spawning with a GPS so anytime I'm captured I'll be broadcasting coordinates every 10 minutes on side chat. Should be lots of back and forth between both factions. I'll have a custom skin for the game so hopefully friendly fire is kept to a minimum.

Not sure if DayZ players were aware that apart from the Cherno Journo Interviews I'm also writing a DayZ novel. The novel is up for crowdfunding but unlike Kickstarter the campaign goes ahead even if it doesn't reach is lofty and definitely now unattainable target. So if you want to pre order a copy this will be your only way to get it. The campaign link is below and if this is the first time you've heard of it there's a 120 page sample in pdf and the common eReader formats you can download and read will make great read this weekend. http://www.indiegogo.com/DayZNovel

Sure just point me to the DayZ story who's rights I need to license. DayZ is a game I'm writing a novel - two very different mediums. Let me give you the very often used example. I did not invent the game of football. Does that mean I could never write a novel or film based on the world of football? I'm sure I've seen football movies and read football novels. Besides I have a attempted to make multiple contacts with the devs and they have ignored it so they either don't care or don't feel the same way you do.

Yes Rexarious I said I would reserve judgement until you upped a video and you've done two. Obviously you didn't read what I wrote so nevermind that but these without an interview in game or reenactments these are pretty dull. I did advise you to do four and then pick the best, but you've skipped that in the rush to get something out, so your videos are now underwhelming because of that. Also editing. We don't need to hear the whole intro and getting to know you small talk. I only put that in my videos where there is tension, because I'm meeting up with someone in game who's afraid I'm going to ambush them. If you're talking to someone over Skype there is no tension so you'd don't need it. I won't give you any more advice since you didn't listen to the last lot but I will say you may have done yourself a disservice rushing these out.

Thanks Hetstaine. And can I expect to see you holding a M16 with cool black shades on making a last stand at the pub at Cherno as the kidnappers pour in to nab me?

Anyone can join - no special hazing required. Just make sure you are white listed on Billy Mays, gear up and get ready for the event. I'll ask all bodyguards to announce they are on protection detail as they approach but it'll get hectic once there are a couple guards around. This was how Lava infiltrated us last time so you'll need to be on your toes.

Gold. Put tin cans on the list of essential equipment

So my backpack glitched near NWAF and I lost it. So I decided to see if I could find a friendly to help me out or at least grab an interview since I lost all my food and drink. Here's what happened next.

I play wherever I can get on. It's predominately US because of my location, Australia, which the US gives ping of 230 MS. But i have played in European servers with a ping of 350ms - which is fine for me since I don't PVP. It just depends on if the server ping kicks or not

I don't know Rexarious15 from a bar of soap so I can't say anything about his intentions. Firstly I don't think the fact that I came up with the idea first is either special or unique. Anyone can take a good idea, and I think this idea is a great idea, and make it better or they could make it worse. I'll reserve any judgement until I see a video and so should anyone else. Just don't bother with trying to say you were thinking of it too - it hard being first and I've shown it can work - learn from me and improve. It's pretty clear that the moment I announce my retirement you jump in to fill the void - don't lie about the fact as there's nothing wrong with that and as it's been shown I encourage anyone to take this on and make it better. Here's my tips for good interviewing. First is to have some idea of interviewing and/or media training - if you don't have it then watch videos and read some books about media - you can't do this half arsed. I did a 3 year communications degree which included some on camera work, so I was pretty confident about my skills as an interviewer. What i lack was the technical prowess - look at the early interviews compared to the later ones. Technically they're much better in their editing, re enactments etc. I don't do pre interviews. I just roll into a location and do to the interview. Now this is a risky strategy as you have no idea what's going to happen but sometimes you get gold. Pre interviews can make the story lose it's vibrancy and immediacy if you talk over skype and then again in game. But it's up to you - again my training and experience helps me with the confidence to control the interview and ask the right questions. Have a note pad in front of you and listen, really listen to what they are saying. I always jot down my next question, any points and make sure I get enough detail for the reenactments. I'm assuming you're doing reenactments otherwise the interviews would be pretty dull. Also watch plenty of YouTube videos on editing to improve your pacing and shot choice. Be prepared to die - a lot. I don't know what your DayZ moral code is but I never kill another player, even if fired on. If I shoot it's only to break legs and make a getaway Also you can't judge your subjects. Even if you think what they did/do is deplorable you need to remain objective and just record the story. I find it takes about 4 interviews to find one worthy to go up on the channel so no matter how excited you are don't put your first one up. Wait until you've done 4 and then pick the best one and put that one up. If all four are great then you're in luck and put them all up but you'll be under a lot of scrutiny on that first video so make it awesome. A lot of people will call you a pretender, like that WackyBike idiot, so ignore them and respond with a quality piece. Don't rush it, and don't be arrogant. Focus on the work and take feedback on board. This is a community and sure there are trolls, but lots of people like to help each other out - so listen to what they have to say. This is the Cherno Journo....out.

Here's an emotional first murder story from the side of a victim as he witnessed his little brother being murdered by bandits. Stories like this remind me about what makes DayZ so special.

I think it's peoples own fear and greed that keeps them from being more friendly. The thing is if you play teh game as a true Survival mod then you survival rate increases exponentially when you team up and don't betray each other. Yesterday I played in a private hive where the players in Elektro decided, without any form of vote, not to kill each other. This was a private hive server with side chat so were were communicating and working together to gear up. Messages across side chat such as "I found an Alice Pack" "who need blood bags" etc. For the next two hours Elektro was glorious with ten people walking around gathering loot, sharing resources and surviving. The bandits didn't bother us because many work alone and couldn't take down a scattered group of ten. They instead ended up playing deathmatch Cherno while we all geared up and then went our own separate ways. I did record it but it's much too long, and dull, to really be uploaded to YouTube. The point is friendly is a state of mind. I don't let the DayZ paranoia get to me and still play the game to have fun - the way I like to have fun. Meet people, share stories and have adventures. Talk on direct and remeber the peopl in game are real people - they have real emotions and most are decent and want to have a good time.

So I hadn't planned on doing this but my play style is pretty open and trusting. I'd geared up in Elektro but couldn't find any survivors so I decided to head to Cherno. As I come across other unarmed Survivors I decide to help them out by giving them my guns - here's the result.