Dayz in relation to Extra Credit's Video on Horror Protagonists

[logan23 118]

Dayz and Extra credit video - on Horror Protagonists

Here is the link:

http://penny-arcade....or-protagonists

Protagonist- DayZ

The Protagonist needs to be an everyday person, someone we can relate to.

DayZ- does this with a clean slate Player Character.

This is also a reason why we should not have start off classes for the Player since it breaks this connection that the Player could be a reflection of You.

To make my point here- go to the point in the video where they compare Ripley’s character- an anybody- to Predators’s Arnold’s Expert soldier character. These references go right to the heart of the Start character class or clean slate design for the Player character.

Staying with the Arnold/Predator –Ripley/ Alien comparison , Arnold used the skills he had already new based on his class, while Ripley had to learn to think outside her comfort level, think outside of what would be her class role. The Ripley example shows how a player develops new skills outside their base character setup.

Fear/Horror

In the video it talks about how the protagonist needs be weak at the start, powerless to the forces they face. We see how DayZ took the spawn with a gun and items to now—the player has a flashlight, and painkillers…..you truly feel powerless and this makes every gain in supplies and weapons- lead to the player feeling Empowerment.

In DayZ the players are verse not just Zeds and Players who could shoot on spot but also more and more the environment.

One interesting note the video makes is that the more the player comes to matching the powers against them the more the game becomes an action game.

With DayZ, this concept is around the debate on the Zeds and how to make sure they can be fought but they are also still a danger, wither this is based on Zeds agro each other or they danger of each attack or the concept of killing Zeds will lead to lost in ammo which you need.

I see from the information on the DayZ standalone that they are looking at using the environment to help bring more tension and finding ways to keep Zeds a threat. Other players as a threat is created just by the wanting of another person’s weapon, supplies, feel they are a threat- Human fears.

3 Types of Protagonist-

1- The one who overcomes:

In DayZ these are more of moments in the game not the final outcome. Players triumphant when they get through a town without alerting and Zeds or wining a gun fight against another player.

2- The one who is defeated:

This is the final outcome. We know it is only a matter of time before our character is killed. The perma death is a way to remind the player of their mortality.

3- The one where the Player becomes the Horror:

This is the Player who decides to kill other players. They remove their final threads of society and rationalize in their mind why it was ok to kill an unarmed player or a player who didn’t even see them as you travel through a forest. The more extreme version of this, the Player who get a sniper rifle and goes on top of a building or hill and simply shoot random players. This extreme example the player has become as much of a horror as the Zeds.

If in DayZ Standalone, they use any form of player ID to learn about whom you killed or figure out who killed them, this will cause a fear in the player who made the shot as well as the player who found the dead player. Ex. If the wounds are from a AK then later the player sees a random player who has an AK, they might feel that this might be the person who shot the player which you found dead. Wither players know it or not, going around killing players make you a horror in the game.

I just want to end on this note-

What makes DayZ so great is because the game and the development team are truly looking at ways to keep this game from becoming an action game, and instead keeping it to its roots, a survival game. They give players freedom but they are also looking how to make surviving Dayz a challenge and an experience that will trigger true tension in the player and even have player’s reflect on their decisions.

Logan

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Where we going with this?

[logan23 118]

Just thought it was interesting.

Was listening to the video and notice that DayZ actually have some of these elements.

Also the whole PvP because high level players feel that the Zeds are no longer a threat.

This is actually discussed in the video, where if the player becomes to close to the power or become over powered in general where the Zeds lose their Fear factor,..players will move toward PvP since it still has that Fear factor/ challenge.......

Zeds need to be able to keep even the high level players afraid. If they don't keep to this level of danger, the Zeds will feel like the creatures you fight and kill in a action base game.