What's your reason to KOS?

[Parasprite 35]

Do you have a good communication with your parents or legal guardians?

[Whyherro123 2283]

The "problem" (which isn't so much of a problem, more of a "rationale" of sorts) with Day Z is that it doesn't really show the aftermath of a collapsing society. I've received training in disaster relief, disaster preparedness, and wilderness survival, and those posters saying that " KOS is what will happen in the apocolypse" are incorrect, for the most part. The more people working together, the easier it tends to be to survive in most survival situations. In general, there are three stages to societal collapse:

1) Collapse: the quintessential looting, rape-murder-and-burn part. When the social contract breaks down, and law and order gets overthrown. In metropolitan areas, the population  will be decimated very early on, either through infighting or through starvation/dehydration. There also very likely will be a mass exodus of people into the surrounding countryside, resulting in food shortages and another breakdown of law and order there as well. Most of the death and killing will happen in this stage of societal collapse, and it is in the later parts of this stage that I can estimate Day Z takes place in.

 

2) Stabilization: The rural population ( urban centers are almost certainly fucked) begins to stabilize, forming new communities and social contracts. Communities often become insular in this stage, being very suspicious of outsiders due to banditry, the very real threat of disease, or simply paranoia left over from Stage 1. Production starts up again, often in agriculture and light industry (home/community level power production, finding/making potable water on a community scale, etc). Militias, while relatively unorganized, begin to push bandits out to the hinterlands in between communities, and localized trade often picks up, using the barter system with locally produced goods.

3) Nationalization: this is the most complex stage, actually. Some power entices/forces communities to band together for defense/aid/trade, etc. This bondage essentially removes bandits from the equation, and lets production jump up to relatively (compared to the decline during stage 1) high levels. Trade between communities becomes more complex, with a monetary system usually put in place. This doesn't necessarily mean "money", but some trade good that is easily carried, produced, and has actual value. Hard alcohol is a very common type of this currency, due to its varied uses.

 

What many people don't realize is that survival of any type is realistically a group effort (division of labor, specialization of tasks, general human assistance, etc) The "preppers" people make fun of for hoarding rice, beans, and ammo have a very high simulated failure (read: death) rate in the event of simulated societal collapse, mainly because they refuse to open up and help other people.

[whenlinkattacks 8]

i KoS because it gets boring when you have friends and we all gear up, so yeah we will go around popping off a couple people for no reason, im sure rocket will implement a penalty or something of the sort but for now ill be doing the same thing i do every time i play, get best gear then camp prison spawners and unload.

[ghasteater100 5]

Main reason that people KoS:

 

They want another player's gear

Another player is nearby who could be a potential threat and they want to get rid of this threat.

They enjoy shooting and want a reason to shoot something

[Zombiegirl 3]

As we know, there's a ton of KOS (Kill On Sight) within the Day Z community and it's basically universal throughout almost every Role Playing game.

What I want to know is, what is your motive to kill a random person in Day Z?

Do you want to be a bandit?

Do you just like killing?

Why?

I love killing. I have always been a bandit, and will always be.

[rn_max 202]

The occasional infected out of hatchet range when required.

 

Anyone with their head wrapped up in a cloth is a viable target ... if it is actually advantageous or worth the ammo expenditure, so not often.

 

It is usually far more entertaining to mock bandits by living off their spoils, using other players or infected to do the job, or by using explosives.