DayZ will win the day.

[Fonebook 126]

I have been playing since August of last year and sitting on the sidelines reading these forums on a regular basis. There are a lot of wild and disrespectful people around here, but most of them don't seem to last too too long, and the people I have read again and again over the past months for the most part have constructive criticism to provide and generally respect one another. Anybody who speaks negatively about the "state of the community" is just crazy as I have watched one of the most exciting mods ever being developed right before my eyes. The vision is Rocket's, but the realization of this vision is being crowd sourced and anyone who has been respectful in their discourse has been heard and the changes made have taken tons of community input into consideration. It's a beautiful thing and anyone who doesn't realize this is narrow in their thinking.

The memory of receiving my pre-ordered copy of Gran Turismo 2 and discovering that it was unable to save ANY lap times, among many other bugs, still stings. Lap times are important in a racing game, no? GT2 was a huge disappointment in many ways as a result of it being rushed to market. There are many games which push annual iterations but each time the result is rarely much different than the previous one as there just wasn't enough time to implement huge changes. Being in a rush is a bad thing. Granted, waiting what seemed like forever for 3D Realms to put out a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D only to see the studio collapse was an experience in how taking your time could end poorly. But most people in the gaming industry are well aware of this tragic tale, nobody wants to see their vision end that way. Having already gone far beyond proving the viability of the concept, Rocket and BIS are in a unique position to build this game the right way without undue outside pressure for an immediate release. They would be fools not to take advantage, they can easily delay the release until it's the closest representation of the gaming experience in a reasonable amount of time. Titles with this much interest routinely take many years. We aren't even close to the point of it taking a long time.

Battlefield 1942 came out on the heels of Operation Flashpoint. It wasn't as grand in scope but the idea was very similar, though BF1942 was much more arcade in comparison to OFP. I greatly enjoyed both games as they were some of the first to provide a comprehensive battlefield experience. I even used the mission editor to do some crazy things with a few friends. Call of Duty has always been more focused on infantry combat. The first in the series was a great start, but the franchise followed the way of Counter Strike and the multi-player always had less dimensions than those with all the military hardware. The sales numbers made it clear that the majority of players preferred the counter-strike style fast paced rambo-style gameplay. EA was not deaf to this and have taken the game-play of the Battlefield franchise in this same direction, as well as abandoning the PC in favor of consoles. The PC versions of it these days are seemingly console ports. They have done great things with the Frostbite engine and BF3 is a beautiful thing. However the game play is very far from the original. The franchise, over the years, was altered continuously with sales numbers in mind. The profitable casual gamers were catered to. I was two months into DayZ before I caught a post talking about how ArmA2 was an evolution of the OFP engine. I felt like a moron, of course it was! After playing some ArmA2 finally it became clear that BIS never abandoned the original vision. The results of catering to the casual gamers are clear, dumbed down games released annually that fall short of the original visions of their creators. The main reason people are so excited about DayZ, in my opinion, is there is no other game that even comes close to the emotional response this mod generates in it's players. Everybody is so passionate about it, even the naysayers. Straying from the vision of a hard-core realistic survival game would be folly, and this concept is simply not suited to many if not most casual gamers.

Lots of people also seem to debate realism and toss around the fact that zeds aren't "real." If you take every zombie/zed/infected apocalypse story you have seen and replace the "monsters" with starving crazy mobs of people that want your resources after some social collapse, you will see the vision of the zombie trope is not far from a possible reality. It's obvious that the best course of action is to continue to implement realism until it genuinely hampers the game play according to the original vision. What exactly this means cannot be determined without imagination, implementation, and testing. Lets have faith that the designers, who take this community seriously, will do everything they can to preserve a delicate balance as this topic has been discussed to death and the basic positions are still having to be justified.

After a negative private hive experience I moved back to public after months of being gone. DayZ has never been better and many improvements are currently just over the horizon. Thankfully most of the people who want DayZ to be something it isn't are all but completely absent from the public servers. This game is already one of the greatest, if not the greatest game I have ever played. And it's still only in "Aplha" with a complete overhaul in the works. The best is yet to come and everyone here should be proud to be a member of this community and a part of gaming history in the making.

For better or worse, this is a hell of a ride that I hope never ends!

TL,DR - There are too many people making posts with a negative tone and I don't think these people realize the value of what they have. DayZ is obviously going in the right direction and we should all be proud to be a part of it.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Fonebook

[boxman80 964]

Thankfully most of the people who want DayZ to be something it isn't are all but completely absent from the public servers. This game is already one of the greatest, if not the greatest game I have ever played.

Agree completely. The wave of hipsters and darlings of the internet have gone now and we are left witha decent community (on the whole) who all share at least the commonality of enjoying this title for exactly what it is. I've been playing Day Z well over a year now and I'm still enjoying it just as much today as I was back then and it's only getting better. It's a fantastict game and as I've said since I started playing it, the reality is it's target audience isnt actually all that large and certainly not mainstream.

I think some of the elements appealed to many, especailly when brought to the "internets peoples " attention by the streamers and all the media who hopped on the bandwaggon, but the core elements of it being a harsh anti-game are ineed aimed at true fans of the genre. Don't get me wrong, in many respects i'm pleased about focus this mod got which has helped define Day Z as effectively being the mod/game that defined a new genre of gaming. I'm sure that's certainly how it will be remembered anyway. This, in my opinion, has meant that we; the people who do apprecaite this game for what it is and aims to achive will; hopefully have some fantastic gaming titles still to come for a few years yet now that gaming companies know we're here! Not least this will start by what i'm sure will be a fantastic stand alone release, worth the wait.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Box

[Imafighter 236]

Its ALMOST perfect...

You just have too much health.

And all this custom crap.

And starting loadouts.

And skins.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Imafighter

[Hosty 647]

Its ALMOST perfect...

You just have too much health.

And all this custom crap.

And starting loadouts.

And skins.

And mods.

[boxman80 964]

Private hives introduced more problems than they resolved in my opinion. That's not to say all private hives are saturated with over powered customsas thres a good number out there that are really well balanced but I do look forward to returning to public hives in SA I must admit.

[TheBambiAvenger 146]

Only reason I don't play on public hives is because they are a jackpot for hackers, not only do they get to ruin the game for people on one server, but it affects them on all servers. I'm just fed up with this hacking bullshit. Being a rabbit is cool for the first 10 minutes, then it's just fucking stupid. (Pardon my language :P)

[Kerbo 198]

Beans to you OP for a very insightful post. It's all too easy to lose sight of the great community among all the noise here on the forums. The best is yet to come.

[pxxl 259]

There are a lot of wild and disrespectful people around here

Anybody who speaks negatively about the "state of the community" is just crazy as I have watched one of the most exciting mods ever being developed right before my eyes.

You are by your own definition.. crazy :lol:

Edited May 23, 2013 by PXXL

[SixGunLover 54]

agreed

[Fonebook 126]

Private hives introduced more problems than they resolved in my opinion. That's not to say all private hives are saturated with over powered customsas thres a good number out there that are really well balanced but I do look forward to returning to public hives in SA I must admit.

But the private hives soak up the players that are willing to, say, pay for a better load-out. Or have the server saturated with cars, that refuel effortlessly. The private hives were a great alternative to allow people to do those crazy things they needed. In a rightfully separate place from the public hive.

You are by your own definition.. crazy :lol:

Most likely. I was trying to point out that most of the wild and disrespectful people burn out and leave in a "this is why I hate DayZ now" rant post, and what is left are the people who love the game, more or less. It would have to be, or else why would they continue to be a part of the community?

Edited May 24, 2013 by Fonebook

[Guest]

That is a great read!

I only play on private hives to reduce the chance of hackers. Hopefully in the long run it will improve

[JSparks (DayZ) 109]

Great thread, but people on the DayZ mod forums are ignorant as they don't understand it's not a game it's a mod and therefore has the same limitations as ArmA II.

[jackghnnm78@gmail.com 23]

Very well written, represent =)

[boxman80 964]

But the private hives soak up the players that are willing to, say, pay for a better load-out. Or have the server saturated with cars, that refuel effortlessly. The private hives were a great alternative to allow people to do those crazy things they needed. In a rightfully separate place from the public hive.

This is true and my point entirely, they are a double edged sword; on one hand they offered much better control over cheaters and were a means to an end of what seemed like an out of control wave of cheats, trolls and hackers. They also offered a haven for the more main stream gamers who wanted a "softer" Day Z or a more customised game.

However it opened the door to more problems such as admin abuse, over softening of the game, hideous customs, watered down content and just making it too easy!

Dont get me wrong, we have had public and private hive servers and have opted to stay private hive, so i'm not bashing private hives, i just think Day Z was desigend and runs best on public hive and i'm looming forward to the community going back to it on mass, as well as the improvements that have been put into stand alone after the harsh lessons of last year.

[xath 7]

Agreed on all points, so I wont cover all of what you've said, I'll just say it's an excellent post.

Indeed, DayZ is being taken in the right direction, I'd say in all ways, especially in it becoming far more zombie-centric, going even more for a true survival horror style/feel and is achieving that goal. The realism in terms of survival mechanics is already excellent. It just needed more of what they're already doing for the SA: more "realistic" zombies, more survival elements, more atmosphere and more environmental changes (new places, enterable buildings etc).

[Fonebook 126]

Everything coming out of the dev-blog is really exciting. I have followed game development in the past on other titles, and getting any information can be near impossible sometimes. Even when the response from the DayZ team seems to be short in supply, we are still getting a wealth of information. I really take issue with how many players feel they are owed some sort of release or update. The people making this game don't owe many of us much of anything. When we paid $30 for ArmA2, we got what we paid for, ArmA2. DayZ was a bonus and no matter how much you play it or post about it, you aren't owed anything for your time invested unless you actually contribute in a meaningful way. And even then, what you are "owed" may not be much.

And to Box, yes I agree with you on many points. I dislike private hives with a passion now and they did create a lot of problems, but mostly just for players. I do not think all the private nerfing of the game has driven the development in the wrong direction. But I am thankful for them as they are a great sponge to absorb the players who just aren't cut out for the original game. Even though forcing these players onto public hives would make the servers more populous, many of them wouldn't last as players methinks.