DayZ's Counterintuitivity

[applejaxc 2500]

So I was thinking while writing some posts not long ago about how counterintuitive DayZ. And I don't mean you expect it to go one way and it goes the other, you'd expect controls to be different or whatever. Abstractedly, the game experience itself is very odd. Although I have never been killed by a ladder, or a door (I joined the game the patch after those problems were "fixed" thank god, and not the TM one), there are many things that have happened to me in DayZ that have been absolutely frustrating. For example, emptying 30 Stanag SD rounds into some asshole from an M4SD, and then being killed by his M4SD (while at full health) in 3-4 bullets.

But for every time I've died and ragequit for the night, I've written at least 20 posts on the forums. I've got 5+ hours for every dumb death I've died of. I don't stop playing DayZ. Even if lag throws me off a cliff.

Yet the very second lag forces me to sit through a 5 minute scoreboard screen while all the other players are still killing each other in Halo 4 is enough to make me turn off my Xbox for the day.

Being spawn-camped by a load star (or whatever the fuck it's called) is enough to make me stop playing BLOPS2 for a week.

Having my tank suddenly flung off the map in BF3 in the middle of an epic killstreak because I drove on the curb is enough to make me stop playing Battlefield for a couple hours.

Yet the three above games, even when I die, when I rejoin the game experience is more or less the same... same match, same score + 2-3 deaths (10+ in CoD...). I get all my gear back, game goes on (hopefully) like normal and everything should be hunky dorey. But I have zero patience in those games for random occurrences and inconveniences like a lag spike gets me killed unexpectedly.

And in DayZ a server can suddenly get 500 ping and when I bandage it doesn't update, wasting all my bandages and killing me of blood loss, so I have to sit through the death screen for 1+ minutes and sit through the load screen for 5-15 minutes (you guys remember the old DayZ?). And yet I haven't stopped playing for more than 2-3 days (granted no other games got in the way).

Am I just a console hater looking for an excuse to stop playing, or is DayZ that good? Dying in DayZ isn't NEARLY as frustrating as it is in first person shooters for me. I yell a "God fucking dammit" occasionally dying in ArmA 3 because an AI shot me and yet if I lose a AS50, ghillie suit, cooked meat, full tools, a repaired/fueled car, a M9SD, and an AKM (AKM being my favorite weapon in game), it doesn't even phase me. Zero, neutral reaction.

[Chris529 380]

I guess it's because it's fun to get that stuff back and recover, but in the other games you start with that stuff. If you respawned in DayZ with full gear it would be the same as dying in any other FPS. It sucks to die and lose it but it is evened out because of how fun it was to get it in the first place.

Playing CoD though you get the frustration of losing something without the good feeling of gaining something. Sometimes I'll rage uninstall games and move them into a special 'SHIT GAMES' category in my steam library e.g. hitman blood money stuck on last mission the guy would get bullshit 1b kill on me somehow every fking time and I just lose my shit.

Most I've raged on DayZ is I just yell 'fuck this shit! this game is piece of crap why do I fucking bother!' and quit it for a week. I did that once from dying on the shipwreck with some of the best gear I had ever owned, with a hundred day old character. Another time was the game magically making me run and dive off a dock crane when I tried to prone.

Despite all that I too come back pretty quickly. I don't think it's because DayZ is 'just that good' I mean look at it for what it is, buggy zombie mod for a dated game (at times) crawling with skiddies. It's gotta be those feelings of accomplishment that we don't get from generic FPS games these days. Dat adrenaline rush too, can't get that from many other games.

"Life is a journey, not a destination." Same thing applies here really, FPS games all you get is a destination lest the leveling up but that isn't much. DayZ until you have an as50 collection, helicopters, cars, trucks, boats and tents full of loot you aren't finished and the whole experience is a journey. So it doesn't matter that you died since you will embark on another fun journey, who knows how far you will get this time.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Chris529

[Cannedsoupwithbeans 3]

Sometimes I'll rage uninstall games and move them into a special 'SHIT GAMES' category in my steam library e.g. hitman blood money stuck on last mission the guy would get bullshit 1b kill on me somehow every fking time and I just lose my shit.

Are you sure you're talking about Hitman: Blood Money? There's no sudden 1B kill in The White House or the Funeral mission. It's one of my favourite games, and I just finished it again a few days ago. If there is one, I haven't experienced it yet, and I played on Professional.

[Chris529 380]

Are you sure you're talking about Hitman: Blood Money? There's no sudden 1B kill in The White House or the Funeral mission. It's one of my favourite games, and I just finished it again a few days ago. If there is one, I haven't experienced it yet, and I played on Professional.

white house mission, professional, the assassin did kill me in what I assume was one shot. I walked out onto the scaffolding above him hoping to toss a mine down or something. As soon as the animation to step onto the platform ended the guy snaps up and shoots me and I die with a lot of health and armor. 1b or not I would die from bullshit hits from that last guy, i finished the game but it will remain in shit games just for how many times I have lost my shit over it and uninstalled it.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Chris529

[applejaxc 2500]

white house mission, professional, the assassin did kill me in what I assume was one shot. I walked out onto the scaffolding above him hoping to toss a mine down or something. As soon as the animation to step onto the platform ended the guy snaps up and shoots me and I die with a lot of health and armor. 1b or not I would die from bullshit hits from that last guy, i finished the game but it will remain in shit games just for how many times I have lost my shit over it and uninstalled it.

I threw a bottle at him, he ragdolled, and went flying into space.

[LordDante 30]

"Life is a journey, not a destination." Same thing applies here really, FPS games all you get is a destination lest the leveling up but that isn't much. DayZ until you have an as50 collection, helicopters, cars, trucks, boats and tents full of loot you aren't finished and the whole experience is a journey. So it doesn't matter that you died since you will embark on another fun journey, who knows how far you will get this time.

Absolutely agree here. The fun of this game is, that whenever you respawn it is another "roll of the dice". It is always random, you never have the same experience twice. There are so many random factors in the game, it is so huge, that you can never explore all the possibilities.

And humans love to explore things, love to see the unknown, and that drives them onward.

Also in this game, true human nature is present, whenever you meet someone in DayZ it is always pure and instinctual, whereas in other games, you just see everyone and everything as "loot" "points" or "frags". Here you play with people!

You will always die eventually. There is no real goal. You just "make the most of it". And no other game can give you that feeling.

This is DayZ and we love it! ;)

[applejaxc 2500]

-cut-

I roll a perfect 20 all the time in DayZ... I'm cutting together a compilation of my favorite/least favorite parts from my Heroes series out of nostalgia. I literally have an AS50, FAL, or AKM in almost every video, all of which are within 5 hours to joining.

[Chris529 380]

Absolutely agree here. The fun of this game is, that whenever you respawn it is another "roll of the dice". It is always random, you never have the same experience twice. There are so many random factors in the game, it is so huge, that you can never explore all the possibilities.

And humans love to explore things, love to see the unknown, and that drives them onward.

Also in this game, true human nature is present, whenever you meet someone in DayZ it is always pure and instinctual, whereas in other games, you just see everyone and everything as "loot" "points" or "frags". Here you play with people!

You will always die eventually. There is no real goal. You just "make the most of it". And no other game can give you that feeling.

This is DayZ and we love it! ;)

true, this is why other games usually don't get people excited the same way DayZ can. Games like Minecraft where it is different every time are usually very successful.

[applejaxc 2500]

true, this is why other games usually don't get people excited the same way DayZ can. Games like Minecraft where it is different every time are usually very successful.

Have you played Star Made? Unlimited world exploration, you build spaceships, infinite planets and asteroids, bandits + other players to kill or team up with, and GIANT DEATH LASORZOMGFTW!

It's a lot of fun. :) And free! (for now)

[Chris529 380]

Have you played Star Made? Unlimited world exploration, you build spaceships, infinite planets and asteroids, bandits + other players to kill or team up with, and GIANT DEATH LASORZOMGFTW!

It's a lot of fun. :) And free! (for now)

I had a look at it, I guess if I get bored again I'll play that. LAST time I was bored I ended up on omegle for 13 hours :|

[fluxley 2228]

Its a mod and so most people just accept the random crap that comes with that because they enjoy the game so much, if this stuff is still happening in a years time or whenever the standalone hits its final release i dare say people will be a lot less tolerant.

[applejaxc 2500]

I've been playing ArmA 3 a lot (as a DayZ hiatus) and dammit, dying even once is enough to make me stop playing singleplayer.