DayZ analysis

[JimiEZ (DayZ) 0]

I can't for the life of me understand why DayZ should be easy for noobs. I mean what for? It's not impossibly hard, as proven by the fact that hundreds of thousands players are playing the mod just fine, and you know what? Each and everyone of them has been a noob in DayZ at one point, some with more knowledge of the game beforehand, some less, but judging from the player amounts and server statuses, player retention rate is on a very healthy base.

So why the fuck should it be dumbed down? You'd think that the OP as DF player should understand that you can't just take a complex and engaging game like DayZ (or DF for that matter, talk about a difficulty curve on that one) and condense it to a couple of "press A to be awesome" - tutorials. Both games kick you in the teeth right after you get in, and it's largely intentional.

[maxim_malcon@yahoo.com 0]

Seems like people are fine with the whole "shoot on sight" mentality.

I for one, am not.

I believe this game has much more to it than a brainless "trust no one, shot everyone on sight" mode.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into your post and you presented your opinion in a reasonable way; you even did us the courtesy of using punctuation and paragraphs which can be a rare treat in these forums.

For your kindness, and as a fellow game designer, I want to take my time to calmly explain why your analysis is woefully misguided in almost every way.

At times I will re-arrange your words to group related thoughts so I can respond to your ideas in a slightly more organized way. Please don't take this as a misreading or twisting of your words, I'm just trying to keep my own thoughts organized.

1. Player killing is HIGHLY incentivized: This game is loot driven...

It may feel like that when you are empty-handed at the start' date=' but no. This is not true. Diablo and WoW are loot-driven. This game is player-driven. It is an interactive drama. The loot simply provides a compelling plot device. There is no single item in the game with the possible exception of NVGs that grants one player any particularly game-changing powers over other players. You don't gain access to new areas of the game or new abilities by gathering loot and there is no single item in the game that is as valuable as [i']human companionship.

I would take one partner over a thousand silenced assault rifles any day. Not only because a team of two is exponentially more effective than a 'team' of one, but because the game is simply more fun when you can share your story and experiences with someone else.

I started this game alone; before it got very popular none of my friends were really picking up on my hints and I ran lone-wolf style. I had a few survivals that lasted 1-2 days here and there, and got up to 40 zombie kills and would feel pretty good. Then, slowly, my friends started to take interest. I began to run with a partner, then a small team, and now we have 5-6 regularly online at any time interested in cooperating on goals and missions. With that team, playing just as often and doing more dangerous things, I have lived for 15 and 18 days respectively on my last two survivors (18 day guy is still going strong).

In the process I have reuinted with old friends and made two completely new ones. Flesh-and-blood humans in real life I have met and befriended solely because DayZ brought us together and forced us, through the intensity of the constant threat of death and loss, to bond and build trust in each other. Not just "game trust" but real trust. When I'm in the passenger seat of a truck with my 18-day Survivor, you bet your ass I want the driver to be someone whom I trust - not just the kind of trust you find in Halo or Left 4 Dead like "I trust this guy to make a shot" or "I trust this guy knows the map" but real trust - I trust this guy with something that's important to me. That trust reaches beyond the game, and so do the human relationships I've built.

BY FAR the best source of new stuff is that other player who has been scavenging for the last 3 hours.

This is a common misconception and entirely false. The best source of loot in the game are crashed helicopters and they are very rarely "camped." You can travel across the northern reaches of the map and find 5-6 in a single night, pulling a variety of high-powered rifles, rare ammunition, NVGs and military equipment. This weekend my team traveled the northern reaches of the map in a vehicle together - scanning the horizon for helos. We found ~8 total in the last two nights, and pulled in sum an M249, M107, AS50 Anti Material, Bizon SD, M14, M4A3 CCO, one pair NVGs and a variety of ammunition. And the worst injury we sustained was a friendly fire incident that was bandaged up quickly.

Using players as a source of loot is a foolish deathwish. Any player whose loot is worth having is going to be far more dangerous than 1000 zombies. As rocket wisely noted, scripted AI is dumb and predictable. It's a boring enemy that any decent player can learn to fool in a variety of ways. But players, even the bad ones, are a dangerous foe - unpredictable, dynamic and potentially armed to the teeth. Your odds of dying are orders of magnitude higher facing off against players with worthwhile loot than it is playing quietly, tactically, and looting barracks and helicopter crashes.

it is boring to try to stay alive a long time, it's only really fun finding new stuff

You understand this is completely subjective, right? You have only put 10 hours into the game so new stuff seems exciting and novel to you - but it wears off and you soon realize the fun IS in creating a story for your character and seeing how long you can make that story last.

No, there is no fun to be had in "pure survival" which probably looks something like going prone in the forest and only emerging to hunt cows and get water from a nearby lake, but trying desperately to survive while simultaneously finding ways to challenge yourself with new and interesting tasks, missions and goals is the lifeblood of the game beyond those initial days when just finding a new gun seems like Christmas in July.

If I die now, the loss I feel will not be for my neat-o sniper rifle or my cool camo pants. It will be for the life and accumulated history of my survivor. All that he has done, all he has seen and everything he has accomplished. My ties with that narrative will be severed for me mentally. I'm no longer him. I'm someone else. And I will miss him more dearly than any trinket or bauble I found lying on the ground in my adventures.

Losing your 2 hour old character might be tragic, but it's hardly as fear inspiring as real life death.

What about my 45-hour-old character? Or my partner's Day 39 ~70+ hour character? Of course the sense of loss I feel will not compare to truly losing a loved one in real life, but is that a fair comparison? Lets compare instead to the feeling of losing a life in any other video game in history. Because, for me - and I have been gaming since the days of Commodore 64 - a death in DayZ feels more like a defeat than any character death I have ever virtually experienced. Three decades of deaths from Radar Rat Race to Metroid to Star Fox to Ultima Online, EverQuest, WoW, etc. nothing compares. EVE comes close, but still falls short of the intense desire I feel in DayZ to survive and the crushing, twisting feeling in my stomach when I fail to do so.

You CAN NOT just jump into dayZ, wander in a random direction, and have fun.

This is a MAJOR MAJOR HORRIFIC design flaw.

Here's where it gets a little harder for me to stay calm. You can claim that the design is not to your personal liking, but if you're going to start throwing around the word "flaw" and attaching qualifiers like a double "MAJOR" and a "HORRIFIC" you better damn well come with some ammunition. As a professional I would think you would understand this.

You say you are a Dwarf Fortress player. Dungeons of Dredmor, Ancient Domains of Mystery, Rogue, Nethack? In which of these games can you succeed by simply "wandering in a random direction?" There is a long and amazing history of games that are specifically designed to be front-heavy with difficulty. You are supposed to die over and over and over again. You are supposed to learn by trial and error. What's that? Drank from the wrong fountain? Okay, well try again and don't drink from that fountain next time. These games never held your hand. There was no manual and most existed long before there were active online communities spilling each and every detail of the game so that you could simply Google the problem you were having and solve it in a moment.

Yes, the mainstream status quo is "easy at the beginning, then moderately hard in the middle, now really hard at the end" but to call a break from that model a "flaw" does a disservice to all the games that break this model for very good reason and to great success.

The initial punishing difficulty in DayZ is perfect because when you finally penetrate it, you will feel you have accomplished something great and you will have an attachment to that character that helps drive those things above we talked about. The desire to survive. To live as long as possible. To not betray all the work and learning you put into to getting to this point in the game. In short, because it's hard at the beginning, your survivor will be more important to you later. Not only because you do not want to go through that initial punishment again, but because your triumph over it is attached to the life of your current survivor. On Day 18 I still remember the first Winchester I picked up. I remember every time I nearly died in my journey to get where I am. They're all vivid and amazing memories precisely because I faced the punishing difficulty at the beginning of the game and triumphed over it successfully.

you can't just spawn in any location, you have to quit and rejoin until you get the spawn locations close to where weapons actually spawn in order to give yourself a reasonable chance at an early game. That's bad, simply put.

It's also completely inaccurate, simply put. You can reach a farm building easily and safely from every single spawn point in the game, and those are the safest sources of early weapons - hatchets and Winchesters. Deer stands are generally safe as well, almost never camped by players and usually only guarded by 5 zombies whom you can wait out and approach in safety.

If you are continually respawning to get close to whatever it is you believe these mythical sources of weapons are, you are doing yourself a disservice. Learn to cope with your starting conditions wheverever they are, and you will be better prepared to face all the challenge Chernarus offers.

I don't expect every game to do this, but ideally you should be able to actually learn the majority of the gameplay through trial and error. DayZ has reached the point where this is impossible.

Always take care not to use the word "impossible" when you mean "more challenging than I personally find desirable."

3. Teamwork is WAY WAY WAY overincentivized: ...It's bad enough that you basically need buddies...bloodpacks are bullshit...there's no global chat in this game...If you don't have a couple of buddies to play with from the getgo, or you don't have preemptive knowledge on how to actually find each other when the game starts, dayz basically says "well, fuck you"

Okay, you test my patience a bit. The incentivization of team play is a such an amazing emergent property of DayZ it makes my blood boil that a supposed designer could pen a treatise on why it's a bad thing.

The only mechanic in DayZ that "artificially" incentivizes team play are blood bags unless you want to argue that you should be able to administer your own epi-pen while unconscious.

The engine simply lays the ground work for an amazing tactical simulator, and the superiority of team play grows organically. Not because the game enforces it, but because it is simply a fact of reality. 3 heads are better than 1, 6 eyes better than 2, 6 arms better than 2, 3 guns better than 1, etc., There is a reason the Navy Seals do not travel solo or in groups of 50. Small, intelligent tactical teams are incredibly effective in reality and as ARMA simulates reality they are incredibly effective here as well. You would literally have to purposefully design this out in order to downplay team play. You would have to find some way to "punish" team play or artificially reward being alone and frankly that would violate everything that makes DayZ the game that it is. I really hope you can understand this (as a designer).

If you do not have friends who are playing the game - either encourage some to play, or make new friends. If using your human brain and human communication faculties to reach out to your fellow humans and make contact is beyond your capacity or more than you are willing to do simply to enjoy DayZ then you cannot possibly complain that you are at an "unfair" disadvantage in the game. You cannot ask the designer to make you as powerful as two or three people simply because you lack the desire or ability to find another human soul who wants to share a few hours in the game with you.

Solutions: 1. Karma. Punish players who rely heavily on murder for personal rewards in the long run.

No. You do it. YOU go and punish them for it. If someone is relying heavily on murder for personal rewards, pick up a gun and put a stop to it.

Decrease the profitability of their start locations, start loadouts, give them bandit models that persist beyond death.

No, no, and no.

Improve the spawning conditions of players who make the play experience more pleasant for others through donation of items, salvation of others from zombie attacks, and cooperation with healing.

No, no and no.

2. More intuitive start conditions. This isn't that hard. Spawning with the makarov alone was better than the current state.

It really wasn't. When we all spawned with Makarvos the coast was a din of flies and dead bodies. Survivors shooting other survivors in the back for the can of beans they started with and their ammunition.

Now? It's generally quiet. A few scared, frightened survivors darting in and out of buildings praying for their first weapon. A bandit or two sniping unsuspecting survivors foolish enough to stand still in the open. An intensity of desire can almost be felt watching them hunt for that first weapon...

And the feeling of accomplishment when you grab your first hatchet or Winchester? Now that you don't start with a gun this sense of accomplishment is palpable relief. When you step in that door and see that beautiful gun lying there on the ground waiting for you it's such an amazing feeling... compared to before when it was just like "Oh, neat. A gun." now it has become "Holy living shit thank you so much! Yes! Yes! Yes! I am a God!"

Please don't ask them to design that away simply because you are frustrated at your first 5-10 minutes in the game. Again, farm buildings and deer stands are your friends. It's really not hard and if you did all the research you claimed to have done ahead of time you would know this - get off the coast, find a barn, find a weapon.

It's literally absurd how abused solo players are.

Blood bags. That's it. Hardly "absurd." What's absurd is expecting the designer to wave a wand and make 1 player somehow as effective as a team.

This is not appropriate incentive to not immediately kill eachother, it just promotes gang mentality

That's okay. I think if the apocalypse came, "gang mentality" would be quite common.

and rewards the few at the expense of the many.

How can you make this claim? You have no stats to say how many people are playing solo vs. in small teams. By watching DayZ videos online it certainly seems like the majority of players play with at least one friend.

At the end of the day I'll keep on plugging

Please do because you don't get it yet and I hope that you do, for your own sake and because it seems like if you can break through this barrier you seem to have hit you might actually contribute some worthwhile thoughts and suggestions to the game - unlike what you have done in this thread which is to rail against all that makes DayZ great and string a bunch of suggestions together that would drag it down closer to the watered-down mainstream crud we have been served in the online gaming arena for the last 15 years.

[djkling 5]

Gotta say, its a wll phrased point, but in the end it took me a week of playing to get decent enough to get a weapon. Now i'm like a ninja, sneaking in and out of towns stealing stuff and getting out without conflict. A weapon is a dangerous crutch, when you learn without one, you will be better with one :)

[silenced (DayZ) 5]

As I've read the opening post I instantly remembered the year 2002. April 2002 to be precise. This was when I and a lot of other people in Europe started to play 'Dark Age of Camelot', and PvP-focused MMO which had also a huge PvE part. Noone was forced to PvP, but it was the main goal.

The fun part is: you knew literally nothing about the game, did not know where to go, what to do and how to do it effectively. It was like something completely new, a new experience, and it was a great experience. There was not even an ingame map, a quest-system (if there had even been some) that was like shit but it was enough to understand everything if you spent some time and were trying to understand it. But over time players started to master it, becoming better and better, and it became more and more fun the longer you played, no matter how often you had been humilated by the game.

It's not like 99% of today games where you get everything in candy wrapping and it's impossible to die, lose or having to use your brain in any other way.

It's that beginning of an experience, that being thrown somewhere and knowing nothing that's fascinating about DayZ. It's the first 24 - 48 hours that make it somewhat special. But at least after that time you know everything and it becomes boring, sadly. And then you start having 'other' fun, like making it for mostly new players even harder to achieve anything. Get used to.

And btw., you do not need good loot to be successful, just learn to make the best out of the stuff you currently own. It's possible to own several people at once with only a Winchester. Just use the surroundings and pick your targets wisely. Most panic which makes it even easier.

[fml 29]

TL;DR

derp herp. Was it short for you to read ?

derp, i said it was too long?

[iomegadrive1 9]

TL;DR

derp herp. Was it short for you to read ?

derp' date=' i said it was too long?

[/quote']

I think you need to take another English class, since you apparently have difficulties reading.

[herd 69]

TL;DR

derp herp. Was it short for you to read ?

derp' date=' i said it was too long?

[/quote']

you do know what TLDR means? Otherwise why would you even write it.

[fml 29]

Too long didnt read. I said it was too long. I think all of you are retarded because you're not making any sense.

[relentless@clear.net.nz 12]

The thing is swiftspear, and this is mainly about your second point. Alot of what makes dayz initially fun is the lack of accessibility. You don't have a tutorial that teaches you every single element of the game. Its up to you to discover (or not).

Your looking at the pov of what game companies do now, and alot of people are..well sick of it. Theres a youtube video 'if doom was made today' which represents the point. Many of us liked to walk away after the first 5 hours not with 10 achievements and 5 unlocks. But with the knowledge that we understand the game better and have attained something that only came with hard work. Spending so much time watching videos and guides BEFORE you first play the game sorta defeats that.

[septuscap 42]

Too long didnt read. I said it was too long. I think all of you are retarded because you're not making any sense.

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. Maybe ask some one with mental faculties to explain what happened to you.

[Falk0 0]

"I would REALLY like this game to be difficult, to punish me for poor decisions in a logical manner, to discourage rote behaviors like respawning until you get near Balota where you have a higher chance of getting guns (and finding other survivors to kill). To encourage meaningful social interactions and not constant murder. I just don't see that as the direction the game is taking right now."

You basically want the game to either encourage the players to do nice things and discourage those who behave "badly". Just like 99% of the games out there. Let's make it a rail shooter while you're at it! Why do you think the game is so popular?! People can do whatever they want, the experience is unique. Hell, there is even medic out there who are ready to help you for free whenever you are in trouble. Sure, there is people camping in places just to kill the new players... what do you care? They think what they do is though whereas killing is so easy. I mean, camping the firestation in Cherno and waiting for players to come in and be ready to shoot is easy... (silly exemple which is not so different than what most of them do). They take satisfaction because they believe you are frustrated of what they did to you... Let them enjoy it, they're young in their mind. Most players shoot each other when they think they can't avoid it. I remember I even healed a guy after I shot him (he was unconscious so it was easier).

Most of the time, I let live those who don't notice me. I don't even care about other's gears. Of course, you don't notice this kind of player since they don't kill you.

That learning curve you're talking about is the main point of the game. Spending many hours and lives to try to stay alive when you start. Sure, without the makarov and zombies crawling inside the damn buildings where all gear you need is standing right in front of you, that's really a difficult part (I guess you didn't choose the right moment to play the game). I don't think you're doing it the right way, it's entirely possible to get what you need wherever you spawn from.

Once you get to the point where you can make your way more easily, it's very satisfying.

The exploration part is one of my favourite in every strategic or "wargame" games I've ever played. You'd almost want, sometimes, to forget everything and start all over again.

And that's where come the patches. Every time there'll be a major patch released, the mode will dramatically change and a new experience will born with it. Well, I hope so but you never know (there is a huge potential though... I think you agree on that, you wouldn't be talking here otherwise).

It's pretty much how minecraft or TF2 work(ed). Up to the point where it becomes too much useless gimmicks and annoying stuff.

The fact that you can loose all your gear is the soul of the mode.

Without any risks, there is no points.

You want the game to reward you?... you are too tied to modern symbols. Although, actually, it does reward you or why else would you be so angry when you die after x hours playing it.

Maybe, right now, pvp is a little bit extreme for new players but remember it's still an early version. This remind me of this interview of pc gamer when Rocket told about one of the earliest version of the mode where the players spawned in the same location... I believe in the servers of New-zealand players would help each other and in russia they'd do the complete opposite. You see? Could have been a worst timing!^^

I think the whole interview might interest you: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/23/day-z-arma-3-interview-optimization-map-design-radios-porting-day-z-into-arma-3/

Anyway, I totally respect and understand your point of view, SwiftSpear... but maybe your reaction is impulsive or the game is not fit for you (which I don't believe).

And I should have read what ZedsDeadBaby said before typing my message, because my english is not so good and he pretty much said what I wanted to say. =D

[WhiteLight 4]

Personally I believe the game should not get any easier for new players as it is. See the thing is DayZ is so good because once you do succeed or achieve your own mini goal you actually appreciate it and the experience that came with it. All your mini self discoveries or deaths lead up to that moment and you know what is at stake. Games like these are rare and aren't for everybody. Personally I am sick and tired of games that hold your hand, tell you what to do, say "Well done you just completed/killed/beat" etc. Once you have your own success/experience and stop comparing yourself to other players you will see why this game is so special despite it's alpha/game engine bugs.

[maxim_malcon@yahoo.com 0]

In the current generation. DayZ is a really bad game as a new player. I've read a bunch of different posts on the forums' date=' and a lot of people here have half the picture, but most of you have forgotten what it's like to be a newbie.

I've logged around 10 hours trying to get into this game, and I'm responding to what I'm seeing on the youtubes, and what other new players I'm seeing are referring to. I've been watching destiny's stream, I've been watching many many dayz videos, I appreciate the endgame goal for this project, but, as a game designer, I want to address what I personally see as the issues in this project. I could make this post a lot longer, but I'll keep the points concise.

[b']1. Player killing is HIGHLY incentivized: This game is loot driven, it is boring to try to stay alive a long time, it's only really fun finding new stuff, and BY FAR the best source of new stuff is that other player who has been scavenging for the last 3 hours. The greed level is just overwhelming. Losing your 2 hour old character might be tragic, but it's hardly as fear inspiring as real life death. Zombies themselves can be scary, but being sniped in the head is not really scary, it's just frustrating. The emotions involved with fighting other players are not very decentivizing. You win 50% of the time and receive a HUGE payoff, when you lose, you feel crappy, but not really terrified. This game HIGHLY encourages PvP behavior, and making people start off with shitty items, and making deadly items rarer has done NOTHING to decrease that.

2. The barrier of entry is prohibitive: DayZ is literally an impossible game for new players. I picked up this game with significant premature knowledge, I had watched HOURS of gameplay in stream and youtube video. I KNEW this game would be tough, I'm a dwarf fortress addict, I have experience with games with very high barriers of entry. I'm previously an Amateur competitive FPS player for a CAL team. I read the wiki, I read the forums. It STILL took me a good 5 hours to learn through trial and error simply how to find a few items without zombies chasing me down. Zombies effectively spawn everywhere items are in this game, there are no safe item stores. Sneaking by zombies takes a huge amount of time, it's difficult, there's a delicate dance to doing it effectively, and your chances of finding useful items is HIGHLY dependant on knowledge of where to go given any specific spawn location in order to have the best chance of actually finding something useful. You CAN NOT just jump into dayZ, wander in a random direction, and have fun.

This is a MAJOR MAJOR HORRIFIC design flaw. I'm not going anywhere, I'll be continuing to play this game, I am not rage quitting or whining, I just want to CLEARLY communicate my experience of learning this game. This game is simply bad when it comes to how it treats new players. It's not "difficult", it's bad. Survival depends on knowledge that is not intuitive, it not trained to players in any rational way, is not reasonably achievable. Even with extensive reading on the wiki and watching "how to survive" tutorials, for the most part you can't just spawn in any location, you have to quit and rejoin until you get the spawn locations close to where weapons actually spawn in order to give yourself a reasonable chance at an early game. That's bad, simply put. I don't expect every game to do this, but ideally you should be able to actually learn the majority of the gameplay through trial and error. DayZ has reached the point where this is impossible.

3. Teamwork is WAY WAY WAY overincentivized: You cannot generally fight a zombie hoard with a single weapon the way ammo is doled out in this game, at least not without taking a few hits. And then, as a solo player, you cannot heal those hits in any reasonable way. It's bad enough that you basically need buddies to actually face down a zombie encounter. Fair enough, the game wants to encourage players to play cooperatively, but seriously, bloodpacks are bullshit. There is literally a 10/1 return on the multiplayer healing items as opposed to the soloist healing items. Not only that, but there's no global chat in this game. If you don't have a microphone, well, dayz is just a shitty game. If you don't have a couple of buddies to play with from the getgo, or you don't have preemptive knowledge on how to actually find each other when the game starts, dayz basically says "well, fuck you"

Solutions: 1. Karma. Punish players who rely heavily on murder for personal rewards in the long run. Decrease the profitability of their start locations, start loadouts, give them bandit models that persist beyond death. Improve the spawning conditions of players who make the play experience more pleasant for others through donation of items, salvation of others from zombie attacks, and cooperation with healing. It's not realistic, but it's fun in the same way that all the other unrealistic things about this game are.

2. More intuitive start conditions. This isn't that hard. Spawning with the makarov alone was better than the current state. Healing items specifically would be nice. This could be tied to Karma. Starting players could have an innate karma bonus that would make the learning curve more fun for them before they've learned to become murderous assholes. Removing those hotspot locations that everyone tends to gravitate to in the random item generator system would be a good step forward as well. The more you decrease the advantage of memorizing the map, the more you improve the starting condition for new players.

3. You don't need to punish solo players soully for playing solo. It's bad enough that you can't really kill a zombie hoard while playing alone. You don't need restrictions against using base healing in the form of blood packs. 1 zombie offsets the healing of the second best healing item in the game in 2 hits. Where as a blood pack can single handedly offset the damage of being hit 20 times. It's literally absurd how abused solo players are. This is not appropriate incentive to not immediately kill eachother, it just promotes gang mentality, and rewards the few at the expense of the many. You don't even need to remove items like blood packs completely as a multiplayer item, you just need to make them less absurd in the degree at which they are advantageous vs the options available to a single player alone.

At the end of the day I'll keep on plugging, I just wanted to put in my 2 cents, and express how frustrated I've been with this game recently. Thanks.

I give you 5 stars sir,

That's something I've been addressing all along and you listed them all in order, great job.

I hope this fix will be soon, because as it is now, without metagaming, DayZ is a pretty boring game to play.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

I hope this fix will be soon' date=' because as it is now, without metagaming, DayZ is a pretty boring game to play.

[/quote']

I've put 400+ hours into an alpha test and haven't had a boring night yet. Every friend I've introduced to the game is similarly hooked and loving every second.

I really think, based on all you posted, that DayZ just isn't the game for you.

That's not a personal attack; it's really not. Just an observation. DayZ is not going to magically become the game you thought it was. It's not the game and it will never be that game.

[fml 29]

Too long didnt read. I said it was too long. I think all of you are retarded because you're not making any sense.

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. Maybe ask some one with mental faculties to explain what happened to you.

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. I said it was too long, someone asked if it was too short to read, i said, again, it was too long. I was right, this community is full of idiots and 10 yr olds.

[mcslaughter 14]

The game is not that hard... It is not "impossibly difficult." The game simply doesn't hold your hand like every other game in today's industry does. It's actually quite frustrating, seeing how developers have resorted to informing gamers on how every single thing in a game works before presenting it to them. There's no thought required from the gamers: They just read what's on the screen and then do it in mimic like some kind of chimp.

I'm not an advocate for exclusive retro gaming nor am I a hardcore retro gamer (Though I love retro games, of course.), but back then there was no "Press A to pick your nose." The game didn't tell you shit, and you had to figure it out for yourself.

DayZ isn't pants-shittingly difficult. It just requires a bit of thought and a pinch of patience. I knew literally nothing about Arma2 or DayZ before playing it other than that Arma is a military simulator and DayZ has zombies and bandits. I started playing just after 1.7.1.5 was released (Roughly a week and a half ago?) and I have never had an issue with not having a weapon on spawn or with zombie detection.

I'm not the kind of person to call someone a carebear or a CoD kiddie on the grounds that it poorly represents this community. However, the game is not as hard as people make it out to be and I believe that everyone who says so is only complaining because they died a few times and have become inanely frustrated with the game for no reason other than they aren't "super 1337" the minute they picked up the game.

Adapt and overcome, I say. Adapt and overcome.

[ZedsDeadBaby 2287]

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. I said it was too long' date=' someone asked if it was too short to read, i said, again, it was too long.

[/quote']

You know, in the time it took you to post all of the ridiculously asinine posts you have contributed to this thread, you could have just read the motherfucking OP and contributed to the discussion.

I was right, this community is full of idiots and 10 yr olds.

Yup. Your contributions to the thread have been SO mature and reasonable.

You're a straight up twat, dude. If you don't want to participate in the conversation, next time just keep that shit-chute you call a mouth shut.

[maizel 1]

Actually, I think the OP makes a very good post, and while I may not feel as strongly, all of the points the OP has brought up, I'd like to see changed in some magnitude or another as well.

Although sneaking past zombies is an acquired skill I've found, if anything I want more zombies, zombies outside of cities and bigger groups of them, rather than just numerous lone individuals.

I agree most strongly with point 1 though.

There is no reason not to kill any player you see. I don;t mind dying, but this game has the potential to be so much more than just a free for all with some zombies.

[peliluola@gmail.com 28]

I like the karma feature OP talked about. Spawning with better items when having good karma isn't realistic but it drives the players to play in a realistic way i.e. not just killing each other as this would not happen in real DayZ apocalypse.

[fml 29]

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. I said it was too long' date=' someone asked if it was too short to read, i said, again, it was too long.

[/quote']

You know, in the time it took you to post all of the ridiculously asinine posts you have contributed to this thread, you could have just read the motherfucking OP and contributed to the discussion.

I was right, this community is full of idiots and 10 yr olds.

Yup. Your contributions to the thread have been SO mature and reasonable.

You're a straight up twat, dude. If you don't want to participate in the conversation, next time just keep that shit-chute you call a mouth shut.

You're a straight up pussy ass bitch! Change your tampon and stop stalking me. You're mad because I owned your horrible logic. Keep your mouth shut because you are the worst person in this community. The only thing you have done is damage the player base. Every post I see from you is hostile and vulgar, and every singe person that replies to you is offended. Maybe you need to hop off the high horse and get the fuck off the computer.

[septuscap 42]

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. I said it was too long' date=' someone asked if it was too short to read, i said, again, it was too long. I was right, this community is full of idiots and 10 yr olds.

[/quote']

You poor soul. I will take 30 seconds out of my life to explain -- You said tl;dr, some one said "herp derp" and asked if THAT (saying "herp derp") was short enough for you.

Then you spun off like a moron.

[fml 29]

Unfortunately you're the retarded one. I said it was too long' date=' someone asked if it was too short to read, i said, again, it was too long. I was right, this community is full of idiots and 10 yr olds.

[/quote']

You poor soul. I will take 30 seconds out of my life to explain -- You said tl;dr, some one said "herp derp" and asked if THAT (saying "herp derp") was short enough for you.

Then you spun off like a moron.

he said "it" not "that" so I was thinking he was refering to the quote rather than his own sentence. Thanks for clarifying.

---

Also, I "spun off like a moron" because one of the first replies was "do you even know what tldr even means?"

That was completely nonsensical if you look at what he is quoting.

[maxviklund@gmail.com 0]

I spawned into DayZ without watching anything and HAD TONS OF FUN.

I got sniped in the head while looting through Elektro while HAVING TONS OF FUN.

Just because some ppl get really butthurt when their PvE Carebear character dies, does not mean it should be removed. Fight fire with fire, afterall, DayZ in its current state is a PvP game.

[Gerbe1 8]

I played this game with no prior knowledge of how ARMA II worked or anything of the sort. I purposely avoided using online maps and help.

My first life I died because of blood loss because I didn't know how to use a bandage (yes I did admit that) --- It was the most fun I have had with a video game in a long, long time. Just the first life, lasting only half an hour. At the time it wasn't in the current state of course, I spawned with the makarov, but I have since died and respawned and started again successfully.

Subsequent lives were marked not by the loot I found (I had found high powered weapons - even a heli crash sight with M107's - which I left behind, because they were useless for me, they were too loud) but by things I had achieved. Eg. I made it into and out of Cherno alive, people may not think that much of an achievement, but at the time it was, watching all the chatter from players who had "broken their bones" and listening to the shots when players went to help and chuckling, because I had realised what was going on without finding out from first hand experience. Of course, I chuckled later because at the time I was freaking out... in a game? A computer game that made me feel my heart beating in my chest?

This game is not broken. It is brilliant. I think though, most of this has probably already been said, I just wanted to say that this is one person who came in with no experience and enjoyed every second and every glitch of it.