Ten Reasons why Kill on Sight is 'Realistic'

[jonahcutter 51]

If you really believe that if this was a 'real' simulation and there was 'consequences' to your actions if you murder someone and people would for some reason 'not' kill each other in a zombie apocalypse. You're deluded. Shooting on sight might just be your key to survival - any interaction you take with another person would be entirely at your own risk. Who's to say they won't just shoot you first?

TEN Reasons why I would kill anyone I met in real life during a zombie apoc:

(assuming they ignored warnings to keep away .. or I just needed something)

1. Supplies. They are short, and two mouths to feed is harder than one. And face it, you might just be carrying something I can use.

2. Liability. If at any point they are bitten / converted / hungry / infected / hurt I would have to use rationed supplies of medical gear to support and/or aid them. Medical gear that I could use on myself.

3. Trust. Who is this stranger? Are they going to kill me for my limited supplies? How can I trust him/her. There is a high possibility at the point in which I sleep I may never wake up again.

4. Experience. Everyone reacts to a disaster differently. There are some that huddle together and pray, others that loot the rubble of a city shattering earthquake and others again that simply learn rapidly to adapt to their surroundings. There is no telling what kind of murderous experiences this person has had to do to survive. Including killing friends, family members and relatives.

5. Fear. Quite simply at the point where a world has been turned upside down I'd be petrified of just about everything. A realistic approach to any situation. Panic sets in and fight or flight takes over - trust goes out the window.

6. Disease. I don't know who you are, where you've been or what you are carrying. My survival may rely on what little medical supplies I could scavenge together and in a world where a cold or diarrhea could be fatal - I want you as far away from me as possible.

7. Mental Distress. Many disorders occur during high stress situations, including mental distress, dementia, over self preservation, delusion etc. There is no telling what kind of mental state a person is in after that kind of traumatic experience. There is also no telling what mental state I would be in - you have to factor in the fact that you might just go bat shit crazy. You never know, maybe its you who are the crazed bandit that finds power in numbers and goes around killing and taking what you need. Whats stopping you?

8. Bandit Packs. I hate to say this but yes, it would happen. People would band together and forge a new life for themselves, strongest first. Weakest second. The meek are not the mighty.

9. Oppression. Women would become a commodity. People have needs and without law and order, people take what they want. And often kill for it. A persons rights no longer exist when there is no law or repercussions. I for one would immediately turn away anyone of female gender as a companion due to their pull and / or value in such a situation. (I know this is sexist, but lets be 'realistic' here for a minute.)

10. Area Denial. If you're making a living in a 256 x 256 square mile radius and there are fifty other people or more trying to stay alive in the same area - you're going to have some conflict. Zombies or no someones going to want to take someone out. Whats mine is mine, whats yours can also be mine.

So saying 'IN A REAL SITUATION!!' is moot really ... in a 'real' situation it would be doggy dog and people would kill each other just as viciously as they do in the game.

As for being shot in game, if you take the chance to help someone out / take them out completely its an unrealistic in game decision. A lot of people play this game for the experience - and once that experience is over they turn to banditry. What else are you going to do with an AS50, a backpack full of ammo and a range finder. You could die and loot it all again or you can shoot people.

The problem is, the mod in its current form does not come close yet to creating the absolutely desperate conditions to engender such large-scale, sociopath behavior.

It's pretty easy in the mod, once you learn spawn locations, to kit yourself up pretty good. Food, drink, basic weapons, lots of ammo are pretty easy to come by once you learn the basics. Hell, once you get a hatchet and matches and a canteen, you literally have no reason to kill anyone. With those three items, you have zero reason to kill other players for survival. You don't even need the bigger backpacks or other "luxuries" (which are easy to come by anyway, my last toon eneded up walking away from probably almost a dozen Alice packs because I already had one).

There is no reason currently in the mod to take things to such desperate extremes as you describe. So it boils down to camping for l33t weapons, and basic indiscriminate murder without consequence (deathmatching).

If this mod wants to be something special, and move beyond being a noob-trap for deathmatchers to hunt (with zombies as the hook), it needs to create those desperate conditions for everyone: survivor and bandit.

Make the mod harder, and equally hard, for everyone.

It can't do what it currently is doing: making things more difficult for survivors and easy for bandits/murderes.

Edited July 20, 2012 by jonahcutter

[thesledge 0]

The chances of you surviving alone are very slim. Regardless of whether or not you want to group up, other people will. And they will be the ones in charge. Strength in numbers. The only reason other people are kill-on-sight in this game is because killing them has no moral or psychological repercussions. Not to mention the fact that there are no long term objectives such as rebuilding society, repopulating, etc. Killing people is the only thing to do once you have good gear. It is the current "end game" for a lot of players.

Now, am I saying that there wouldn't be murderers and lone wolves in a real world scenario? Of course not. They would exist, but they would be a very small percentage of the survivors. I don't know why people have this notion that in the event of a catastrophe/apocalypse every person will become a psychotic, murderous sociopath overnight. Believe it or not, the overwhelming majority of people ARE good.

[Scerun 227]

Most of these don't seem very applicable to DayZ, though. Furthermore, KoS -isn't- real.

[texcat11 11]

I can list ten reasons to kill a newborn, but does it make it right?