DayZ and Basic Human Nature

[bondono 1]

I find that the longer I survive the less friendly I become.

When I'm fresh off the beach and all I've got to lose is a Makarov I'm a lot more likely to try making friends.

After I've gathered some solid gear and spent hours crawling through zombie infested towns and creeping from cover to cover I'm less prone to take chances.

The great thing about this game is that there are no artificial stats to separate players. You can be the meanest, baddest bandit this side of the apocalypse. You make one wrong move; however, and your head gets blasted off by a newbie with a Makarov.

I don't trust people. If I've got an ALICE pack or an assault rifle I just know even the nicest survivor is tempted. If I'm in a good mood I'll try to hide and avoid people. If I'm not in such a good mood I'll just take a shot from afar.

It's callous and it's brutal, but it keeps me alive. I spend a lot of time out north, and I know the survivors I encounter out there have been kicking around for a long time. They aren't like those guys who run into Elektro for half an hour, die, run back, die, etc. Those guys are practically playing a game of Counter-Strike for all their lives matter.

Many of these guys I meet out north have been alive for days at a time. They've spent just as much time, if not more, creeping and crawling as I have. They've fended off bandits, blasted zombies with their backs to the wall, stumbled half starved and bleeding to death from building to building in search of supplies to keep them going.

I know when I put them down I'm also putting an inelegant end to a long and storied adventure.

Better them than me. There's no place for kindness in Chernarus.

[BlackAlpha 12]

The average life expectancy dropped rapidly yesterday from around 3 hours to only 30 minuets' date=' is this due to the increase in Zombies or the fact that everyone was placed back into the coast causing more PvP kills?

Or maybe its the huge influx of new players? Who knows!

[/quote']

Actually, it's a bug. The counter currently does not show the hours.

[Zombie Squirrel 5]

Disregard morality.

Acquire Beans.

There is not so much difference in pronouncing "Braaaainz" and "Beeeanz", is there :D

[BubbaWilkins 0]

You either care how something effects your fellow man (player) or you don't. Everything else is emergent behavior resulting from that simple truth.

Granted, being a bandit in game doesn't mean you're psychotic, but it does mean you can be an asshole. Makes you no different than the asshole at the beach that likes to go kicking sandcastles that others have built. Nobody likes that guy.

[CopperBarron 4]

You either care how something effects your fellow man (player) or you don't. Everything else is emergent behavior resulting from that simple truth.

Granted' date=' being a bandit in game doesn't mean you're psychotic, but it does mean you can be an asshole. Makes you no different than the asshole at the beach that likes to go kicking sandcastles that others have built. Nobody likes that guy.

[/quote']

I agree here.

[Parity 0]

Spot a player

|

V

Did he spot you? -> Yes -> Kill

|

V

No

|

V

Can you avoid? -> No -> Kill

|

V

Yes

|

V

Carry on, collect beans, profit.

That's how I roll.

The only decision I find hard to make is when I'm about to enter a building, do I call out in direct chat/voice if someone is holed up in there or do I sneak in? If I come upon a person without notifying, he may get the drop on me and will fire out of self defense OR will my notification mean they know I'm coming and are ready? There's a chance of the person being friendly and avoiding a confrontation. Choices, choices.

[Terrorfex 0]

I cant kill another player for no reason.

Just today i was crawling through the woods and saw some guy near a lil' town. He had a pistol and was slowly creeping towards a barn, i had him on my AK sight. But i simply could not kill him. He had nothing i needed.

A few minutes later he killed me.

I felt kinda bad but that's life.

The only time i kill other players is when i know they are bandits or server hoppers.

[Morietti 0]

Well, usually i try to aviod other people, exept the ones im in group with.

So if i see someone, first thing i do is to take cover > did he see me?

If yes > call out in global chat if he is friendly

If no > Able to aviod?

If friendly > Move carefully towards him close to cover > try to stay at range if possible > move along

If enemy/not responding > Can i go around? > If yes = Profit, If no = Take the shot

I feel like a dick when i kill someone, cause i hate when ive spent hours getting items to get shot in the back. So i try to avoid doing it to others, but if they got range, in like a tower, and they dont respond, and i think they've seen me, or aim to where i am, ill take the shot.

[eltdown 0]

I've been playing my current character for four hours and have not seen any other non-zombies. At all. The problem has never arisen yet for this one.

My anxiousness around other players runs higher as I aquire more gear - any player might want to kill me for my beans, or fun, whilst newer players might want to kill me for my AK47. It's also heightened at the moment by the fact I'm north of Berezino where I know a lot of groups have a "shoot first" policy (and I'm likely out-equipped by a lot of the players in that area).

Overall though, I'll avoid anyone I don't know and only shoot people who point guns or are so rude as to actually shoot at me.

[thealgerian 2]

I reached the North East Airfield for the first time an hour ago, after a long long time without dying, I had quite decent equipement.

Then I saw a guy, climbing some kind of big red and white iron tower (don't know how you call this in english), I was hidden in a bush, I waited for him to be on top.

I never ever shot anyone who didn't shot first before, but this guy, I saw he had a sniper rifle in his hands.

I tried to scan him with my crosshair to see his name because I've been observing people over the chatbox talking and I pretty much know who's friendly and who isn't.

But it didn't work, i couldn't see his name, he was scanning the airfield with his rifle and I knew if I let him live and he was unfriendly (which 95% of players are these days), I wouldn't stand a chance, if I crossed the airfield, if I went anywhere he would snipe me and ruin all my efforts.

So I took the shot, with my silenced MP5, i aimed at his head and I took the first shot.

I don't even know if he died, I didn't notice he had a whole crew waiting for him at the bottom of the tower, they searched for me for like 2 minutes, then found me and shot me down as I was trying to retreat.

[3rdparty 229]

Tbh matey I personally think that to put forward that violence and back stabbing is an aspect of human nature, you could just as easily argue that love and compassion is, something that is clearly missing from the game (but not from the forums XD). So to me that speaks of the authenticity of immersion of the game, or more the connection that you build with your character. Not that im criticizing it, but hear me out because im going to jump to an example that may at first seem like a troll.This is an interesting intelligent OP so i hope ye browsers recgonise this isnt a trolling bump.

But consider the blatent taboo conepts(no threads necessary) that have been mentioned, for example cannibalism, torture.. procreation :S All of them not worth discussing here in detail but to me raise an interesting question about how far a person can feel bound to their character without wanting to pursue (what i believe is the fundamental human instinct) curiosity and act out of character.

Take for example Walking Dead, im sure a few of you have seen it. Pathetically watered down compared to the comics, the story is emotional trauma and is not the best artwork or best dialogue but is highly immersive, and to anyone who reads them, i just read #100 :'( Its immersive because its a blend of different perspectives and peeps own morality thrown into increasingly darker situations, And coming out with an experience to how the event played out

I know it may be hard to acknowledge some taboo busting actions, but theyve already been covered in many other media styles for decades, let alone in some games.

To me an interesting social experiment would be to see after an initial introduction, whether players would keep on pursuing brutal acts, or would they recoil in the persistence of some players and hunt them.