Favorite experience so far

[craft (DayZ) 51]

I've been playing the game for about a week now, and have been having endless fun with it. I've killed maybe a couple dozen zeds and have died at least as many times. My only interactions with other players have involved dying at the wrong end of a gun, in spite of the fact that I haven't advanced enough in the game, gear-wise, to have been carrying anything much more valuable than an Alice pack or a canteen. Anyway I've grown wary of humans and have avoided them like the plague -- far more carefully than I've avoided the zeds.

Last night I spawned a new character near Elektro and was crawling around the town looking to do the initial gear-up, and made my way to the church. When I came around the corner and through the door, I found a player inside crouching over the corpse of another player. He looked up and saw me; weaponless, I ran around the corner and dove behind some bushes. I thought maybe I'd been quick enough that he hadn't seen where I'd gone, but he had -- he stopped near the bushes with his gun trained on me. I figured I'd rather die standing up, so I got up and exited the bush. I stood there for about five seconds, waiting for the shot, but it never came. Instead he lowered his weapon, crouched, and ran back into the church. After taking a few deep breaths I followed him and scavenged a few minor items from inside, including whatever my new buddy had left on the guy he'd just killed.

There's no real point to this post -- it was just a novel experience and I felt like doing some cheerleading. This game is certainly rough around the edges, and it has its flaws, but any environment that can give rise to that kind of organic tension between two players is one worth sticking with. The fact that the tensest moment I've felt in a zombie game had little to do with zombies says something about where DayZ's real strength lies. I've been playing video games for nearly 30 years, and I don't think I've ever had an experience where my fate in-game was left in the hands of a complete stranger. I can't wait to log back in tonight and try to stay alive for another hour.

[BobofTibia 11]

You my friend have an encounter with a sparer.

That or he just didn't think a freshie was worth aggro-ing all the nearby zeds.

Either way, I love reading story's like these.

Edited July 12, 2012 by BobofTibia

[craft (DayZ) 51]

Just feeling the need to relate the polar-opposite experience I had last night. Found a military rifle in the fire station in Elektro, went downstairs and came across a guy wielding a hatchet. Trying to pay my previous, positive experience forward, I lowered my weapon and he backed off into a different room. I left the building, went prone, and started to crawl away. Just then my legs broke; sonofabitch had attacked me from behind.

I would love to say I'll be a kind soul in the future and let my fellow players go about their business in-game, but I don't think that's going to happen. Once I get any even remotely desirable gear, I think it's more likely I'll just kill on sight. It's kind of too bad that the game dynamic fosters essentially unprovoked violence -- if this were the real apocalypse, it makes far more sense for the survivors not to kill each other -- but I still dig the tension. My only regret (besides losing the gun, which was the best I'd found so far) is that I didn't note the guy's name so I can hunt him down and shoot him in the face.