For God's sake, SAY SOMETHING!

[Rich (DayZ) 18]

I've spent the last few days NOT shooting people I've come across, and instead trying to talk to them.

Nobody ever talks back. Some have run away, most have turned violent.

Why is this? Possible reasons:

1) They don't speak English. I play on European servers early in the morning. But I would expect anyone to be able to type 'hi' into chat in response to my greeting. They don't.

2) They don't know how to. Some people are idiots and haven't bound a PTT key or a chat key.

3) They don't realise Global chat is turned off. This is a key one, I think. On launch, the game defaults to the Global channel, but Global chat is turned off. Do people even know? They can see themselves TALK on global chat, so it's difficult to blame them for not realising no-one else can. This morning I joined a server and spawned in a barn next to a guy with a torch. I flashed my torch at him, did the upper-body wiggle thing, and he wiggled back at me. I tried typing, talking and telling him to use direct chat. Eventually he shot me in the head. Can we PLEASE default to the Direct channel on spawn? I really think a lot of people have no idea how to change channel, or even that Global doesn't broadcast. I sometimes see them pause as though typing, but I never see anything. Why isn't Direct on by default?

4) They are arseholes. Honestly, I have become so enraged at nobody even trying to talk back to me anymore, and then getting shot, that I am giving up. Until there is some kind of incentive to directly cooperate, I am going to shoot everyone I see in the face immediately. Sorry, but this morning drove me over the edge and now I'd rather talk to a zombie than a foreigner who shoots me when he can't understand what I'm saying.

[Addicted (DayZ) 32]

Or they could be shy. Or just not in the mood to chat to random people.

No need to accuse people of being idiots or arseholes just because they don't feel like talking to you.

[Caviano 287]

I've met some nice people in my days. They've joined my mumble, and have become part of the team. I saved this one guy named Brandon from a train of zombies. I saw him running and called out: "I'm friendly, turn back and I'll help you axe those assholes"

He did so, and since then we've rolled together.

[Anethma 2]

I'm an asshole.

You want to talk, I want to shoot you.

[Catman (DayZ) 23]

I'll talk to you but that's if we don't shoot each other first.

Only seems to happen when I bump into people at the coast, much easier to trust someone when they don't have a gun :P

[DZR_Mikhail 2424]

I've spent the last few days NOT shooting people I've come across, and instead trying to talk to them.

Nobody ever talks back. Some have run away, most have turned violent.

Why is this?

Because you take random chances and haven't visited this forum to do social recruiting. There are plenty of english-speaking people around here which you can contact and NOT ANONYMOUSLY team up with and lessen your risks to miniumu while enjoying a good game with good people.

You made a good step to write about it here. Good luck and take care.

[Proceed (DayZ) 11]

I also dont get that, i started playing a week ago and managed to get some quite good gear, at least for my understanding ...

But i was almost dead, had like 400 blood, I walked to the starting area between kamenka and kamorovo, hoping to meet an unarmed new spawned payer who can make a transfusion on me, well i met one who was being chased by two zombies, i killed the zombies and told the guy to come to me and make the transfusion, I would give him a xm 1014 .

I dropped the bloodbag on the ground he took it, saluted somehow, i guess he had to type some shit in the chat to salute, and ran away, not very far but he tried ...

Almost all of my communication attemts looked like that, people were not replieng, not in chat neither with voip, on the same day i came across a guy who i asked whether he can here me, he wrote "yes" so my mike is woking, people who do not reply will be shot instantly, i dont know what the fuck they are doing, when i started this mod my first thought was "which are the communication keys ?" .

[hunterkilla 67]

I find at least 50-60% of the time you will get no reply either on txt or voice. I often say "friendly" and if no reply then warn them if I get no reply I will consider them hostile... often you will get a " im friendly " reply as they realise its safer to say that than nothing. if not you either shoot them or watch them to see how they react.... Shame it doesnt default to direct communications.

[Rich (DayZ) 18]

Because you take random chances and haven't visited this forum to do social recruiting. There are plenty of english-speaking people around here which you can contact and NOT ANONYMOUSLY team up with and lessen your risks to miniumu while enjoying a good game with good people.

You made a good step to write about it here. Good luck and take care.

I'm not actually trying to recruit. I don't want to team up with them. I have friends I play with already. I'm just wondering why people never talk back when I've decided not to shoot them. I honestly think it's the Global chat thing to blame.

[Rich (DayZ) 18]

Or they could be shy. Or just not in the mood to chat to random people.

No need to accuse people of being idiots or arseholes just because they don't feel like talking to you.

I didn't mean to be overly accusatory. I actually think the problem is one of language or people typing on Global Chat. When people can't communicate, they are more likely to become aggressive, so really this is about making communication easier. I've probably clouded that issue by being pissed off about constantly getting shot for my efforts when I've clearly had the drop on someone but decided to let them live!

[derailed000 20]

I bet my beans on option 4)

[Proceed (DayZ) 11]

I'm not actually trying to recruit. I don't want to team up with them. I have friends I play with already. I'm just wondering why people never talk back when I've decided not to shoot them. I honestly think it's the Global chat thing to blame.

...When people can't communicate, they are more likely to become aggressive...

^

This !

[Astronomer (DayZ) 16]

Step 1) Survive the end of human civilization.

Step 2) Boldly approach a probably terrified or paranoid and likely armed survivor with everything to lose, or perhaps just a mentally unstable individual. Be sure to greet them directly, and as if completely oblivious to both the dangers of human encounters, and the fact that they may consider what you are doing an invasion of their personal space.

Step 3) Make your location obvious to them, perhaps even standing in plain view at a distance which they feel is uncomfortably close. Start discussing the nutritional benefits of Frank & Beans and terrible taste of Sardines with them, or any other subject that they almost certainly don't care about or don't want to hear.

Step 4) Ensure that if they don't shoot you immediately out of fear or greed, they shoot you a short spell later just to make you stop fucking talking.

Step 5) Complain on the forums that everybody is either stupid, foreign, an asshole, or a combination thereof. After all, you're a beautiful snowflake, and anybody with no interest in talking to you must be in some way deficient.

[perestain 33]

You try to TALK in a deatchmatch game?

You're supposed to shoot people, not talk to them. At least thats what the game mechanics force upon you if you care about security and aquiring weapons and equipment.

Don't expect people to talk back. They won't.

If I hear you talk, I'll try to kill you ASAP if I have a weapon.

Uh, and don't listen to all those apologetics claiming how this was "realistic or natural behaviour" in an apocalypse. This is baseless conjecture people pull out of their asses to have an excuse for shooting other people. The real answer is much more simple: Its a videogame that heavily rewards shooting other people in early game and doesnt have any content besides pvp in lategame. Thats why people run around and shoot everybody. Not because it is "realistic" or believable, which it isn't at all btw.

The whole idea of explaining gameplay behaviour resulting from ingame constraints with fictional real-life situations is pretty flawed, tbh.

Edited July 19, 2012 by perestain

[Proceed (DayZ) 11]

Step 1) Survive the end of human civilization.

Step 2) Boldly approach a probably terrified or paranoid and likely armed survivor with everything to lose, or perhaps just a mentally unstable individual. Be sure to greet them directly, and as if completely oblivious to both the dangers of human encounters, and the fact that they may consider what you are doing an invasion of their personal space.

Step 3) Make your location obvious to them, perhaps even standing in plain view at a distance which they feel is uncomfortably close. Start discussing the nutritional benefits of Frank & Beans and terrible taste of Sardines with them, or any other subject that they almost certainly don't care about or don't want to hear.

Step 4) Ensure that if they don't shoot you immediately out of fear or greed, they shoot you a short spell later just to make you stop fucking talking.

Step 5) Complain on the forums that everybody is either stupid, foreign, an asshole, or a combination thereof. After all, you're a beautiful snowflake, and anybody with no interest in talking to you must be in some way deficient.

Step 1) Post shitty instructions on the forums, implieing made up things

Edited July 19, 2012 by Proceed

[Astronomer (DayZ) 16]

Step 1) Post shitty instructions on the forums, implieing made up things

And what falsehood did I imply? Please friend, elaborate.

[vitdom 56]

FFS!!! Just shoot them, stop complaining. People who expect to play a difficult multiplayer zombie survival simulator with rare equipment almost nowhere to be seen, without being able to talk, are handicapped players and should be shot to relieve the rest of us. You know it's true and start acting like so!

Edited July 19, 2012 by Vitdom

[Proceed (DayZ) 11]

And what falsehood did I imply? Please friend, elaborate.

The whole point ?

Nobody wants to make this a chatroom where we are just looking for the next player to tell him some boring shit, like you discribed it in your post, is basically:

You suddenly see someone "firendly" - no reply starring at you with the hatchet in his hands, or same situation in Cherno "friendly" to a guy who enters your building, no reply at all.

I know that there is no guarantee that they wont shoot me if they reply, and maybe every second one will do that, but without any communication there cant be survivors, but only bandits ...

Edited July 19, 2012 by Proceed

[Astronomer (DayZ) 16]

The whole point ?

Nobody wants to make this a chatroom, like you dicribed it in your post, is basically "firendly" - no reply starring at you with the hatchet in their hands, or same situation in Cherno "friendly" to a guy who enters your building no reply at all.

I know that there is no guarantee that they wont shoot me if they reply, and maybe every second one will do that, but without any communication there cant be survivors, but only bandits ...

I didn't describe it to be like a chatroom. I described the situation I did (which yes, I know I exaggerated for effect) to highlight the fact that this guy comes on here and insults a huge swathe of the community, all because people dared to not talk to him in a scary survival game where other players are the biggest threat, typing makes you a sitting duck, and using a mic advertises your presence and rough location to every player in the immediate area. Why the fuck should they risk their lives just to talk to the OP?

I don't know about you, but I sure as fuck don't want to talk to other survivors, and that doesn't make me foreign, stupid, or an asshole. It means I trust nobody, and that I survive my minimizing my interaction with others. Until the mechanics for communicating with other survivors who you aren't on third party voicecomms with are improved.

My original post is a caricature of what he just did, and not an unfair one either.

In short the point was: Don't make presumptuous remarks that blame the playerbase for responding to the mechanics with which they are presented. They are just trying to stay alive, and if that means not talking to your over-friendly ass, that's what must happen. Address the mechanics so that people can try to cooperate without it getting them killed 90% of the time. Perhaps now you understand why I wrote what I did.

[Rich (DayZ) 18]

I didn't describe it to be like a chatroom. I described the situation I did (which yes, I know I exaggerated for effect) to highlight the fact that this guy comes on here and insults a huge swathe of the community, all because people dared to not talk to him in a scary survival game where other players are the biggest threat, typing makes you a sitting duck, and using a mic advertises your presence and rough location to every player in the immediate area. Why the fuck should they risk their lives just to talk to the OP?

In short the point was: Don't make presumptuous remarks that blame the playerbase for responding to the mechanics with which they are presented. They are just trying to stay alive, and if that means not talking to your over-friendly ass, that's what must happen. Address the mechanics so that people can try to cooperate without it getting them killed 90% of the time. Perhaps now you understand why I wrote what I did.

You know, I actually laughed out loud at your caricature post. It was pretty funny. In fact, I almost gave you my beans! But then I read this, which indicates that you've actually misunderstood what I said and are now basically insulting me.

Here's the thing. I think the MECHANICS of the game are flawed. I think the game should default to the Direct channel and give people a reason to cooperate. Otherwise, as I have said elsewhere, people who can't communicate are more likely to be aggressive.

I think the main thing I have a problem with is your enormous array of blatant assumptions about my motives and situations (and you say I'm presumptuous!). I don't just run up to people and demand to talk. I haven't insulted anyone in the community. I haven't complained that people don't "dare" to talk. You have set up a strawman version of what I originally said and attacked that. It is disingenuous and unhelpful. As I said, I liked your original satire, but you've gone beyond that now.

So just to make things clear, here's what happened this morning that pissed me off enough to write the post.

I spawned in a shed north of Cherno with another survivor already there. He had his torch out and hadn't seen me. Instead of shooting him, I said "hi, I'm friendly", took out my torch and wiggled my upper body. He looked at me and did the same. I typed "Do you speak English?". No response. I typed "Use the direct channel, Global doesn't work." He seemed to pause for a bit, as if he was typing; then there was no response. "I'm just looking for car parts." I said.

There were only THREE people on the server at this point, so it was an unlikely meeting to begin with. I was hoping the lack of competition for plentiful resources would be a deterrent to violence. He had a rifle on his shoulder. I figure he probably had enough that he wouldn't shoot me for what I had.

We both moved around the barn for a minute. I thought the tension was starting to ease. Then he shot me in the head without saying anything.

So yeah, I was pissed off. Not because I died or because I lost my gear (again), but because now, whenever I see anyone, I'm going to have to shoot them straight in the face.

When the mod first came out, I actually enjoyed the uncertainty and tension of meeting another survivor, and I guess I was just trying to bring that back in the early hours of a dark morning on a near-empty server. Stupid of me, clearly.

[Proceed (DayZ) 11]

I didn't describe it to be like a chatroom. I described the situation I did (which yes, I know I exaggerated for effect) to highlight the fact that this guy comes on here and insults a huge swathe of the community, all because people dared to not talk to him in a scary survival game where other players are the biggest threat, typing makes you a sitting duck, and using a mic advertises your presence and rough location to every player in the immediate area. Why the fuck should they risk their lives just to talk to the OP?

I don't know about you, but I sure as fuck don't want to talk to other survivors, and that doesn't make me foreign, stupid, or an asshole. It means I trust nobody, and that I survive my minimizing my interaction with others. Until the mechanics for communicating with other survivors who you aren't on third party voicecomms with are improved.

My original post is a caricature of what he just did, and not an unfair one either.

In short the point was: Don't make presumptuous remarks that blame the playerbase for responding to the mechanics with which they are presented. They are just trying to stay alive, and if that means not talking to your over-friendly ass, that's what must happen. Address the mechanics so that people can try to cooperate without it getting them killed 90% of the time. Perhaps now you understand why I wrote what I did.

I did not make any presumtions or was blaming anyone, the whole point of this thread is "if I see someone and he does not reply, I will shoot him !"

Edited July 19, 2012 by Proceed

[Bad Science 23]

Simply making the only usable chat direct and setting it on the channel by default would help a great deal. Many solo players do not expect to talk to people so never bother to even bind a key to it which is most of the problem but there is nothing you can do about it. If the player does not make aggressive moves or try to run, I typically give basic instructions on how to change channels and type in direct. The other obvious problem is non-english speaking players.

[Astronomer (DayZ) 16]

You know, I actually laughed out loud at your caricature post. It was pretty funny. In fact, I almost gave you my beans! But then I read this, which indicates that you've actually misunderstood what I said and are now basically insulting me.

Here's the thing. I think the MECHANICS of the game are flawed. I think the game should default to the Direct channel and give people a reason to cooperate. Otherwise, as I have said elsewhere, people who can't communicate are more likely to be aggressive.

I think the main thing I have a problem with is your enormous array of blatant assumptions about my motives and situations (and you say I'm presumptuous!). I don't just run up to people and demand to talk. I haven't insulted anyone in the community. I haven't complained that people don't "dare" to talk. You have set up a strawman version of what I originally said and attacked that. It is disingenuous and unhelpful. As I said, I liked your original satire, but you've gone beyond that now.

So just to make things clear, here's what happened this morning that pissed me off enough to write the post.

I spawned in a shed north of Cherno with another survivor already there. He had his torch out and hadn't seen me. Instead of shooting him, I said "hi, I'm friendly", took out my torch and wiggled my upper body. He looked at me and did the same. I typed "Do you speak English?". No response. I typed "Use the direct channel, Global doesn't work." He seemed to pause for a bit, as if he was typing; then there was no response. "I'm just looking for car parts." I said.

There were only THREE people on the server at this point, so it was an unlikely meeting to begin with. I was hoping the lack of competition for plentiful resources would be a deterrent to violence. He had a rifle on his shoulder. I figure he probably had enough that he wouldn't shoot me for what I had.

We both moved around the barn for a minute. I thought the tension was starting to ease. Then he shot me in the head without saying anything.

So yeah, I was pissed off. Not because I died or because I lost my gear (again), but because now, whenever I see anyone, I'm going to have to shoot them straight in the face.

When the mod first came out, I actually enjoyed the uncertainty and tension of meeting another survivor, and I guess I was just trying to bring that back in the early hours of a dark morning on a near-empty server. Stupid of me, clearly.

I meant no great offence, and of course I don't think you do things like mindlessly run up to people and talk about sardines, that was just in jest.

I just thought the possible reasons you gave were unfair because they seem not to include the possibility that the person you meet just isn't interested in communicating to begin with. I am this type of player, and the reason is the flawed mechanics that you mention yourself. It's a huge risk, it's clunky, typing leaves you a sitting duck, and the mic both advertises your location and obscures your hearing when you're speaking. To boot, cooperating has no benefit unless it's a prolonged thing and you use 3rd party voice comms.

For these reasons I am completely asocial ingame, because it's never, ever been worth the risk. It has, almost without exception always got me killed when I try to talk to people. In this post you blame the mechanics, but it seems like your first post blames the player.

I agree that what happened to you is really stupid and annoying, and I completely agree with you about the mechanics being flawed. But when it comes to communication as it stands, I don't think the possible reasons you gave are fair. I mean, would you agree that the reasons you gave can be summarised succinctly as they're either:

1) Stupid

2) Don't understand how it works

3) Foreign

4) A prick?

The only time I've had meaningful exchanges were where I was so desparate I had to beg for a blood bag in side chat because I was passing out every 10 seconds and had nothing to lose, and when I ran headfirst into somebody trapped at the NWAF.

[fearz0r 128]

Or they could be shy. Or just not in the mood to chat to random people.

No need to accuse people of being idiots or arseholes just because they don't feel like talking to you.

Spot on. I was going to give a constructive response to try and help the OP, but after reading his post-turned-rant I've decided not to.

[Rich (DayZ) 18]

I agree that what happened to you is really stupid and annoying, and I completely agree with you about the mechanics being flawed. But when it comes to communication as it stands, I don't think the possible reasons you gave are fair. I mean, would you agree that the reasons you gave can be summarised succinctly as they're either:

1) Stupid

2) Don't understand how it works

3) Foreign

4) A prick?

Not quite. I would say:

1) Don't speak enough English.

2) New to the game. I was probably being unnecessarily pejorative here; it's more about being a noob than an idiot.

3) A flawed default option and a confusing UI make simple communications unnecessarily hard.

4) They will lure me into a false sense of security and then shoot me in the back, despite my obviously friendly intentions (therefore ruling out self-preservation as a sole motive). I guess 'Prick' is as good a word for it as any :)

Remember, these aren't reasons why someone would shoot me and take my stuff, they're reasons why someone would not respond to any comms, but hang around the vicinity long enough on a near-empty server to seem friendly before shooting me.

Really, the whole point of my post was 3), but my irritation probably clouded it.

In summary: Please, dev team, can you make the default channel 'Direct' rather than 'Global'. At least then I would know people were deliberately not talking to me, rather than just failing to communicate for technical reasons.