In Praise of DayZ, More is Needed!

[Kellanved 5]

The forums are used by lots of people to raise issues and complain about things, every forum is like this, well at least every forum I’ve ever been on but there are not enough posts full of praise and/or highlighting what’s so good about DayZ.

So I’d like to make one.

As Rocket has said, this game is not so much a game as it is a social experiment, I can see how this is true but is doesn’t explain why I’m so hooked on it. I’m not a psychology student, have little interest in sociology and generally dislike ‘other people’ or at least ‘other groups of people’. DayZ strikes me as a giant prisoner’s dilemma experiment (http://en.wikipedia....isoners_dilemma) with guns, zombie and baked beans thrown in for good measure. I’m sure you’re all familiar with this, work together and all profit, betray and you profit but others suffer, all betray and all suffer.

Hands up, how many people started playing DayZ, said ‘friendly’ to the 1st or 2nd person they met in game, got betrayed and then never trusted another person? That the game is quite hard initially got me very enthusiastic (I like difficult games, it reminds me of my childhood), that it was trying to be as realistic as possible (apart from being able to run all day over rough terrain) made me break my general rule of not playing FPS games anymore but it was definitely the player interaction that has kept me in game, raiding, collecting, exploring and breaking my legs.

I have read some posts on this forum from people who don’t like other players killing them repeatedly, - who does? - and want the dev team to do something about it, they call these players assholes, douchebags, COD kiddies and Tottenham fans but, from my perspective these players keep the edge that this game has acquired. Without them behaving the way they do – i.e. like bandits – there wouldn’t be anything to play for in this game. Without the treat of losing everything what’s the point in gaining anything? Without the knowledge that there might be a sniper on top of that there residential building, where’s the thrill in raiding a military camp and finally finding the gear you’ve been after?

I could go on and on about why I think DayZ is brilliant, I’m really looking forward to the future and am glad I am a part of this project at the stage it is currently in. If I was to gripe then the only gripes I have are the hacking and to a much lesser extent the alt+F4’ers. Disconnecting I can deal with, since I am not a bandit I tend to run from other players (which I why I have lots of stuff and don’t die often; why I survive) but the hacking does need to be fixed sooner rather than later, after all, it’s a bit pointless is we are all in the matrix but some players can spawn as Neo.

Keep up the great work Dev team and don’t let the bastards get you down.

[Lokas 1]

I love this game.

I will never ever be a bandit, but I actually support banditry. In the current state of the game... zombies don't scare me. I can get in and out of Elektro or Chern without any problems, and even if I do mess up and get spotted? Turn a corner, and the stupid shuffler forgot I was ever there. No, it's the potential for snipers, for bandits that make this game the nail-biting exercise in paranoia that has me adoring it so deeply.

The only thing I would change is making the undead more of a threat. Make players easier to detect, make zombies more able to hit targets who are on the move/prone, so on and so forth. There's a number of ways to do this, but my only critique is how easily the undead are circumvented and fooled. They need to be harder, they need to be more dangerous. This in and of itself will solve a lot of the banditry issues while preserving the tension that makes this game so delightful. After all, why would a sniper want to risk his life for little to no gains plinking off newbies in Cherno if zombies had a real chance of catching and killing him? I'm sure some people would still risk it, and that's fine, I wouldn't want them to be punished for making that decision, but it would become less prevalent.

Meanwhile, organized bands of players would still be fine, they'd be able to handle more threatening zombies. Which is cool. Players who can organize like that don't deserve to be punished for it. They make the game scary, they make it fun.

- A survivor who supports bandits' rights to bandit

[Kellanved 5]

I agree that the zombies could be more of a challange, once I worked out that if I knew exactly where I was going I could simply run through all the zombies, get into the building I was heading to and lose most of them once inside, the zombies became more of an annoyance than a challange.

But the real challange is the other players, spotting them before they spot you, running from or killing them before they get you is what makes my adrenaline spike.

Wish I could find more bicycles as well, I'd love to have a bike ride with friends across Chernarus.

[jackcrow 129]

One of the things that has slowly been "whined" out of games today is consequence. DayZ takes consequence and smacks you upside the head so hard your future kids will feel it for a week. That is what I love so much about this game!