Seriously this is getting stupid.. Three hours and not a single weapon?

[Astaa 11]

My first few attempts at playing the game resulted in pretty swift deaths, once I learnt that the zombies are pretty dangerous I learnt to sneak. I then spent a good 10 minutes figuring out how to equip the hatchet as a weapon, eventually referring to google. I then spent about an hour sneaking around low value places (I didn't dare go into a town) trying to find a gun. I then shot the gun and learnt that zombies hear pretty good and a double barreled shot gun isn't much use against 10 angry dead people. I then learnt not to shoot unless absolutely necessary.

If you are new to the game then try to play on low population servers, hit a supermarket in a town and get some food/water and any basics you can find and then venture out into the wild to get a feel for the game. The ideal first items are matches, axe, knife (you may have to hunt around for them) map, compass etc.

Learn not to get too attached to your gear, you will die...a lot. Once you are comfortable you can start to venture North, there are some military places around there that have high value gear, better guns and equipment but be very careful, other players will want your stuff and also want the stuff you are looking for, you may even get lucky and find someones camp, free loot is always nice. The inventory system is a little strange but it's functional, you will get used to it eventually...I actually quite like the scroll wheel to interact function myself.

At the end of the day, get used to dying, get used to breaking you legs on random bits of environment, don't get attached to your gear and learn to not shoot everything that moves. If you can get past it without firing a shot then you are doing it right. When you die, dust yourself down, take a breather and go again.

...and remember, this is an alpha game, bugs are expected otherwise it wouldn't be alpha. By choosing to play the alpha you are choosing to help iron out the bugs, if you find bugs, report them (constructively) far, far too many people play alphas these days as a kind of early access, rather than a true test.

If it is not the type of game you like then don't play it, it is not and is not advertised as a FPS shooter. It is a survival game, you can play quite effectively without ever firing a shot - Though it is not advisable!

[zhukov032186 0]

Well, I've been playing a few days. The first few days were pretty tragic. As others before have said, most likely if you're not finding anything, it's because the area has already been picked clean. Stick to lower population servers at first.

After days of struggling, my character is now two days old, I have an AKS74-U submachine gun, a 9mm Makarov, multiple food items, water canteens, etc, etc. I'm frickin' loaded. If I die, I'll just come back and do it again.

After a relatively short time, noobs should be getting the hang of navigating around the zombies. They're not really much of a threat, except for the occasional screw up. It's easier to ditch them in a city, run round and round til you find a warehouse or other building you can run in (since they can't run indoors) out the other side and go prone out of sight. If there is a zombie out that door, run around the building and repeat, until successful.

A far bigger threat is other players. Hanging around the southern coast, it's only a matter of time until somebody you didn't notice pops you. When you spawn, poke around (quickly) for food or liquid items that you'll need, then head north, FAR FAR away from the coast.

Once the above points are accomplished, you will be threatened by the occasional player who wanders up north to avoid the clusterf*ck on the coast, and hackers. Hackers you can't really do anything about. Just log, if you can, before something bad happens.

Apply some variation of the following rules:

#1 Don't get attached to your stuff

#2 Don't get attached to your face

Expect to die. Expect to start over. Don't bitch about it. I love this thing, and so do my friends who have got into it on my insistence. It's an alpha. It's buggy. Get used to it.

[CerebralZombie (DayZ) 151]

Sometimes the server doesn't seem to load anything in any buildings for me, especially when in a vehicle... (With the vehicle it just take time to load an area)

Maybe just join a new server?