Psychology of the Murderer.

[Tyrog 10]

Hello everyone,

I was reading a lot of commentaries about consequences of the act of killing another player (especially Survivors). What was coming out of it was that Murderers should be punished for their actions with a physical/material drawback, like spawning further away from the good stuff, longer respawn time, etc. Which to me doesn't make any sense at all. If you are reaching for ultra-realism, you should focus on the mental state that comes with killing someone.

What I have in mind is this:

Everyone is allowed to kill anyone in the game. It's a matter of clicking the left button and we cannot change that. What we can change is the personal consequence for the character.

I see people arguing that everyone would be able to shoot anyone just to "survive" future encounters with zombies or other players. This is correct but not everyone can handle the fact of killing someone, whatever reason is invoked. Not everyone is a cold-blooded murderer who doesn't care about its own action. In a video game, everyone pretends to be one, though. In real life, it's another story.

My idea would be that only some "lucky" characters could kill people without having any mental consequences. Those characters would have something we could describe as a " psychopathic personality ". In real life, those people who don't have any kind of regrets after hurting people are very very rare (hopefully). In the game, everyone seems to be a psychopathic bastard. This "psychopathic personality " could be a trait that a character would randomly acquire when spawning (with a very low chance). Those few characters would be immuned to the consequences of killing someone.

Now let's talk about those consequences. I like the fact that being pursued by zombies makes the character scream in panic. We could think of similar consequences for killing someone (either by accident or willingly). For example, being in shock after killing someone who wasn't shooting at you. Killing someone could also have your heart rate go sky high and adrenaline would kick in and your hunger/thirst would increase drastically. Characters could also have a hard time to find any rest and their temperature would drop quicker than normal. Those are only examples. Note that those effects would be for everyone, self-claimed bandits or self-defending survivors.

In the end, the notion of bandit would be useless. It would only be a matter of "can you handle the consequences of killing someone?" or put in other words " Are you a psychopath ?"

The problem of people killing other people in the game is that everyone assumes that their character is a badass psychopathic murderer who doesn't feel emotions or regrets. I'm just opening a discussion here.

I can't think of many mental consequences that could apply in the game but I think it's the only way to deal with killing other players in a realistic way.

TL;DR?

Characters should feel regrets for killing someone because not everyone is a psychopath. Gamers assume that their character doesn't feel any regret which is the main problem for me. Certain characters would spawn with a "psychopathic" trait that allows them to kill people without feeling any regret. Regrets would have bad consequences on the character.

[LondonHyena 7]

No.

Simply because you shouldn't make it completely random who gets to be the bully. Just another system of control. Besides, it's after a world holocaust, most survivors would have seen some pretty horrible, nasty shit just to survive so are probably a lot more hardened then we are right now.

[deadbolt (DayZ) 10]

Hello everyone' date='

I was reading a lot of commentaries about consequences of the act of killing another player (especially Survivors). What was coming out of it was that Murderers should be punished for their actions with a physical/material drawback, like spawning further away from the good stuff, longer respawn time, etc. Which to me doesn't make any sense at all. If you are reaching for ultra-realism, you should focus on the mental state that comes with killing someone.

What I have in mind is this:

Everyone is allowed to kill anyone in the game. It's a matter of clicking the left button and we cannot change that. What we can change is the personal consequence for the character.

I see people arguing that everyone would be able to shoot anyone just to "survive" future encounters with zombies or other players. This is correct but not everyone can handle the fact of killing someone, whatever reason is invoked. Not everyone is a cold-blooded murderer who doesn't care about its own action. In a video game, everyone pretends to be one, though. In real life, it's another story.

My idea would be that only some "lucky" characters could kill people without having any mental consequences. Those characters would have something we could describe as a " psychopathic personality ". In real life, those people who don't have any kind of regrets after hurting people are very very rare (hopefully). In the game, everyone seems to be a psychopathic bastard. This "psychopathic personality " could be a trait that a character would randomly acquire when spawning (with a very low chance). Those few characters would be immuned to the consequences of killing someone.

Now let's talk about those consequences. I like the fact that being pursued by zombies makes the character scream in panic. We could think of similar consequences for killing someone (either by accident or willingly). For example, being in shock after killing someone who wasn't shooting at you. Killing someone could also have your heart rate go sky high and adrenaline would kick in and your hunger/thirst would increase drastically. Characters could also have a hard time to find any rest and their temperature would drop quicker than normal. Those are only examples. Note that those effects would be for everyone, self-claimed bandits or self-defending survivors.

In the end, the notion of bandit would be useless. It would only be a matter of "can you handle the consequences of killing someone?" or put in other words " Are you a psychopath ?"

The problem of people killing other people in the game is that everyone assumes that their character is a badass psychopathic murderer who doesn't feel emotions or regrets. I'm just opening a discussion here.

I can't think of many mental consequences that could apply in the game but I think it's the only way to deal with killing other players in a realistic way.

TL;DR?

Characters should feel regrets for killing someone because not everyone is a psychopath. Gamers assume that their character doesn't feel any regret which is the main problem for me. Certain characters would spawn with a "psychopathic" trait that allows them to kill people without feeling any regret. Regrets would have bad consequences on the character.

[/quote']

right.. and maybe some players spawn with sucidal tendencies and randomly kill themselves too... because some people would be sucidal especially in an apocalpytic world

making your "character" feel something is a bad idea, we should try to make the actual player feel something

[miqueloz 33]

In the DayZ apocalypse, chances are that only those willing to kill would still be alive, seeing how hostile the world is.

It's not a good idea to decide the personality of the character people are playing for them...

[Cutter888 3]

have to agree with most, playing the likes of ME and other games that force you into moral choices, I hate it when you make the choices as you try to play your character, then you get punished when the game forces you down a route you would have never chosen.

for instance in ME1 I was forced to kill Wrex because I was not enough of a rebel/paragon to take the options to save him, and was forced to shoot him, even though I was being good to my crew, and dicks to people I didn't like. That was an option I would never have taken but was forced down that path by the game.

This game is very open, moral choices are made by you, not forced upon you.

[Letten 1]

That is actually a good idea. However, just like in real life, after some 30 kills the negative effect will fade and after about 50 kills you would go "meh" with no effects at all.

[Mjolnir (DayZ) 1]

The problem is that things like you suggest are actual punishments, while a bandit skin is not. A bandit skin makes no judgement on you, it just makes you appear different. This may lead you to get shot more by survivors, but it also may lead you to get shot less by other bandits.

The game itself doesn't make it a punishment, other players do. That is why i felt the bandit skin was a good idea; obviously rocket didn't agree.

[Suicide Mouse 50]

This should be in suggestions forum.

[Tyrog 10]

Thanks for the helping constructive criticism!

:)

[wasrad 42]

If you arent with my group, you are dead. Simple as that.

[Gibbonici 9]

One thing to remember when considering the psychological effects of killing someone is that our characters are the sole survivors of a global zombie apocalypse. Given the things they have seen I would think that they're pretty numb to death and brutality by the time we get to play them.

For me, DayZ is more like The Road than anything else. Everyone alive is fucked up to some degree or other and all the behaviours we have in-game, from living in the woods and avoiding others to camping in Cherno shooting random people for beans and giggles, are consistant with that world and situation.

I'm not a bandit (I've only ever killed one person and that was life or death) but I think the DayZ experience is richer for the threat of being PKed. Sure, it sucks when it happens but we're all going to die sometime. That's kind of the point.

Besides, all good apocalypses should have psychos running around in their wake; it's the law.

[Zoop 343]

The point of the game, for me at least, is that I can roleplay any role I want. If you set predefined personalities, you take away some of that freedom I have.

[Aerograt 0]

Interesting how everyone says they kill for beans in this game...

[Horr1d 7]

I dont think this idea is the way to go forward at all, but I like the idea of inverting it and giving people who help each other certain bonuses that would benefit them in the real world such as perhaps climbing to higher places, revive, and perhaps implement a radio item so people could keep in private contact over it.

The radio would have a frequency selection menu 1-5 so anyone else who has a radio and tunes to your frequency nearby will hear your comms and could use it to befriend you or track you.

More real life advantages for cooperation needed I say, we want to socialise better in here, I'm worth more than beans, dammit!

[deadbolt (DayZ) 10]

I dont think this idea is the way to go forward at all' date=' but I like the idea of inverting it and giving people who help each other certain bonuses that would benefit them in the real world such as perhaps climbing to higher places, revive, and perhaps implement a radio item so people could keep in private contact over it.

The radio would have a frequency selection menu 1-5 so anyone else who has a radio and tunes to your frequency nearby will hear your comms and could use it to befriend you or track you.

More real life advantages for cooperation needed I say, we want to socialise better in here, I'm worth more than beans, dammit!

[/quote']

or other benefits for grouping they can add can be

fixing vehicles faster

protecting each other from bandits

saving your teammates gear if he dies

taking out zombies easier

using medical supplies on eachother

build a base quicker

[crazierivan 2]

If you arent with my group' date=' you are dead. Simple as that.

[/quote']

this how my group plays but we will give u a chance if u are a survivor to move away from us, if u have bandit skin we shoot on site..

[Zoop 343]

More suggestions for artificial advantages for survivors to unbalance the game.

[LondonHyena 7]

I actually think it would be nice if the game rewarded team play, maybe increased loot spawns, I dont know how it would work technically. The thing is, if you want to reward people you cant make it survivor only, you have to reward EVERYONE for working together. Be it murderous bandits grouping up to bumfuck everyone, or survivors skipping off to plant teamwork-flowers.

All sides need to be fair mechanically.