2. Hosted Servers and Mods
MMOs usually host on massive servers with several thousand people. This method does not always work. You are exhausting all of your resources into one giant place. Re-spawns become a time sink for players and the fun level can be lost. Even though the DayZ Standalone hosts about 30-40 a server, it finds a weird balance. Maybe one night you find a less populated server to gather resources on. Then you move to a more populated server for PvP. You can jump around how you like and not worry about waiting for that can of beans to respawn in the warehouse with 30 players killing each other over it. I do think DayZ needs to add more resources in the game and host more players. However for now it seems to work. Also, allowing players to host servers with only night time or only first person is very helpful. I don’t like playing at night and I don’t like first person views, but having them as options keeps things open for players.
1. Fear
Horror games offer fear, but they are controlled and linear. MMOs now offer little fear unless you lose to a boss mob and wipe your raid. DayZ has fear lurking around every corner. It truly impacts your decision making during the game and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The Flee or Fight way of thinking is ingrained in humanity and DayZ takes advantage of this core thought process. Run and hide hoping the zombies don’t catch you? Or bust out your fireman’s axe and chop them to bits. It is a choice in the moment inspired by fear. This factor ties well into the perma-death system with the reality that you could lose all you worked for in the game. Fear is lost in modern MMOs as all you do is re-spawn and move on. There are very minor penalties for death in games, all because they are afraid players will leave. Don’t get me wrong, I am one for rage quitting as well. However, the strategy behind DayZ keeps you thinking that you could have survived which makes you come back and play.
So there you have it. Some rough lessons from an extreme game. That is DayZ’s charm. It is difficult, care bears need not apply. The thing that DayZ does have is an extremely loyal playerbase who are fanatical about the game. That community will only grow and become more invested as the game gets better. It is in alpha build for goodness sake and it has been doing amazing on Steam. I look forward to more improvements and better gameplay as DayZ grows. These are easily overlooked by the intensity and fun that the game delivers on. So MMOs, try playing some hardcore DayZ and I bet you go back again for a second try after you die horribly. It is truly addictive.
More DayZ coverage: