"hey are you cool"
February 2, 2014 4:34 PM Subscribe
The first person I met in DayZ said "hey are you cool"
What he meant was "You're not going to try to kill me, right?"
This is a record of the other players I've encountered in DayZ
DayZ, (previously) is a multiplayer open world survival horror video game that takes place in the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus.
What he meant was "You're not going to try to kill me, right?"
This is a record of the other players I've encountered in DayZ
DayZ, (previously) is a multiplayer open world survival horror video game that takes place in the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF NOTHINGNESS
WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF FEAR
posted by p3on at 4:59 PM on February 2, 2014 [6 favorites]
WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF FEAR
posted by p3on at 4:59 PM on February 2, 2014 [6 favorites]
I saw this being a prick video a few days ago... and I don't know. It didn't make me buy the game.
Bullying is one of the worst things ever, but get bullied in a game? I just want to punch these guys in the face.
posted by bdz at 5:01 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Bullying is one of the worst things ever, but get bullied in a game? I just want to punch these guys in the face.
posted by bdz at 5:01 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
posted by 2bucksplus at 5:02 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by 2bucksplus at 5:02 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
Um, yes?
posted by Brocktoon at 5:04 PM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
Um, yes?
posted by Brocktoon at 5:04 PM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
I tried playing with a few friends of mine but we quickly gave up as we kept spawning on opposite sides of the map and were killed and looted before we got to meet up with each other. Still a fun game though.
posted by tenpointwo at 5:04 PM on February 2, 2014
posted by tenpointwo at 5:04 PM on February 2, 2014
Reminds me of Darktide, where I got killed the first time before I rezzed all the way in.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:07 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 5:07 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
It didn't make me buy the game
Dayz is one of those games, where if you're the intended audience, you don't really need to be sold on it.
posted by empath at 5:07 PM on February 2, 2014 [8 favorites]
Dayz is one of those games, where if you're the intended audience, you don't really need to be sold on it.
posted by empath at 5:07 PM on February 2, 2014 [8 favorites]
But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
The zombies kind of don't work in the current version, so people are making their own fun.
posted by empath at 5:08 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
The zombies kind of don't work in the current version, so people are making their own fun.
posted by empath at 5:08 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
Bullying is one of the worst things ever, but get bullied in a game? I just want to punch these guys in the face.
This kind of thing doesn't appeal to me at all either, but I'm pretty sure these people are choosing to be bullied as they can just hit a button and suicide/respawn at any point.
Incidentally, another game that seems to foster this kind of behaviour is Rust
posted by juv3nal at 5:09 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
This kind of thing doesn't appeal to me at all either, but I'm pretty sure these people are choosing to be bullied as they can just hit a button and suicide/respawn at any point.
Incidentally, another game that seems to foster this kind of behaviour is Rust
posted by juv3nal at 5:09 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
I saw this being a prick video a few days ago... and I don't know. It didn't make me buy the game.
I love it. It's the perfect Libertarian Utopia simulator.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2014 [38 favorites]
I love it. It's the perfect Libertarian Utopia simulator.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2014 [38 favorites]
(sorry if that wasn't clear; those were questions)
posted by 2bucksplus at 5:12 PM on February 2, 2014
posted by 2bucksplus at 5:12 PM on February 2, 2014
That blog is by Mefi's Own notmydesk, best known for Concerned and Livin' in Oblivion.
posted by zompist at 5:13 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by zompist at 5:13 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
So my fantasy about The Walking Dead, I've only seen the show, is that we have basically only seen the South.
The end is, all sorts of factions converge murdering on each other, Rick emerges as king of a corpsepile and an ash heap. Then a bunch of tanks roll up, they are from the North, they are like, "what the fuck, why did you all feel the need to murder each other with bullets and then with knives when you ran out of bullets and also with zombies," and Rick says some stupid bullshit, they take him away to the mental hospital.
-North was pretty fucked.
-But they did not immediately turn to murdering each other over every perceived offense.
-Local government persisted.
-Limited internet, radio, runs on solar, wireless, and smartphones.
-De Blasio vows to enforce gunlaw, city throws him out, Bloomberg is temporary dictator mayor, he institutes zombielaw.
-Every significant building has citizen zombie patrol on duty at all times with hand weapons, riot gear, crossbow, shotgun, sometimes rifle. Misuse punishable by public hanging. Criminals more interested in cooperating v. zombies than doing crime.
-Throughout the north people ingather to villages and urbanities. Time to zombification is researched - all citizens must report in via smartphone / in person or be bed checked at appropriate intervals.
-Hells Angels, Mob, Gangsters
-Eventually the clearing begins, first to secure emergency farmland, then to link up, then to take back the hinterlands.
-Research begins on a cure or vaccine.
-Disease/hygiene taken v. seriously.
-Like 25% of people have died. Pretty fucked, mass chaos.
-E.g. Manhattan was probably initially a bloodbath/starvation zone/zombie palace though with many isolated holdouts inc. entire buildings and very securable once retaken.
-National guard and military roll into the South. 90+% dead. Radio silence. Charnel house. WTF.
There is much you can only explain in that show by assuming they are all insane from trauma and started off ready to do violence to each other at the drop of a hat.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [63 favorites]
The end is, all sorts of factions converge murdering on each other, Rick emerges as king of a corpsepile and an ash heap. Then a bunch of tanks roll up, they are from the North, they are like, "what the fuck, why did you all feel the need to murder each other with bullets and then with knives when you ran out of bullets and also with zombies," and Rick says some stupid bullshit, they take him away to the mental hospital.
-North was pretty fucked.
-But they did not immediately turn to murdering each other over every perceived offense.
-Local government persisted.
-Limited internet, radio, runs on solar, wireless, and smartphones.
-De Blasio vows to enforce gunlaw, city throws him out, Bloomberg is temporary dictator mayor, he institutes zombielaw.
-Every significant building has citizen zombie patrol on duty at all times with hand weapons, riot gear, crossbow, shotgun, sometimes rifle. Misuse punishable by public hanging. Criminals more interested in cooperating v. zombies than doing crime.
-Throughout the north people ingather to villages and urbanities. Time to zombification is researched - all citizens must report in via smartphone / in person or be bed checked at appropriate intervals.
-Hells Angels, Mob, Gangsters
-Eventually the clearing begins, first to secure emergency farmland, then to link up, then to take back the hinterlands.
-Research begins on a cure or vaccine.
-Disease/hygiene taken v. seriously.
-Like 25% of people have died. Pretty fucked, mass chaos.
-E.g. Manhattan was probably initially a bloodbath/starvation zone/zombie palace though with many isolated holdouts inc. entire buildings and very securable once retaken.
-National guard and military roll into the South. 90+% dead. Radio silence. Charnel house. WTF.
There is much you can only explain in that show by assuming they are all insane from trauma and started off ready to do violence to each other at the drop of a hat.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [63 favorites]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
... making it like every movie, TV show and book about zombies ever.
posted by me & my monkey at 5:20 PM on February 2, 2014
... making it like every movie, TV show and book about zombies ever.
posted by me & my monkey at 5:20 PM on February 2, 2014
I loved what I heard about this game, so I bought ArmA 2 and tried to learn that in preparation for delving into DayZ.
What a clunky, unplayable, counterintuitive mess. I get that they were going for realism and simulation, which is going to result in some different design decisions than your get with, say, Unreal Tournament—but that's no excuse for UI that works upside-down and inside-out, and movement that feels seasick.
Is the standalone game any better? (Although the PvP culture sounds like a turnoff, too.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:35 PM on February 2, 2014
What a clunky, unplayable, counterintuitive mess. I get that they were going for realism and simulation, which is going to result in some different design decisions than your get with, say, Unreal Tournament—but that's no excuse for UI that works upside-down and inside-out, and movement that feels seasick.
Is the standalone game any better? (Although the PvP culture sounds like a turnoff, too.)
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:35 PM on February 2, 2014
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
To a large degree, this is the zombie milieu. Zombies in the generic zombie apocalypse scenario aren't an antagonist in and of themselves, they're more of a natural disaster or environmental danger, like bad weather. They don't compete with you for food and clean water and safe shelter, other survivors do.
posted by kafziel at 5:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
To a large degree, this is the zombie milieu. Zombies in the generic zombie apocalypse scenario aren't an antagonist in and of themselves, they're more of a natural disaster or environmental danger, like bad weather. They don't compete with you for food and clean water and safe shelter, other survivors do.
posted by kafziel at 5:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
That was a pretty depressing read.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:49 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:49 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
So you can't play as a zombie? Forget that. I want to be on the winning team.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
I have been obsessively playing State of Decay on PC.
It is so fucking good.
You make enclaves and barricade windows and drive fancy sports cars too fast down the disaster-wracked main street of small US towns and trade bullets for whiskey with heavily armed hillbillies and shoot your best friend in the head when they catch the Black Fever so they don't turn in the night.
So good.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [11 favorites]
It is so fucking good.
You make enclaves and barricade windows and drive fancy sports cars too fast down the disaster-wracked main street of small US towns and trade bullets for whiskey with heavily armed hillbillies and shoot your best friend in the head when they catch the Black Fever so they don't turn in the night.
So good.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [11 favorites]
I've been playing Zafehouse: Diaries which might as well be called Narcissism of Minor Differences: The Game.
posted by um at 6:21 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by um at 6:21 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: the perfect Libertarian Utopia simulator
posted by tspae at 6:26 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by tspae at 6:26 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
You know what's a good game? rymdkapsel.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:54 PM on February 2, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:54 PM on February 2, 2014 [6 favorites]
I have been obsessively playing State of Decay on PC.
It is so fucking good.
Also, this! I had to change my Xbox Live player profile to pretend like I was in the United States instead of Australia to get access to it on the Marketplace, which was a painful-ass exercise if any exercise ever was, but it worked and it was great! Such a fun game. Pumped for the upcoming "full version" (as I understand/read it, State of Decay was essentially a concept demo, or pilot).
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:56 PM on February 2, 2014
It is so fucking good.
Also, this! I had to change my Xbox Live player profile to pretend like I was in the United States instead of Australia to get access to it on the Marketplace, which was a painful-ass exercise if any exercise ever was, but it worked and it was great! Such a fun game. Pumped for the upcoming "full version" (as I understand/read it, State of Decay was essentially a concept demo, or pilot).
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:56 PM on February 2, 2014
Sebmojo, have you played the Breakdown content? We've been playing through the original but we played Breakdown until we unlocked the original games characters. Breakdown is all the gameplay minus the story missions. EVEN BETTER!!!
posted by Our Ship Of The Imagination! at 6:56 PM on February 2, 2014
posted by Our Ship Of The Imagination! at 6:56 PM on February 2, 2014
Day-Z is like Twitter in that it's a lot more fun if your friends are on. It can also be more fun to watch than play, I favor FrankieonPC!
posted by jeremias at 6:57 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by jeremias at 6:57 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
The moral of every zombie movie ever made.
posted by vorpal bunny at 7:19 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
The moral of every zombie movie ever made.
posted by vorpal bunny at 7:19 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'm gonna finish the story missions first, then I'll definitely pick up Breakdown.
I'm kind of bummed because my bud Marcus got accidentally a little bit completely ripped in half by a nine-foot-tall feral zombie last night. But, y'know. Walk it off.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm kind of bummed because my bud Marcus got accidentally a little bit completely ripped in half by a nine-foot-tall feral zombie last night. But, y'know. Walk it off.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
I have been obsessively playing State of Decay on PC.
It is so fucking good.
I dunno, I passed on it when I heard the game has a quasi-realtime aspect where if you don't play for some days you'll come back to find the situation's degraded while you were gone. I'm not at a place where I can allow myself to feel like I "have" to play something every day just to keep up the status quo.
posted by JHarris at 7:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
It is so fucking good.
I dunno, I passed on it when I heard the game has a quasi-realtime aspect where if you don't play for some days you'll come back to find the situation's degraded while you were gone. I'm not at a place where I can allow myself to feel like I "have" to play something every day just to keep up the status quo.
posted by JHarris at 7:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
Do you beat the game when you, your pilot, and your Irish radioman find a helicopter and fly to a deserted tropical island?
posted by Redfield at 7:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Redfield at 7:40 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
Reminds me of PA's take on Rust (which is inspired by DayZ).
posted by ceribus peribus at 7:52 PM on February 2, 2014
Reminds me of PA's take on Rust (which is inspired by DayZ).
posted by ceribus peribus at 7:52 PM on February 2, 2014
The zombies kind of don't work in the current version, so people are making their own fun.
Not entirely accurate. The current standalone may have zombie problems, but the DayZ mod for ArmA 2 definitely works; and even there, zombies are more of an early game threat and a nuisance later. The "real game" is in the PvP.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:14 PM on February 2, 2014
Not entirely accurate. The current standalone may have zombie problems, but the DayZ mod for ArmA 2 definitely works; and even there, zombies are more of an early game threat and a nuisance later. The "real game" is in the PvP.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:14 PM on February 2, 2014
Any game that has PvP that you can't opt out of will eventually become about the PvP. Anybody else remember trying not to get ganked on Ultima Online? Yeah.
posted by Sequence at 8:25 PM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Sequence at 8:25 PM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]
This Day Z game is awesomely stupid.
I did laugh pretty hard at 'thank you for killing that racist for me.'
posted by winna at 8:30 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
I did laugh pretty hard at 'thank you for killing that racist for me.'
posted by winna at 8:30 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've been watching the Rad Brad's Youtube walkthrough's of this, and they are almost Beckett-esque. He spends most of the time wandering through what appear to be deserted Eastern European villages, always desperately thirsty and starving to death, rarely encountering anybody or finding any supplies. None the less, Brad is having a great time playing and I've been enjoying watching. Go figure!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:49 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:49 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
JHarris: For PC at least, you can get the State of Decay Save Manager and Zombie Standard Time which prevents time from passing.
posted by reiichiroh at 10:25 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by reiichiroh at 10:25 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
I dunno, I passed on it when I heard the game has a quasi-realtime aspect where if you don't play for some days you'll come back to find the situation's degraded while you were gone. I'm not at a place where I can allow myself to feel like I "have" to play something every day just to keep up the status quo.
Yeah, it was harsh at first but it's at a reasonable place now after a bit patching; and it is called State of Decay, after all.
Basically time progresses fast for two days, slowly for a few days after that then stops.
If you've been ignoring messages that another survivor is wandering round fingering their revolver and muttering darkly about humanity as a stain on the earth, then you may come back to your game to find he's run off or topped himself. And your fellow survivors will gather supplies, and use supplies, and things will happen. You'll never lose a playable character and if you deal with the main needs of your colony before logging off then you shouldn't have any nasty surprises.
That said, it's a considerable hook to just keep playing, which may lead to unhealthy behaviours so poss best you stay away if that's an issue.
posted by Sebmojo at 10:33 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, it was harsh at first but it's at a reasonable place now after a bit patching; and it is called State of Decay, after all.
Basically time progresses fast for two days, slowly for a few days after that then stops.
If you've been ignoring messages that another survivor is wandering round fingering their revolver and muttering darkly about humanity as a stain on the earth, then you may come back to your game to find he's run off or topped himself. And your fellow survivors will gather supplies, and use supplies, and things will happen. You'll never lose a playable character and if you deal with the main needs of your colony before logging off then you shouldn't have any nasty surprises.
That said, it's a considerable hook to just keep playing, which may lead to unhealthy behaviours so poss best you stay away if that's an issue.
posted by Sebmojo at 10:33 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
I just don't like the idea. Well, I like the idea, I think it can be used well (it's what drives Animal Crossing, after all), but I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't done a bit of reading on the game ahead of time, and I think that angers me most of all, because I came very close to buying it back in the Winter Sale.
posted by JHarris at 10:42 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 10:42 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Is there a game where all the human players are slow zombies who are hard to kill, and the NPC characters are non zombie survivors that try to hide from/attack you? Because I'd play that game. It would be like a really really slow coordinated bare hands group hunting simulator. Especially if you were allowed to talk to other players, but your voice got mangled beyond recognition and your typing turned into nonsense.
posted by davejay at 11:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by davejay at 11:14 PM on February 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
but your voice got mangled beyond recognition and your typing turned into nonsense
I think a lot of fps pvp games already have this feature.
posted by ryanrs at 11:45 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
I think a lot of fps pvp games already have this feature.
posted by ryanrs at 11:45 PM on February 2, 2014 [10 favorites]
I love it. It's the perfect Libertarian Utopia simulator.
Zombies hunting other zombies, in other words.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:49 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
Zombies hunting other zombies, in other words.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:49 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
For some reason I'm intrigued by this. Not sure I'd want to put myself through a 'playing while female' trial though.
posted by Jalliah at 4:50 AM on February 3, 2014 [7 favorites]
Not all DayZ servers devolve into the worst kind of people exhibiting the worst aspects of humanity. This does seem to be the way most high-population servers (let's say at 20+ players) act, though, especially clan servers. Something about the scarcity of resources, the lack of consequences, and the high return on investment makes shooting everyone on sight the de facto handshake. ("Hi, neighbor!" BLAM) And, let's face it -- some people use these games as a way to express certain facets of their personalities.
Someone upthread mentioned FrankieIn1080P as someone good to follow if you're looking to see a good player who is generally fair. In one video, Frankie's friend is newly spawned and then shot by a convoy of heavily armed players; Frankie hunts all seven of them down and essentially tells the last cowering survivor "this is what you get for killing defenseless people" before gunning him down. It's videogame frontier justice, done right.
The total opposite would be DevilDawgGamer or the Something Awful goons, who will frequently capture and disarm players, put them in a cell, make them fight it out, then shoot the survivor. They're the cackling, leering, white trash, schoolyard bullies, running amok and then bragging about it, afterwards.
I'm having a pleasant time playing DayZ Epoch (an enhanced version of the DayZ mod [not the standalone]) on some of the Ruthless Toothless servers. One of the mods will still shoot on sight, but then will put your gear into a car and leave it somewhere for you. He's the obligatory bad apple, who will gleefully announce "I'm on the move!" so you know to be wary of him. Everyone else is reasonably generous with their time and resources, or at least will respect your wishes if you turn on your nameplate (so they can identify you from a distance) and say "I'm gathering resources, please don't shoot me"
I will say that I can predict this becoming boring, in a few months. Once I've mastered the resource gathering and base building meta games on a low pop server, I have a feeling that I'll say "but can I do it again, under adverse conditions?" Then a new kind of metagame will come into play, where I have to choose what kind of group to align myself with, and figure out if I want to defend that group against incursions from others -- effectively, are tribalism and pre-emptive strikes the only way to survive, without law and order?
DayZ isn't a game so much as it is a social experiment. If you already know in advance that you're not interested in clans or trying to figure out who's good or getting one-shotted while innocently scrounging for resources, do yourself a favor and bring a friend to a low-population server.
posted by jpolchlopek at 6:24 AM on February 3, 2014 [6 favorites]
Someone upthread mentioned FrankieIn1080P as someone good to follow if you're looking to see a good player who is generally fair. In one video, Frankie's friend is newly spawned and then shot by a convoy of heavily armed players; Frankie hunts all seven of them down and essentially tells the last cowering survivor "this is what you get for killing defenseless people" before gunning him down. It's videogame frontier justice, done right.
The total opposite would be DevilDawgGamer or the Something Awful goons, who will frequently capture and disarm players, put them in a cell, make them fight it out, then shoot the survivor. They're the cackling, leering, white trash, schoolyard bullies, running amok and then bragging about it, afterwards.
I'm having a pleasant time playing DayZ Epoch (an enhanced version of the DayZ mod [not the standalone]) on some of the Ruthless Toothless servers. One of the mods will still shoot on sight, but then will put your gear into a car and leave it somewhere for you. He's the obligatory bad apple, who will gleefully announce "I'm on the move!" so you know to be wary of him. Everyone else is reasonably generous with their time and resources, or at least will respect your wishes if you turn on your nameplate (so they can identify you from a distance) and say "I'm gathering resources, please don't shoot me"
I will say that I can predict this becoming boring, in a few months. Once I've mastered the resource gathering and base building meta games on a low pop server, I have a feeling that I'll say "but can I do it again, under adverse conditions?" Then a new kind of metagame will come into play, where I have to choose what kind of group to align myself with, and figure out if I want to defend that group against incursions from others -- effectively, are tribalism and pre-emptive strikes the only way to survive, without law and order?
DayZ isn't a game so much as it is a social experiment. If you already know in advance that you're not interested in clans or trying to figure out who's good or getting one-shotted while innocently scrounging for resources, do yourself a favor and bring a friend to a low-population server.
posted by jpolchlopek at 6:24 AM on February 3, 2014 [6 favorites]
Apparently this is a game about surviving the zombie uprising? But players mostly just hunt and kill other players?
Wholesale slaughter of the evil "other" is, basically, the zombie fad in a nutshell. Unfortunately, unchecked bloodlust tends to spread until "other" is everyone else.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:45 AM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Wholesale slaughter of the evil "other" is, basically, the zombie fad in a nutshell. Unfortunately, unchecked bloodlust tends to spread until "other" is everyone else.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:45 AM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
It all depends on what you do with your zombies, right?
As Raymond Williams famously observed, there is no such thing as "the masses," only ways of imagining people as masses. Of all of these ways, Romero's is surely among the most extraordinary. Zombies function in Dawn of the Dead as a lumpenproletariat of shifting significance, walking symbols of any oppressed social group. This function is derived in part from their origins in the literature and cinema of the twentieth century, in which zombies are synonymous with oppression and slavery. 2. Romero uses zombies because, as part of a maligned cinematic underclass, they suit his satirical purpose. Both Dawn of the Dead and its successor Day of the Dead (1985) present the human survivors of the zombie plague as literally and etymologically "living over" the zombies. In Romero's trilogy, Captain Rhodes — the sadistic army commander of Day of the Dead — expresses the strongest contempt for the undead, regarding them as a disposable and despicable underclass.
posted by ersatz at 7:02 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
As Raymond Williams famously observed, there is no such thing as "the masses," only ways of imagining people as masses. Of all of these ways, Romero's is surely among the most extraordinary. Zombies function in Dawn of the Dead as a lumpenproletariat of shifting significance, walking symbols of any oppressed social group. This function is derived in part from their origins in the literature and cinema of the twentieth century, in which zombies are synonymous with oppression and slavery. 2. Romero uses zombies because, as part of a maligned cinematic underclass, they suit his satirical purpose. Both Dawn of the Dead and its successor Day of the Dead (1985) present the human survivors of the zombie plague as literally and etymologically "living over" the zombies. In Romero's trilogy, Captain Rhodes — the sadistic army commander of Day of the Dead — expresses the strongest contempt for the undead, regarding them as a disposable and despicable underclass.
posted by ersatz at 7:02 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
Sean from Idle Thumbs told a pretty good story about the weird mob dynamic that pops up in this game.
posted by ignignokt at 7:56 AM on February 3, 2014
posted by ignignokt at 7:56 AM on February 3, 2014
He was running south. I stopped and waved, and said hello into the mic a few times. He ran all the way around me once in a wide circle, facing me the whole time, then continued south.
All of these wary encounters remind me of when cats run into each other on the street. These are great little reads – thanks!
posted by ignignokt at 7:58 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
All of these wary encounters remind me of when cats run into each other on the street. These are great little reads – thanks!
posted by ignignokt at 7:58 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
For some reason I'm intrigued by this. Not sure I'd want to put myself through a 'playing while female' trial though.
Yeah, I'd love to play this game, but there's no way I'd bother as a woman.
posted by winna at 8:56 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'd love to play this game, but there's no way I'd bother as a woman.
posted by winna at 8:56 AM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
This is basically the video game i've ever wanted to play since MMO's came on the scene…like, back when Ultima Online came up for sale, I remember thinking "I want one with zombies." I will probably end up playing this when it gets a proper release.
That said, i'd never join random servers…I'd really only want to play if I knew there were 5-6 'friendlies' out there. This would be the most fun if you play with a small crew, just to even out the odds.
If there was a large enough mefightclub contingent playing on a server, I'd probably hop over there and register too.
Do want!
posted by furnace.heart at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2014
That said, i'd never join random servers…I'd really only want to play if I knew there were 5-6 'friendlies' out there. This would be the most fun if you play with a small crew, just to even out the odds.
If there was a large enough mefightclub contingent playing on a server, I'd probably hop over there and register too.
Do want!
posted by furnace.heart at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2014
I'm a fairly nice person in real life but there is something about videogames that turns me into Dr. Evil. It used to be I could only use my powers to destroy property and mass murder SIMs but online games like GTA and Dayz allow for so much more evilz. I can't resist, its so damn funny offing everyone when they least expect it.
posted by fshgrl at 12:21 PM on February 3, 2014
posted by fshgrl at 12:21 PM on February 3, 2014
I spent alot of time playing DayZ when it was a mod of ArmaII. I very much enjoyed the thrill of living as juxtaposed to the penalty of dying in DayZ, I had characters that were "alive" for days of real playtime, I'm talking 80ish hours. I was a lone wolf, I would run and hide at any sign of other players. Towards the end I played on servers where there would only be 1 or two other players on at most, and I hoarded helicopters, trucks, etc. There was another guy on the server doing the same, and I would raid his camp from time to time. I figure that's what I would do in a real zombie apocalypse: Shack up in a remote area and just survive. Survive for as long as possible. The server I played on had a leaderboard showing who had been alive the longest, and that's what I played for. At that stage, zeds are a mere annoyance, I carried a heavy SAW with 200 rounds, I could clear out the horde with no problem. Plus, in the mod, one would be immune simply by hiding in a pine tree.
Death in this game is very heartbreaking, if you can't get back to your corpse to loot it before a server restart, you lose all of your stuff. And that stuff can take days to gather. There's an empty feeling when your character dies, it's not a good feeling. Maybe that's why I've moved on now, it's easier on the soul to have a 50/50 K/D ratio in most other FPS shooters where you die every few minutes, you don't become invested in your character.
The DayZ standalone is still very much a work in progress. There's more equipment, and loot seems harder to come by, which is good, but the zeds haven't posed a challenge at all. If the zombies are not working, I'm not interested.
posted by joecacti at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Death in this game is very heartbreaking, if you can't get back to your corpse to loot it before a server restart, you lose all of your stuff. And that stuff can take days to gather. There's an empty feeling when your character dies, it's not a good feeling. Maybe that's why I've moved on now, it's easier on the soul to have a 50/50 K/D ratio in most other FPS shooters where you die every few minutes, you don't become invested in your character.
The DayZ standalone is still very much a work in progress. There's more equipment, and loot seems harder to come by, which is good, but the zeds haven't posed a challenge at all. If the zombies are not working, I'm not interested.
posted by joecacti at 1:36 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
So now I'm going to be watching video games on youtube all the time, can you guys wait like 6 more years for my 16 volume biography of Phil Lynott?
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:10 PM on February 3, 2014
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:10 PM on February 3, 2014
"DayZ" Makes You Feel Every Murder You Commit. Can You Handle This? Dean Hall developed the zombie-packed, psychologically trying PC game to re-create tension faced by soldiers. The emotional responses it triggers have helped the game sell more than a million downloads in its first month.
posted by homunculus at 9:00 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by homunculus at 9:00 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
So I don't have the time or the stomach to try DayZ right now but bought State of Decay because of the comments here.
I like. It's pretty basic but it gives me the heebies and can be pretty tense.
This morning, on my coffee break, I decided to check in for a few minutes and found myself running what I thought would be an easy in, easy out, short mission.
Well..
So if people in my office weren't sure before that I was really into games they sure are now. I was wearing headphones and when things got intense started talking out loud without realizing it. Poor Maya found herself getting attacked by a couple of hordes of zombies. Poor Jalliah DID NOT want Maya to die and the office knew it. "Nooooo Maya, shit noooo. I can't believe you died!"
Good thing my co-workers have great senses of humor. I think I will have to live with being called zombie killer for the rest of the day though.
posted by Jalliah at 6:59 AM on February 4, 2014 [2 favorites]
I wonder what the ratio is between women and men in this game. I'm not encouraged by the sentiment in this thread to try the game either, even as a man.
I like Frankie, and I watched one of his Rust episodes. At one point he was surrounded by naked men with their wangs flapping in the wind. For certain men, this would be a nice feature I suspect, but I don't think that demographic is big enough to carry the game forward. "Gay men who like to bash each other with rocks" seems very niche, and I seriously doubt that is even the target demographic, which confuses me even more.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:20 AM on February 6, 2014
I like Frankie, and I watched one of his Rust episodes. At one point he was surrounded by naked men with their wangs flapping in the wind. For certain men, this would be a nice feature I suspect, but I don't think that demographic is big enough to carry the game forward. "Gay men who like to bash each other with rocks" seems very niche, and I seriously doubt that is even the target demographic, which confuses me even more.
posted by Brocktoon at 9:20 AM on February 6, 2014
"DayZ" Makes You Feel Every Murder You Commit. Can You Handle This?
Evidently lots of people can.
posted by JHarris at 12:19 PM on February 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Evidently lots of people can.
posted by JHarris at 12:19 PM on February 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
At one point he was surrounded by naked men with their wangs flapping in the wind
Thats a mod.
posted by empath at 1:55 PM on February 6, 2014
Thats a mod.
posted by empath at 1:55 PM on February 6, 2014
Huh, you weren't kidding. And apparently there are no female avatars. Maybe I'm completely wrong about the target demographic...
posted by Brocktoon at 8:41 PM on February 6, 2014
posted by Brocktoon at 8:41 PM on February 6, 2014
That's a mod.
I think it's an .ini tweak, if that's the sort of distinction that matters to you.
That is: the wang is always with you; you just have to set it free.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:49 PM on February 8, 2014
I think it's an .ini tweak, if that's the sort of distinction that matters to you.
That is: the wang is always with you; you just have to set it free.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:49 PM on February 8, 2014
Human Nature Simulator aka Day Z[1:54; Caution: Language, Animated Violence]—Happy Hour
posted by ob1quixote at 10:04 PM on February 8, 2014
Tales of the Mundane in DayZ, GiantBomb's Patrick Klepek talks to "hey are you cool" creator Christopher Livingston
posted by the_artificer at 12:34 PM on February 25, 2014
posted by the_artificer at 12:34 PM on February 25, 2014
A demo of Dead State, a turn-based zombie RPG in the style of Fallout, is now available on Steam Early Access: the first seven days of the campaign are playable, in which the player wakes up in the basement of an abandoned school in smalltown Texas after a plane crash, and has to scavenge for supplies to repair the fence while avoiding zombies and competing with looters.
posted by running order squabble fest at 3:44 PM on February 25, 2014
posted by running order squabble fest at 3:44 PM on February 25, 2014
Turn-based tactical zombie survival RPG.
That's just about the kickstarterest game I've ever heard of.
posted by kafziel at 3:49 PM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
That's just about the kickstarterest game I've ever heard of.
posted by kafziel at 3:49 PM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
« Older Hashes to Ashes | Gelatin, from calf's hoof jelly to Jell-O... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [25 favorites]