I have such mixed feelings about DayZ. I love that it's something that you can't really get anywhere else, because most zombie games are dumb, manic shooters, and DayZ is more of a survival type experience. But the hype sensation is starting to bug me because I don't think it's entirely justified. It may well be once it's finished, but not now. I have been trying to understand why people bother playing DayZ and putting all that effort in to surviving and collecting virtual gear when they could just play Arma2 itself, which is better in a lot of ways and a lot more generous. But judging by what people say on the forum, they have never even tried Arma2 and only play DayZ because they followed the hype there. I think it's sad that people just follow the crowds so much these days, because it means lesser known gems are more ignored. It happened last year with Minecraft, and while millions of people were going ape **** over that game, and all the online gaming sites were smugly acting all honorable for championing an indie game, there were countless other lesser known games that didn't even get a look in. It's like the hype breeds more hype and all the gaming sites jump on the bandwagon because there is money in it, making stories about it and catering to the hoardes.
What annoys me the most though, is that the majority of what people enjoy about DayZ, like the freedom to collect and use anything and roaming the extremely vast, seamless countryside, scared of what might be through the next set of trees is exactly what Arma2 has already been providing people since 2009....
There are only really a few differences with the DayZ mod, and when you break it down, there's only one of them which is all that different to Arma2, and that is the sense of paranoia and fear you only really get from a survival horror type setting. I like that, and I'm glad it exists at least. But by playing Arma2 itself, although you might lose a few nice things like the sense of paranoia and the persistant sandbox / second life feeling, you gain far far more. It's really an amazing 'game' and it's just so sad that all this manic foaming at the mouth hype is aimed at a simple zombie survival mod and it feels like such a slap in the face to the gigantic elaborate game which powers it.
p.s. Dont bother telling me to post it elsewhere. I posted this on the review of dayz on some other website and I wanted to cut and paste it here. I am not interested in registering on the dayz forum.
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Max Power




