I agree to a certain extent. Financially, this is an extremely good thing. I figure on the downside, that most people who bought ARMA 2 just to play DayZ, won't actually play vanilla ARMA 2.

I'm well aware that the mod is an Alpha, but how much of the basic mechanics/code will really be improved by the beta stage, or final? Right now we're using the same zombies (or very similar) that have been around for years, possibly even since Armed Assault. Due to the engine's limitations, I'm doubting we'll see any improvement to the zombies' awkward animations and behavior. I hope I'm wrong about this. The mod in general has definitely improved in the last couple of weeks though.

I also want to say thanks to the people here for actually letting people offer opinions which aren't always completely positive. Most forums if you say something that isn't positive, the fans will shove you out the door. Even on SimHQ this happens sometimes too. (I'm looking at you Cliffs of Dover subforums)

Does the food and equipment respawn every so often? 50 something people roaming around a small map sooner or later stuff is going to run out.

was playing on a server today and someone stated a town was free from infection. I'm assuming all the zombies were killed there.

Zombies and loot respawns every 30 minutes or so and it gets despawned when no players are nearby so as not to bod the server down.

I am playing it as my goal is simply survival, and i'm liking it I don't mind if they add an actual goal but i dont know what sort of goal really . I would not like it to be a quest type thing. Go here find cure A go there get cure B , go to lab C and mix cures D , find and fix zombies E. I am cool with the whole open endness of it without any questy type stuff. I look at the map when i spawn in and decide where i am going, sometimes i get diverted by a lack of food or water, lack of blood and have to change tack, but try and keep my main mission goal in head, survival.

Like someone above mentioned , maybe to actually get out of Chernarus is the ultimate goal, but they would need to really increase the map size and change spawn points. Make it hard to get to the edge of the map somehow ? Dont really know how that would work. I definitely would not like to see it end up as do this first before you can move on to that type of boringness.

A few times i have got down to minimal ammo , no food and no water, i have even had no ammo, the game changes drastically for me then and i have to take risks i normally would not to get myself back in the black. Like i said , i am just enjoying the open map and dealing with seeing how long i can last.

I enjoy the game very much, I have not had such an experience with PC gaming since I first played Jane's Longbow 1 and/or EF2000 (circa 1996-97)! To me, DayZ is to ARMA as Counter Strike was to Half-Life if not way more!

By the way, seems that DayZ is helping out with ARMA II sales recently. ARMA II is at the #10 slot of Best Sellers (PC) at Amazon!

Yep, I also feel that the map and the open nature of the gameplay is what makes it fun. Everytime I play DayZ, I have a look at the map, set myself some sort of objective, mostly "today let's have a look at what is there", and then the very dangerous nature of the place does the rest. It's often a lot like playing hide and seek as a kid - you experiment with ways of not getting seen and not getting caught, and it feels rewarding when you manage to see others without being seen, and survive another day. Ultimately, my guess is that once you've gone around the map and start to know it really well, things will become less fun, so I play it at a slow pace currently.

When I watch the vids and hear the players, it kind of sounds like they are getting a bit carried away. I guess it's a much better experience when one plays in a group, which I have not done. It does seem though that some of the these players are creating a much more intense game in their imaginations than what I am seeing there onscreen. In tht regard it makes me think that dayz is overrated and carried aloft by the hype of Internetz fans, but maybe I too would get very into it if I were playing within a squad

. It's like the game is amazing and intense because certain players want it to be so, more so than because it actually is. when little girls squeal when seeing Justin Bieber, its more because of how they are conditioned to think he is like AMAZING, when objectively speaking his music is not all qthat. (to be fairif dayz were music it wouldn't be that bad). That's what it reminds me of when I watch thiese vids where the Internetz boys squeal in terrified delight when what I see is piss poor animation of a few zombies npcs awkwardly running toward them, very so-so graphics in many areas, bugginess (zombies running through walls), lack of melee combat, the overall clunkiness of the arma interface. (though to be fair, the landscape looks very impressive). So maybe I am objecting more to the actual hype and the giddy excitement of some of the players, which seems out of proportion to what the game seems to offer, than the actual game.

It's a very cool concept though, and hopefully one that will be realized in Arma3 (think I read that there will be a Dayz mod for that, too).

Does anyone else think that some of the hype and mania (at least on the part of folks in some of thee videos) is a bit over the top?

I think that it's not a case of hype, because it has been stated many times what the game is. I think that game in it's currentform is the perfect place for true roleplaying, and all that goes hand in hand with that. I love that it's providing a platform for open roleplay and I'm really enjoying peoples stories and tales of their adventures.

Fair enough. I think for me to get excited about those stories I would have to have had a few of my own worthwhile ones in the game, instead of blundering about in the dark as a newbie, getting munched on , shot, or bored/frustrated enough to quit. Not mention getting kicked due to server crashes.

Oh definitely mate. If you find a buddy or two, or a particularly tense situation, I'm sure your own stories will come out.