First off,I want to apologize for the lack of screenshots. I have recently changed how I operate Day Z, and have lost Steam overlay ability, hindering my ability to take screenshots. In the future, I’ll be sure to load up FRAPS for screenshots.
If you weren’t aware, Day Z is a mod that is currently in alpha, because of this it frequently has updates and changes in the build. The most recent 1.7.1 build has added some drastic changes to the game. Now at spawn, players only get one bandage and one bottle of painkillers. Spawning without a weapon really puts the survivor at a disadvantage. It makes the struggle to survive all the more difficult. My tale today starts with me spawning into the world with those two little supplies. Of course being low on supplies, I head to the nearest small village and began to loot it. While searching a building I stumble across another player who is searching a body. I have a moment of panic and wonder if he perhaps killed this person, but then I remembered new spawns don’t get guns and I calm down some. I hit voice chat and call out a friendly greeting. bewildered the player spins around and types that I nearly scared him half to death. I chuckle at this, and after some pleasantries we decide to team up and head to a nearby town to look for supplies and weapons. Finding nothing in the house we met in we had off.I’m hopeful that my new friend “DC”, will be a good partnership.
It wasn’t long before we started to make our approach into one of my favorite raiding spots. Unlike usually, we found very little. Much to our excitement we did find a shotgun. I was trying to be good friend and was going to let him have the shotgun, but grew impatient after he got stuck a door. Equipped with a precious weapon having found very little we decide to continue raiding in the town. Shortly after we leave the building, my partner DC happened to agitate some nearby zombies. He begins to run out of town and the zombies that he had agitated had me in their sights. After taking several blows and beginning to bleed, I dropped several zombies . After patching myself up, and finding DC, I take inventory of my well, inventory and discover I only have one shell left. Somewhat agitated at my partner I make the comment that I should use the last shell on him, but quickly followed up with just kidding. Secretly, however, I began to entertain that thought.
Generally, I’m a nice guy when I play Day Z. I don’t want to be that guy who goes around griefing survivors. However, I have murdered someone. Truth be told it was an upsetting experience. Now I know this is just a video game, but it’s a game of very high risks and part of it touches on the very soul of humanity and morality. The first player I ever killed in Day Z was an act of self-defense. I had spotted the player off in the distance and casually called out to him. As I approached he clipped me in the arm with a shot from his Makarov. I panic as I hid behind cover from a lighthouse and patched myself up. As I was sitting there crouched, panic and fear running through my mind I knew the next few seconds would be a matter of life and death. This was my first encounter with a hostile player. I felt determined to walk away from this event and readied my Makarov to return fire. I listened for the right moment to strike and heard the telltales footsteps of my attacker approaching. Popping out from cover I caught my attacker offguard and spam my Makarov until the clip ran dry. The player fell to the ground and I began to reload to put one final shot into his head just to make sure. Much to my surprise he popped up again and I unloaded the second clip into him. This time when he fell I heard the buzzing of flies a clear indication he was no longer a threat. I remember screaming at the body over voice chat” You made me do it, you made me do it.” I had walked away but felt anger and frustration at having to make the choices I made. It was not a feeling I liked.
This new plot I was scheming in my head was different. Although our partnership had started off on friendly terms, DC had cost me to lose half of my blood, and all but one shell of the precious ammo we managed to find. My motives were for revenge. Having no luck with our raiding, I planned to murder DC over a package of bandages. I had it all planned out. Nearby the town was a small watering hole I like to stop by to fill my canteens at, and I had already promised DC to show him where it was at. The waterhole is secluded, away from zombies, in the middle of the forest. There would be no witnesses. Since there was a recent update to the game, I planned to tell him that they incorporated a new drink mechanic. I was going to tell him if you walked into water and crouched down and hit the action key he could cup water and drink it. Of course this would not work and I would encourage him to keep trying statingt there must be a bug or something. While he was preoccupied trying to use the imaginary mechanic, I would approach and use my last shell. This small but valuable package of bandages would be my recompense for the pain-and-suffering he had caused. It was the perfect plan and we only had one more house to raid before we headed out into the forest.
The last building we were going to hit was surrounded by zombies. Slowly and painstakingly we in we crawled closer only to be impeded by a fence in front of us. Stealthily, I stood up and mantled only to drop down prone and resume crawling. My partner DC however, mantled the fence and continued to run before going prone. This of course got the unwanted attention of the nearby zombies and we are both forced to flee. While being attacked for the second time because of my partners mistakes I hollered out, “I hate you!” and you ran for the forest. No matter what I did I could not shake the zombies. It seems like I ran for miles, and I began to jump fences in an attempt to lose my attackers, but was hit. I began to bleed and seconds later I collapsed on the ground. As I waited for the zombies to surround me I noticed a message in the chat, “DC has been killed”. Apparently, my new partner was unable to escape his fate. I smiled just as zombies jumped on me, ending my character.
Moral of the story: If you play with me, don’t be a noob or I will murder you for your bandages.
