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DayZ (mod)

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DayZ
Developer(s)Bohemia Interactive
Designer(s)Dean "Rocket" Hall
EngineReal Virtuality 3
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)Open world, survival horror, multiplayer online game
Mode(s)Multiplayer

DayZ is a multiplayer open world survival horror mod designed by Dean Hall for the 2009 tactical shooter video game ARMA 2 and its 2010 expansion pack, ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead.

The mod places the player in the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus, where an unknown virus has turned the population into zombies. As a survivor with limited supplies, the player must scavenge the world for supplies such as food, water, weapons and medicine, while killing or avoiding both zombies and other players - in an effort to survive the zombie apocalypse.

DayZ has been widely praised in gaming media for its innovative design elements, with Kotaku and Eurogamer describing it as possibly the best zombie game ever made,[2][3] IGN called it one of the most popular PC games in the world four months after release,[4] and PC Gamer saying it was one of the most important things to happen to PC gaming in 2012[5] as well as one of the five scariest games of all time.[6]

The mod reached one million players in its first four months on 6 August 2012.[7] It was responsible for putting the three year old ARMA 2 into the top seller charts on Steam for over seven weeks, spending much of this time as the top selling game,[8][9] and is responsible for over 300,000 unit sales within two months of its release.[10] Dean Hall announced that a standalone game is coming by Christmas 2012.[11]

Gameplay

ArmA II, the game DayZ is made on, is designed with a realistic art style

The game attempts to portray an authentic scenario, with the environment having many different effects on the player. A player may receive bone fractures from repeated damage to the legs, go into shock from unexpected ambushes, receive infections from both the zombies or diseased players, or even spontaneously faint due to a low blood pressure. Thirst and hunger must be regularly dealt with by finding sustenance in either cities or in the wilderness, with body temperature playing another key part in the character's survival.[10] It focuses on survival and the human element of a zombie apocalypse by forcing the player to acknowledge basic human needs like thirst, hunger and shelter; elements that force the player to focus on immediate goals before they can consider longer term strategies.[12]

DayZ has been praised for the level of emergent gameplay it provides. BuzzFeed author Russell Brandom suggested that the mod has spawned the first photojournalist in an MMORPG, creating articles that are not only about a game world but journalism told from within it.[13] Brandom suggests that DayZ is unique within MMORPGs in both giving players the power to harm each other, and adding no restrictions on how or why they might do it, quoting a player who described it as "the story of people".[13]

It has been proposed that DayZ provides some insight into people's motivations and behaviors when reacting to real crisis events, mirroring controlled experiments of a similar nature. Criticisms of this include leveled at real world experiences, in that those participating are not reacting as they would in the real situation as their life is not really threatened.[14] Despite the game being biased towards self-interested hostile competition, many players enter the game with their own perceptions and priorities. These varied approaches and experiences within the game suggest that even in a system that should theoretically promote rational, self-interested behaviour, people act in unexpected ways. It has been proposed that this dispels the idea that chaos is an objective and defining feature of the system, rather it is what players make of it.[14]

Development

Dean Hall created the concept while he was a soldier in the New Zealand Army; as a suggestion for training soldiers through exposure to situations provoking emotion and relevant thought processes.[5] He has stated he was inspired by experiences during jungle training while on exchange with the Singapore Armed Forces in Brunei, where he was badly injured in a survival exercise.[15] Hall has stated that his experiences in the New Zealand Army directly affected the development of the DayZ mod, and the creation of immersion through forcing the player to experience emotion and tension as part of gameplay.[16] Hall believed that early rapid success of the mod was largely due to social media and consumers' desire for games that provided significant challenge.[9] Hall has described the mod as something of an "anti-game" as it broke what he felt were generally considered to be basic rules of game design such as balance and not frustrating users.[17]

On August 7, 2012, Dean Hall announced at the game's development blog[18] that the mod was going to be made into its own game, with Bohemia Interactive as the developer,[19][20] and himself as the project leader.[21][22][23] On October 29, 2012, development of the mod officially transferred to a largely community driven effort with the release of version 1.7.3.[24]

Reception

DayZ has garnered a large user base due to its unique gameplay.[16] By August 2012, three months after release, the mod had registered more than one million unique users, according to its official website. Originally requiring manual installation, DayZ's developers have since endorsed a third party software called Six Updater Suite to facilitate its installation. The mod is currently in the Alpha development phase.[25]

Marek Spanel of of ARMA 2 developer Bohemia Interactive said the mod creates an addictive and thrilling experience, believing that it could stand as a gaming experience on its own, and saying the mod was directly driving sales of the game.[26] The mod also received praise from video game developers not involved with the series. Kristoffer Touborg from CCP (EVE-Online) called it "the best game I’ve played for months" and added that it was particularly innovative given the FPS genre, which Touborg considered to be one of gaming's least innovative genres.[27] Game designers Erik Wolpaw and Tim Schafer stated at PAX Prime 2012 that they believe titles that push player-driven experiences such as DayZ are the future of the gaming, commenting on what the title achieved without having a driving narrative.[28] The mod was nominated for the Online Innovation category at the GDC Online Awards 2012.[29]

The mod received a widespread media praise. Edge have called DayZ the mod of the year.[30] Wired's Quitin Smith said it could well be the most terrifying game of 2012,[31] and Rock Paper Shotgun's Jim Rossignol called it the best game he had played so far in 2012.[32] PC Gamer stated the game was one of the most important things to happen to PC gaming in 2012[5] and included it in their 2012 list of the top five scariest PC games of all time.[6] Metro called it was one of the best games to ever to come out of PC modding and one of the single most impressive experiences available on the system.[33] Eurogamer called it the best zombie game ever made[3] and the break out phenomenon of PC gaming in 2012,[34] suggesting that the game's designer Dean Hall might be responsible for some of the most emotive stories to come from playing a video game.[12] Kotaku called it possibly the greatest zombie game ever made[2] and the most interesting PC game of 2012.[35]

The mod has been compared by Kotaku to The Walking Dead and its focus on interactions between the characters when faced with their desperate situation, with the players in DayZ forced to deal with dilemmas in similar ways as portrayed in both the comics and TV series for the franchise.[36] Chris Pereiraa of 1UP.com called it a "shining example of PC gaming at its finest" and cited the game as an example that PC gaming is not in decline, as the creation of such a mod is something that is only possible on a computer (as opposed to a video game console), and stated the tension from interacting with other players leads to an experience unlike anything else he had experienced in gaming.[37] According to, Bit-tech's Joe Martin, who stated that no other game in the genre has offered such a compelling take on a zombie apocalypse, its impact of the mod on the industry might be similar to that of Defense of the Ancients and Counter-Strike.[38]

References

  1. ^ Hall, Dean "Rocket" (2012-10-31). "DayZ Alpha 1.7.3". dayzmod.com/forum. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  2. ^ a b Plunket, Luke (9 May 2012). "This Might be the Greatest Zombie Game Ever Made". Kotaku. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Quitin (25 May 2012). "Day Z: The Best Zombie Game Ever Made?". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  4. ^ Campbell, Colin (1 August 2012). "How DayZ Came to Life". IGN. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  5. ^ a b c Lahti, Evan (16 May 2012). "Day Z interview — how zombies + Arma 2 created gaming's best story machine". [PC Gamer. Retrieved 2012-06-21. Cite error: The named reference "PCGamer_16May12" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Pearson, Craig (27 October 2012). "Do not adjust your gamma: The 5 scariest PC games of all time". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  7. ^ Benedetti, Winda (8 August 2012). "'DayZ' eats up a million zombie fans, soon to be a full game". MSNBC. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  8. ^ "Zombies help ageing title Arma II top video game charts". BBC. 1 June 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  9. ^ a b Rose, Mike (18 May 2012). "How a mod put three-year-old Arma 2 on top of Steam's charts". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  10. ^ a b Usher, William (1 July 2012). "DayZ Helps Arma 2 Rack Up More Than 300,000 In Sales". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 2012-07-03.
  11. ^ Jaradat, Fahed (26 July 2012). "DayZ Standalone Title To Release By Christmas, Should "Have a Load of New Content"". MP1st.com. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
  12. ^ a b Harman, Stace (21 August 2012). "DayZ's Dean Hall: Rocket Man Rising". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  13. ^ a b Brandom, Russell (21 August 2012). "Scenes From The (Virtual) Zombie Apocalypse". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  14. ^ a b Pottenger, Mike (10 September 2012). "Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse: The DayZ Experiment". The Conversation. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  15. ^ Hall, Charlie (8 June 2012). "Day Z – Interview with Dean 'Rocket' Hall, the Game's Creator". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
  16. ^ a b Gera, Emily (15 June 2012). "Walking with the Dead: How war shaped 'DayZs zombies". The Verge. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  17. ^ "Kiwi zombie game lurches from strength to strength". 3 News last=Barbosa. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-03. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Missing pipe in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Hall, Dean (2012-08-07). "The end of the beginning". dayzdev.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  19. ^ Sharkey, Mike (7 August 2012). "Arma 2 Mod DayZ to Become a Standalone Game". GameSpy. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  20. ^ Earl, Victoria (7 August 2012). "DayZ Breaks Out of ArmA II". Escapist. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  21. ^ Chapple, Craig (7 August 2012). "ArmA II mod DayZ becomes standalone game". Develop. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  22. ^ Orland, Kyle (7 August 2012). "From mod to game: How DayZ will evolve as a standalone release". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  23. ^ Rossignol, Jim (17 August 2012). "Cherno Plus: Hall On Day Z's Standalone Future". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  24. ^ Hall, Dean (2012-10-29). "Pending Update: Build 1.7.3 (community edition)". Official DayZ Forums. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  25. ^ Regimbal, Austin (17 May 2012). "DayZ, An ArmA Mod, Is The Gaming Community's Newest Obsession". Gamebreaker]. Retrieved 2012-07-03.
  26. ^ Mattas, Jeff (15 May 2012). "Day Z mod boosts ArmA 2 sales with zombies". Shacknews. Retrieved 2012-07-03.
  27. ^ Augustine, Josh (25 June 2012). "EVE Online devs on DayZ, Elder Scrolls Online, and what'd make them quit the games industry". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2012-07-03.
  28. ^ Johnson, Erik (4 September 2012). "Schafer/Wolpaw: Minecraft, DayZ experiences nail the promise of games". MCV. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  29. ^ Cocke, Taylor (26 July 2012). "GDC Online Awards Nominees Highlight the Best Online Games of the Past Year". GameSpy. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
  30. ^ "Making DayZ: Dean "Rocket" Hall on the mod of the year". Edge (magazine). 18 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  31. ^ Smith, Quitin (14 May 2012). "'Day Z' could well be the most terrifying game of 2012". Wired. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  32. ^ Rossignol, Jim (10 May 2012). "Thank You For The Day Zero: Surviving In Day Z". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  33. ^ Hargreaves, Roger (9 July 2012). "DayZ review - 28 respawns later". Metro. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  34. ^ Purchese, Robert (11 September 2012). "Impressive fake DayZ, Sleeping Dogs, BioShock, Secret World, Lollipop Chainsaw movie trailers". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  35. ^ Plunket, Luke (24 May 2012). "The Secret Behind the Success of DayZ, the Most Interesting PC "Game" of 2012". Kotaku. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  36. ^ Amini, Tina (25 June 2012). "Pft, And They Said Watching TV Doesn't Impact Your Actions". Kotaku. Retrieved 2012-06-25.
  37. ^ Pereiraa, Chris (7 August 2012). "DayZ Stands as a Shining Example of PC Gaming at Its Finest". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  38. ^ Martin, Joe (2 July 2012). "DayZ, and the value of game modding". Bit-tech. Retrieved 2012-07-03.
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