

Psychologically trying PC game re-creates tension faced by soldiers - pmcpinto
http://www.fastcompany.com/3025201/most-creative-people/dayz-a-murder-simulator-psychology-study-and-zombie-game-tests-your-emo

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Killah911
Not just a game but a very interesting social experiment. This is amazing on
multiple fronts. I think a movement started with second life and hopefully
there are many more similar interesting social experiment/games to come.

Don't know if there are any neuro/psychological researchers in the background
examining the dynamics but hell, this type of a game, in a given scenario and
carefully tweaked can potentially provide at least very interesting insights
into human behavior and group dynamics in a certain context.

This may be a bit hyperbolic, but games such as this may be an interesting
"evolutionary" step for people as well. In nature play is a way for animals to
test out and perfect skills. Given that humans have somewhat transcended the
need to perfect motor and physical skills, the future of our play is probably
better in a world where our greatest potential threats come from others of our
own kind and navigating a more nuanced human centric world where our "play" is
more specialized too.

Enough dreaming for me, but very cool...

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redthrowaway
DayZ seems to be one of those games like Eve that I love reading about, but
sound kind of boring to play.

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amelim
I believe the fundamental difference is that the time to get to null-sec in
EVE (the actual interesting component of the game that generates strong
narratives) takes a significant time investment from the player. Leveling up
skills, purchasing ships, and developing knowledge of the game are fairly
tedious.

In comparison, you can get thrown into interesting situations from the get-go
in DayZ. Basic FPS skills and a little knowledge of the clunky interface are
all you need to generate strong player narratives. Whereas you make need
several weeks to months to motivate an interesting experience in EvE, DayZ
only requires a time investment of a couple hours (maybe).

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dobbsbob
If you only get one life, and can kill other players, what's to stop somebody
connecting as TROLLAXOR BINLADEN and just teamkilling 24/7? Because if I was
13yrs old that's what I'd be doing.

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redthrowaway
1) The only teams are ad-hoc and the servers are sparsely populated. You can
go hours without seeing another player.

2) When you spawn, you have very little in the way of equipment. You have to
dig through abandoned houses to find a lead pipe, much less a gun. You
wouldn't be able to kill an established player.

3) Following from 2), people would catch on and kill you quickly.

It's certainly possible, and people certainly do it, but griefing in DayZ is
really unrewarding. You wouldn't be able to do it without a huge investment of
effort.

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dobbsbob
Massive gaming already has a few vids where they run around 7 strong and
handcuff/kill every other player to loot them. The griefing reward was
recording it for a bunch of youtube comedy vids

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wlievens
... so, typical post-apocalyptic fare, really, as in Mad Max, The Road, etc.
That would be exactly what this game aims to simulate I would think.

