DAYZ PERC - 1 WEEK ON SERVER PVPING

"I have been a DayZ player for many years, dating back to the Mod days circa 2012. Though this game intends to adopt the great features of the Mod, and optimize its buggy core mechanics, DayZ Standalone simply fails to exceed its predecessor. The game is full of bugs, camouflaged by exaggerated dev tweets and hopeless updates, which unfortunately, bring more issues to the table. As delayed updates are frustrating the community, the pressure amongst the developers is clearly represented with each patch that is released, with new bugs outweighing the "fixes" addressed by the team. While the devs are attempting to combat these problems, the modding community is heavily relied on to implement better content and QOL fixes to the game. I must admit, the DayZ modding community is quite impressive, with an extensive playlist of additions such as helicopters (currently WIP), new maps, server-side assets, and much more. There are many talented modders within the community, working countless hours to fuel the game with fresh mods, however, some, if not most, of these mods are limited by the plethora of bugs that still exist in the game. In addition, with each patch or hotfix that is released, modders must work even more to update their iterations to get them back to working condition, with broken mods affecting server performance and player gameplay. The inconsistency of this model hurts the overall user experience and can frustrate many new, existing, and veteran players, like me. Trying to temporarily or permanently tackle these ongoing issues, in a player's perspective, is quite a nuisance, especially when the player just wants to sit down and play.
Another topic that has motivated me to write this review is the economy. The economy of DayZ has become entirely customizable since the alpha release in 2013, replicating the system from DayZ Mod. An addition like this is very useful for server owners, as they are now able to setup their servers to their own looting preferences. This very feature, in my own opinion, has completely ruined the DayZ experience and has contributed to the shaky transition between both games (mod and Standalone). Loot on the most populated modded servers are highly inflated, meaning rare guns, ammo, and items are now much easier to find. As rare loot becomes more common, the satisfaction of finding such loot decreases. If an SVD, a highly powerful sniper rifle that's capable of killing a person in 1-3 shots, has a 75% chance of spawning in all military loot areas, what will it feel like to find one? Sure, it will improve one's damage output and perception of power, but will that player actually have an advantage if the rest of the server can find one easily? Loot inflation affects the gameplay of a server because inflated loot, such as rare guns, promote more combat situations. It ultimately speeds up gameplay for players, but for some, it ruins the excitement and uncertainty of looting, which is a core element of this game. Stumbling upon a sniper rifle, or a helicopter, or a vehicle, was such an exciting experience back in the Mod days, because these assets were RARE. They were intended to be that way because of the game-changing abilities that they provided to players, and with trader mods, access to such criteria is now easier than ever before. Modded servers, which currently are the most populated servers in DayZ Standalone, have now inflated these strong attributes within their hives and produced a confusing, unsatisfying, and unbalanced endgame for many players.
DayZ Standalone has gone through a long 6+ years of development, and sadly, the large number of game purchases has not supported a healthy development. With a studio shutdown and a weakening development team, it’s clear that DayZ’s future does not look promising, and at this point, a $45 investment gives you a mixed return, if any at all. The modding community is pushing out a load of new content, which is great and all, but the core game is still a buggy mess, slowing down the entire growth process. There are many mods that seem great on pen and paper, but in reality, they actually hurt the survival experience and transform the game into something that it wasn’t meant to be. Inflated loot and higher player counts increase weapon engagements, but they do so at the expense of survival immersion. I do understand why they are preferred features of modded servers, though, as we live in a fast paced society with less time to play, but DayZ has never been intended to be played that way. Could this game become more stable in the next year? Maybe, but the game’s current state suggests otherwise. I will always appreciate the experience that DayZ Mod has given me, but the Standalone version has yet to replicate those great memories."