Dayz

I read about this computer game today, and while I probably won't have time to check it out, I will certainly try to.  It is called "Dayz", and it is being called by some, the "first survival simulator".  You start out in a random place on a designed world map, with little else but "bandages", and your goal is to survive as long as possible in a post-apocalpytic world.  To do this, you must explore the world, and try to scavenge as much resources as you can.  Oh, and did I mention the zombies?

But I am less impressed with the zombies (which is becoming an overused sub-genre these days, although I've been a long-time fan) than the social aspect of the game.  In this review (and I've also read this elsewhere), the writer points out that other players tend to shoot first rather than engage with the human players.  That says a lot about our nature as humans, and what we would do if an event like this became reality.

What also made it interesting for me is that Dayz is a mod of another game, "Arma 2", which did not exactly climb up the charts initially.  But once Dayz was released, "Arma 2" took a huge leap in sales, and I read that it was the top selling game on Steam for seven weeks.  Dayz will be getting a separate release, with added features.

I am not sure if Dayz will run well on my machine, or at all.  While I do enjoy the occasional computer game, I do the bulk of my gaming on consoles these days, as well as handhelds.  It's just so simpler to game, and you always have to upgrade your PC if you want to stay ahead of the curve on games, and that can be very expensive.