The DayZ Experience: End Game

So here we are again with another chapter of The DayZ Experience. In this post, we expand on what we covered in the ‘I Call Bullshit’ post in terms of game play, and the experience DayZ players are missing out on. Let’s look at ‘The End Game’ of DayZ.

End Game?

Recently I watched a video from Vigilante Gamer that was uploaded to YouTube nearly 4 years ago. In this video Vig reflects on the Arma2 DayZ mods and what the ‘end game’ is for these mods and what the game play is like at the time and his opinions on what it should be.
Now, a lot of the points in his video are directly applicable to the DayZ standalone game, nearly 4 years later his video. Vigilante Gamer criticizes the over abundance of loot, the disposable nature of in game characters and how perma-death isn’t really an issue for these mods due to secure storage options for loot, making it easy to store large amounts of gear. These mods were more about getting as many of the biggest guns you could and hoarding as much loot as you could, so that when you did ‘die’ you were instantly geared up again as soon as you made it back to your stash of loot. This isn’t a survival game, this is a shoot-em-up game with a small inconvenience of travelling to your stash of gear once you die. Now these are the exact things I was talking about in part 2, in relation to DayZ standalone.
Check out the video from Vigilante Gamer below:

What End Game?

Currently the end game for most people is making it to NWAF or Tisy and gearing up with some military gear then getting in some PvP against other people geared to the teeth. That is IT, that is all they want to do. How boring. Yes the PvP is fun, we went over that previously. But the rinse & repeat of spawning, getting the TTsKO clothing, maybe a hi-cap vest, an assault backpack (full of 60 round mags) and an M4 slung over your shoulder then camping out for people to shoot at or following around gun shots looking for some action. We know people get bored of this, people are telling us that all over Twitter and YouTube. But no one wants to try something different.

So the question is, does DayZ have a end game? In my opinion, no. There really shouldn’t be an end game, when the aim of the game is to just survive.
But it does have little ‘micro end games’ within the life of your character. Be it starting a farm for fresh food or a camp for hunting and crafting, or repairing a vehicle, making a ghillie suit.

Every time I respawn, my characters have a different task at hand intially. Be it collecting the items needed to make a ghillie, usually with a nice black painted Mosin and a sawn off double barrel shotgun as a sidearm. Maybe the character is going hunting for wild life to collect pelts to create improvised leather clothing. I can’t wait for the boar to be reintroduced, I loved me the boar pelt backpack. Even setting traps for rabbits is a bit of fun. The addition of even more wild life is going to enhance the hunting (and survival) aspect of this game so much more! Bring on the bears!
Sometimes I’ll just explore the map, I’m still finding new areas that I haven’t really explored before. Sure I’ve been in those areas, but never actually looked around and explored properly. I’m continually amazed at the things I had previously missed, just because I was rushing past, DayZ should be enjoyed at a steady pace, not rushed through.

I really don’t understand how people can get bored of this game. They literally must be playing it as a PvP only game, and not a survival game. I know I’ve said this before, and I’ll continue to say it, but rather than complaining about how boring DayZ is for YOU, maybe try play it differently.

So what is your next ‘micro end game’?

Featured Image Credit: @theaussieck