Bryan Chen

Dr. Brian Johnson

Analyzing Contemporary Pop Culture

15 March 2013

DayZ: How and Why Realistic Open-World Multiplayer Games Are Most Engaging

Life is interesting because of our choices. We give our beliefs substance by making

choices. The fact that technology has now advanced to a point at which we can realistically play

out all sorts of choices and reap detailed consequences from them as they affect ourselves and

others in-game is astounding. The Day-Z mod of the game Arma 2 allows players to experience

an apocalyptic world overrun by zombies in which the world is realistically detailedeven

frustratingly sometimes. Doubting that most anyone would prefer to live in an actual post-

apocalytpic world consisting of nothing but zombies and uncertain instinctive alliances, what

makes Day-Z so engaging?

Realistic open-world games with heavy emphasis on interaction between players, such as

Day-Z, with a focus on unique ludonarratives generated by players actions are more engaging

than other types games because they provide an opportunity to play along with a separately

crafted universe while offering a higher replay value than other games by providing new

experiences fueled by the drama of human emotions every time the game is played. The more

the players give to the in-game universe with their actions, the more realistic the experience

begins to feel, and for many players living vicariously through an avatar struggling to survive in

Day-Z, the game can become very mentally and emotionally charged and, in some cases, taxing.

Players can communicate with each other through text or microphone speech; in a world in
which nothing is certain except for the presence of infected zombies wandering around the map

trying to find their next meal, communication (realistically) becomes critical to survival for

many. The ludonarrative structure is defined by the unscripted choices of players in-game

(Bissell 37).

To be more specific, Day-Z is a zombie apocalypse mod of a military simulator game

called Arma 2 that lands players, also known as survivors, in a 225 km 2 open world post-soviet

stateone of the areas hit by an unknown infection that has wiped out most of the worlds

populations. The objective of the game becomes to survive and succeed in fighting for ones life

in the wasteland against the infected indigenous population that has turned into flesh-eating

zombies who respond to the slightest sights and sounds. Players can choose to go solo or team

up with friends (or strangers) to take on whats left of the rest of the world, but not without also

locating and acquiring adequate food, liquids, weapons, and medical care.

One of the unique things about Day-Z is that the above introduction can actually quickly

and directly approximate almost the entirety of the framed narrative in the game. The lack of

further framed narrative really differentiates Day-Z from other video games; based on that

information, one can glean the fact that the Day-Z as a game is constructed to be resemble what

Kiri Miller describes as an open sandbox world, blurring the lines between emergence and

progression gaming by having both a small set of well-defined rules that combine in

complex ways and a fixed series of tasks that tend to generate a narrative structure (26). Day-

Z is all about the human experience, thrown into the direst situations without the luxury of in-

game superpowers that are usually inherently existent in most video games (even the ones
touted as rather realistic). For example, if a player were to jump from a high elevation, hes

probably going to break a leg. If he breaks a leg, hes possibly going to be bleeding and

definitely going to be in pain and in need of morphine. If he doesnt find a way to treat himself

soon enough, his progressively slowing movement and declining eyesight (before he passes out)

from blood loss will make him a sitting duck for zombies or other human players who are

choosing to play Day-Z with a more brutally Darwinist than altruistic approach. In other

words, he will probably either get robbed (and possibly murdered) or end up eaten by zombies.

Beyond that, beginning of the game finds each player washed up on shore with nothing but the

bare minimum for semi-effective short-term survival: a backpack, a flashlight, and bandages. In

the Day-Z universe, there is a pressing need to obtain essentials such as food, water, weapons,

ammunition, and additional medical supplies (antibiotics, blood transfusions, morphine) from

someone or somewhere. The appeal of this realism is that it provides an extremely convincing

and gripping atmosphere in which players can feel the weight of each of their decisionsbeing

aware of everything from making sure the guy introducing himself to you isnt about to pull a

gun on you and kill you over a can of beans because hes hungry to not opening a gate too hard

for fear of cutting yourself and dying of infection and blood loss. It is much more fascinating to

play along well when the universe itself parallels the real world and the consequences of

everyones decisions can come into play.

As the introduction to Day-Z explicates, the choice of going solo or teaming up is left

completely open, and players often choose to play different roles varying from what they believe

they would sensibly do in an apocalyptic world to living out their wildest fantasies of being a
rebellious immoral marauder. This opportunity for players to behave like whomever they want

to be (until/unless they die, of course) in the game, be it Rambo or Courage the Cowardly Dog,

adds to the realism of the in-game universe, intertwining everyone elses established

ludonarrative together into a respectable experience with more depth of plot than any kind of

framed video game narrative has been able to provide. It can even be argued that this kind of

ludonarrative with such realistic game parameters may be able to forever surpass any kind of

game with more framed narrative just on the virtue of the limitless plotlines that vary

depending on the players and their temporal temperaments.

Day-Z, as well as other massive multiplayer online games, sidesteps many of the hurdles

faced by other video games such as problems with putting together sophisticated gameplay

with trite and elementary plot dialogue that takes away from the engaging properties of the

game. The issue of not being able to come up with realistic or engaging dialogue and situations

is fixed in Day-Z by making all speech a ludonarrative element composed of the gamers

themselves communicating when preferred.

As far as the progression gaming side of Day-Z goes, the fixed series of tasks that

tend to generate a narrative structure can be condensed into a brief list covering essential

needs. The emergence gaming side of Day-Z is evidenced through the games rules that

intertwine in complex ways; rules governing the game include things such as the inevitability of

contact with other human players, the option to be friendly or not, and the option to make noise

or not (zombies and human players can hear and respond to sound). An example of the

significance of the contact with other players, choosing to be friend or foe to fellow players, and
making sound would be a story about two Day-Z players who both had previous military

experience in the visceral world that they were able to apply to the virtual world. The two

players decided to team-up after meeting and ended up in a house under fire, after which they

both took turns providing covering fire while retreating tactically to safety. This is a prime

example of the playing along into the universe bridging some of the real-life concepts into the

virtual universe and using them to great success, possibly encouraging further integration of the

visceral to virtual.

The instances of what players consider plotlines in Day-Z are all made up of nothing but

anecdotal human-interaction-based gameplay, a feature that offers a unique experience each

time a new game is started as well as much more emotional investment than other games. The

reason for the higher level of emotional investment is that gamers in Day-Z (and other similar

games) often invest a large amount of time in the game, sometimes spending 10 hours a day

crawling around with each other in the tall grass trying not to be visualized by unfriendly

players with sniper rifles and zombies while scavenging for food and medicine. This leads to a

propinquity effect in which players grow closer in psychological proximity to their teammates

(if they have any) and also feel investment in their in-game life due to the significant amounts

of time spent playing. This propinquity effect (also known as the mere exposure effect) is a key

component of in-game loyalty, in which players will often take care of their teammates that get

shot or injured, even if there is an easier way out by just flat out killing the straggler and taking

his beans and morphine.

 As of 2013, there are no other games that have been able to come remotely close to

rivaling the kind of immersiveness, (ludo)narrative complexity, and replay value of Day-Z. The

appeal of open-world sandbox style multiplayer games such as Day-Z lie in multiple areas: the

benefits of the extensive ludonarrative opportunities are that they establish unique experiences

every time the game is played and the players can build much stronger emotional investments

in-game by bonding with other real players as they struggle to survive together or separately.
 Works Cited

Bissell, Tom. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. New York: Vintage, 2011. Print.

Miller, Kiri. Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2012. Print.
Claim: Open-world multiplayer games are more engaging than other games by nature of their

ludonarratives.

Warrant: Open-world multiplayer games are more engaging because of higher replay value and

emotional investment.

Rebuttal of the claim: Framed narratives provide more intricate plot points to be predetermined,

preventing certain players from boring themselves to death.

Rebuttal of the warrant: Games with a strong framed narrative component are more engaging

because the designers make a point to try to engage the player using the plot of the game as a

vehicle.