DayZ: A Game or a Job?

This isn't one of those articles that goes into depth about how a person who is passionate about video games can make a living by playing them.  Instead, I wanted to discuss the different ways players approach video games in general.  Obviously, video games are built to be interactive entertainment experiences.  The level of player interaction varies in degrees from passive interaction (i.e. playing simple puzzle/physics games in ones spare time on a cell phone) to rigorous consumption in the vein of someone spending hundreds of hours per month digging through in game content. 

Ain't it the truth?

The question is, when does a person cross the line between simply "playing" a game and treating games as another job?  I asked myself this after playing online with a group of friends this past weekend, and I began to wonder what my level of video game commitment stood in relation to those I was playing with.  My overall position has always been that I am a moderate gamer with a relatively high affinity for video games.  This blog would not exist otherwise, but the amount of time and effort that I sink into games really can't hold a candle to some.

For reference, let's look at what events transpired over the weekend that led up to this realization.  As I had mentioned in a previous post, many of my friends are fans of the ARMA 2 mod, and soon to be standalone title, DayZ.  Most people who play are drawn to DayZ because it requires a certain level of devotion and patience to truly enjoy.  The environment is unforgiving, and unknown players are a constant threat.  I personally only play the game in small doses as the experience can sometimes be frustrating if you don't have anyone watching your back.  Gathering loot and weapons can be a tedious process, and losing your inventory to murderous bandits can be disheartening. 

Spawn randomly, my friends.

Still, this past weekend I agreed to play online with some of my local friends who have rented their own DayZ: Origins server.  Origins is an offshoot of the original mod in which players can band together to take on NPC characters guarding some of the more coveted loot and weapon items in the game.  The NPCs are merciless, and it's really quite challenging, but I digress.  Being a newbie to this particular flavor of DayZ, I was subject to the instruction of my peers as I loaded into the game. 

My friends had made an alliance of sorts with some of the regulars on their server in an effort to gather loot and to set up safe zones on the map where they promised not to steal each other's gear.  The point of stockpiling gear in the first place is that assaulting NPC controlled areas takes a certain amount of preparation and planning as the AI enemies are particularly fearsome.  My friends were kind enough to arrange transport for me to one of the safe zones, where I was geared up and briefed on our objectives. 

Even though my friends had made a pact with some players on the server, there were still other squads who were only interested in killing our respective squads and stripping our hard earned items from our carcasses.  At the safe zone, we prepared our transport helicopter and set off for the NPC controlled island to collect more high end gear.  This process alone took approximately thirty to fourty minutes.

After our heli was sufficiently stocked, we flew to the island and touched down to begin our work.  After a confrontation with an enemy player that resulted in the death of one of our team members, we were ambushed and massacred by NPCs.  Our pilot escaped and picked us up as we respawned around the map, but we then had to re-kit ourselves by looting our dead bodies.  Then we loaded high end gear from the NPC zone onto the heli to replenish our depleted base supplies.  The entire process from the time of our initial incursion to our return to the base took another forty five minutes to an hour. 

Once the game went into the night cycle, we were ready for our raid on the NPC island once more.  Some of the high level NPCs inland were holding valuable loot items that our team required to build structures capable of increasing our stockpile.  We moved across the island in the cover of darkness picking off guards as we made our way to the Mayor's mansion.  We suffered a few casualties along the way, but ultimately our mission was a success once we assassinated the Mayor and exfiled back to the base island to unload our bounty.  The entire event spanned five to six hours, and continued on long after I had logged off for the night. 

Even though this particular raid was incredibly fun and exciting, it left me wondering just how much time a person would have to sink into the game to do this on a regular basis.  Most of our time had been spent farming resources and loot from the game in order to prepare ourselves sufficiently so that we wouldn't be massacred again.  The next night I logged on, and it was an entirely different story.  My own squad and our allies were simply gathering resources and transporting them from one place to another to build storage houses.  It was a far cry from the excitement and anticipation I had experienced the night before.  It felt more like work, or grinding.

Does anyone miss this.....ever?

That's when it hit me.  Was I really willing to grind it out with this squad night after night like this just so that I could enjoy the few nights that we wouldn't be grinding?  On the one hand, I admire the level of detail and depth that games like DayZ offer.  It's rewarding when a game allows you to take control of your own livelihood in such an involved manner.  On the other hand, nine times out of ten I like to play games as a means to escape the fact that I spend forty plus hours a week at a full time job, and then spend another good portion of my time doing house work.  Sometimes the last thing I want to do is more work whether it be virtual or otherwise. 

I've always been a man of all trades when it comes to video games.  I have never claimed devotion to one particular gaming platform or another, and (perhaps too often) I buy multiple game systems so I can enjoy everything that appeals to me across all platforms.  My attention span for games has somewhat diminished when it comes to video games over the years, and perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that I haven't chosen a single platform to support, but I like to think I'm just a fan of games in general instead of being a specialist.  Perhaps I'm not "hardcore" enough, but I like variety. 

So, what is it that makes the grind more appealing than the occasional, easier to consume action or puzzle games that I normally enjoy?  I should say that I have put hours upon hours into some of my favorite games, but none of those experiences were as involved as this.  The same goes for people who pour time into games like World of Warcraft, or the Everquest games.  For someone like me, the concept can be difficult to understand. 

When I first started playing DayZ, the formula was simple.  You spawn randomly.  You are forced to find weapons and gear that is mostly only obtainable in cities where other players will see and possibly kill you.  You get gear so you can go and raid areas on the map where better gear is spawned.  Then, if you so desire, you terrorize other players with your advanced weaponry, and then repeat.  If you got tired of the game, you could step away for a while, and the formula would still be the same when you picked it back up. 

With the way things have changed, if you are away, you could miss just about everything.  When I spawned in after one day, I would have been stranded on an abandoned island with no transportation had my friends not still been moving their stores around.  That would have been unfortunate.  It would have been the equivalent of waking up one day to find that your house had been moved and your family left you with just enough provisions to survive for one day. 

I don't want this all to come of as me complaining about grinding, or that I'm putting down those who enjoy playing games in this fashion.  In fact, I think it's awesome that video games have evolved to the point that players can enjoy games in pretty much any way they would like.  What's even more compelling is that different types of gamers can find some common ground through games like DayZ. 

However, I still feel that there should be boundaries when it comes to responsible play time.  This may vary from person to person depending on his or her real life responsibilities, but I'm not here to preach about the importance of personal responsibility.  When I refer to DayZ as a "job", it's because it would be easy for a person to sink in as much as thirty plus hours into it per week if not more if he or she were so inclined, and obviously I'm referring to the grinding. 

I can't tell if they are playing Wii, or if this is the
first person view of the family dog who is about
to be beaten?

With that said, looking at how some people play DayZ has made me better understand where my own balance between game time and family time must stand.  The two don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive as games can be enjoyed as a family, but there needs to be a healthy mix between quality time and "tube time" spent as a family.  Games will always be a part of my personal time, but I know now that I'm not looking for a second job unless it pays really well.

~Krimmit