Terrible anxiety and stress while playing.

[76561199480187454]

Has anyone else felt this while playing. I find it very distracting when trying to make decisions. I can be in a forest surrounded by trees and still feel very nervous and unable to relax. I want to enjoy the game, but the paranoia of being watched or hunted makes me have to put the game down to calm down very often. I have tried to power through it and learn to take a more proactive predator like approach, but no dice. I am hard wired to freak the ♥♥♥♥ out it seems.

[1337Dude]

That is your survival instinct.

[PorkChop]

Try low population servers. Still a little edge, but you can relax more and enjoy the game more.

[Ranceed]

Best part about the game. The tension.

[ast]

well that's what adrenaline does to you and the best part is the comedown after the rush
ps
you could try some Yoga or meditation before playing ;)

[Envy The Dead]

Originally posted by Max:

Has anyone else felt this while playing. I find it very distracting when trying to make decisions. I can be in a forest surrounded by trees and still feel very nervous and unable to relax. I want to enjoy the game, but the paranoia of being watched or hunted makes me have to put the game down to calm down very often. I have tried to power through it and learn to take a more proactive predator like approach, but no dice. I am hard wired to freak the ♥♥♥♥ out it seems.

That’s what makes this game so much fun and different from other games

You can play single player mode or join an empty server or play on pve servers till you are ready for the full game

[Idaho]

The problem is, you're worried about death.

Convince yourself that dying is no big deal and force yourself to realize that, the first 30-60 minutes of a fresh spawn is actually the most fun part of the game.

You could also try my PVE server. It's usually empty, Besides, the zombies are more dangerous than other players, anyway.

[emmietiie]

Making stashes helped me become less worried about my character. I always have a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E, etc

I only keep worrying about things like
"Is this stash far enough from spawn points?
"How big is the max radius on that loot radar I saw being sold on youtube?"
"Should I keep this M4 on me, or leave it in this crate that has been undiscovered for 3 months?"
"If they type M4 into their loot radar, will they go for the one in the gas zone, or come all the way here?"

Spoiler: All my stashes on that side of the map were looted the next day. Lesson learned: Never stash an M4, no matter how quiet the server is. Someone will type that ♥♥♥♥ into their loot radar hours later.

[baddoggs]

survival games are not for everyone..
If you are having REAL stress.tension issues then
perhaps try another game that is less confronting.
It seems a large % feel this way and live on modded
PvE servers.. Perhaps try that.

[Bogril]

You get used to it the more you play, try roaming around with a friend or two and see if that helps

[Miles]

Classic case for gear fear. Don't worry you should get over that. Best way is to put yourself in those situations that make you feel like that so you ca get used to it and then start to plan around it.

[JBrown247]

I think that is the point of the game.

[Judge Lazar]

Originally posted by Max:

Has anyone else felt this while playing. I find it very distracting when trying to make decisions. I can be in a forest surrounded by trees and still feel very nervous and unable to relax. I want to enjoy the game, but the paranoia of being watched or hunted makes me have to put the game down to calm down very often. I have tried to power through it and learn to take a more proactive predator like approach, but no dice. I am hard wired to freak the ♥♥♥♥ out it seems.

This is actually why I love the game. Don't get me wrong, if I run into a player, I'm toast, I suck at PvP. I've played a lot and A LOT of low pop servers and let me bestow upon you a lesson.

If it's just you and one other person in the server, you're gonna run into each other. My point is, that feeling of dread is warranted.

Just a funny video of my friend that teaches some valuable lessons.

https://youtu.be/CL4lg_9Bdlk?list=PLHPFY9tOr1PjVn8dkfAx675HN21QvSae0

[PorkChop]

Originally posted by Tobster:

You get used to it the more you play, try roaming around with a friend or two and see if that helps

This is the best advice of all. You just cannot beat the fun you can have playing with a buddy. It really changes the game for you in a good way.

[Amogus]

Perfectly normal

Two friends and I were camped out at Romashka (very small campground-like area with a few dorms and a two-story log cabin) which is pretty disconnected from any cities when the server had ~20 people online. We had spent some time looting around and cooking up some meat from some wolves we killed. Once we went to leave, 2 of us got instantly killed by someone hiding in the trees and the 3rd got killed shortly afterwards.

Sure, we were cooking and making smoke, but the height of the trees around us completely hid the smoke from being seen from any sort of distance AND the cooking was at night time. We were inside a house using the fireplace inside, so most of the light from the fire was hidden and the area we were in was mostly surrounded by walls and, as such, even harder to see the light. I also used a MkII pistol to kill the wolves, so they weren't attracted by gun fire either.

Basically, you could be at a random outhouse in the middle of the woods and someone will always be near you. Back in legacy DayZ, my friends and I would join servers with 0-2 people on them and we would frequently hear/see people nearby. To be fair, we were at places like Vybor military base and NWAF, but it also happened in coastal cities as well.

[us271934-Слава Україн]

Unlike a lot of games DayZ never 'turns off' when there is anybody else on the server. As noted in other comments a player has a breaking in period where the tension and anxiety need to be remade into the fuel to power a predatory situational awareness. I look at it as prepping for when Thanos attacks earth......