Die2Nite

December 7, 2010 10:42 AM

Die2Nite is a free co-op zombie game for your browser. "Your character gets dropped into a village with 40 other players from your time zone, and your group objective is to survive." They just announced open registration.
posted by Soup (35 comments total)

Am I reading it right that it costs €12 per month for "Hero" status or your abilities and skills are limited? No thanks.
posted by ChrisHartley at 10:50 AM on December 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hrm. Sounds like a more limited version of Urban Undead.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:51 AM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Am I reading it right that it costs €12 per month for "Hero" status or your abilities and skills are limited? No thanks.

This is no different than any Facebook game.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 11:00 AM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

if i am going to have to die tonight, the rest of you are going down with me.
posted by the aloha at 11:02 AM on December 7, 2010

You don't actually need Hero status, I'm on my 4th town without it (I was in the beta). It's actually a pretty fun way to waste a little bit of time every day. Interesting how the group dynamics work out since you absolutely have to work together to last more than a few days.
posted by ghharr at 11:04 AM on December 7, 2010

I totally read co-op as coin op the first time. Now that I don't have to figure out where the quarter slot on my computer is...
posted by theichibun at 11:16 AM on December 7, 2010

So, I signed up because I love zombies, and am Klang if any of you are on there in the PST.
posted by klangklangston at 11:42 AM on December 7, 2010

For what it's worth I don't know how strict it is about time zone because I'm in Central and have been playing with a bunch of Eastern folks I know.
posted by ghharr at 11:44 AM on December 7, 2010

I totally read co-op as coin op the first time. Now that I don't have to figure out where the quarter slot on my computer is...

doublehappy: Please please please don't be on my team.

O hai guyz, I'm outta quarters, can anyone PayPal me some change? I'm about to die, and my 'puter is making weird jangling noises. Ktnxbye!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:52 AM on December 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

I played it a little, but your ability to punish the selfish completely evaporates around 10 people or so. All you're really doing is gathering resources for the selfish people to grab in the endgame, and you have no real tools to fight them. I completely lost interest.
posted by Malor at 12:29 PM on December 7, 2010

So, Urban Undead looks good. I'm playing as Eugene Zed, btw.
posted by oddman at 12:32 PM on December 7, 2010

Hrm. Sounds like a more limited version of Urban Undead.

So, Urban Undead looks good. I'm playing as Eugene Zed, btw.

It's Urban Dead, not Urban Undead. Played it for about a year (it came out in 2005) and had a great time playing missions with a group of friends (missions created by us, since the game didn't offer any). Moved on to playing Nexus Wars until that ended, then Dead Frontier until it went 3D. Browser-based games can be great fun for those of us who suck at console games and only have laptops.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 12:41 PM on December 7, 2010

All you're really doing is gathering resources for the selfish people to grab in the endgame, and you have no real tools to fight them. I completely lost interest.

Not a fan of realism, eh?

It might be interesting to ponder how one of the dominant speculative worlds of the day is that of a crumbling civilization collapsing under the weight of a burgeoning population of mindless ghouls motivated solely by their drive to commit meaningless acts of violence and consumption... though probably not as interesting as dinking away the hours playing little browser games.
posted by nanojath at 12:49 PM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, browser games are really interfering with my "being smug on the internet" time.
posted by ghharr at 12:53 PM on December 7, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm playing as Kwine and I'm on a GMT server somehow. I've enjoyed my first day and I recommend giving it a try if you like Urban Dead and Nexus War.
posted by Kwine at 12:55 PM on December 7, 2010

I played Die2Nite during the beta and was looking forward to tossing the developers a few bucks for the nice perks that Hero status afforded once the game launched. The fact you have to cooperate instead of complete (at least directly) was a nice spin on the usual browser games. €12 a month, though? Seriously? I could just play World of Warcraft for that much. It kinda killed my interest.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 12:56 PM on December 7, 2010

Am I reading it right that it costs €12 per month for "Hero" status or your abilities and skills are limited? No thanks.

I had the same reaction. I understand they need money to run servers and recoup costs or whatever, but really? I'd rather have the option to look at advertisements rather than choose between starting the game as a character class that they quite deliberately make you feel is gimped or paying for premium game-time.
posted by tybeet at 12:57 PM on December 7, 2010

Err, I meant on the usual browser game concept.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 12:58 PM on December 7, 2010

I'm laying it right now and loving it!

I would advise people to read through the game info. before leaving the town to search the desert and getting stuck out there like I did. How embarrassing..!
posted by loquat at 1:02 PM on December 7, 2010

Yeah, anyone want to bring me some water at -1/-1 in the The Amputated Chasm game? The gates are closing in 53 minutes and I don't want to die...
posted by ChrisHartley at 1:09 PM on December 7, 2010

if i am going to have to die tonight, the rest of you are going down on me.
posted by stenseng at 1:22 PM on December 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

I just noticed I'm in the same game as you Chris Hartley... sorry. I wouldn't have been able to help you anyway. Someone stole my food in the first 5 minutes and then berated me for building the wrong thing. And now I see we've left 5 people out to die.

IT'S JUST LIKE BEING BACK IN THE OFFICE!
posted by danny the boy at 2:05 PM on December 7, 2010

I think I forgot to go back to the town. Ah well.
posted by klangklangston at 2:10 PM on December 7, 2010

Anyone know if it's possible to do a private game? I'd rather play with you guys than the guy WHO STOLE MY CHICKEN WINGS
posted by danny the boy at 2:12 PM on December 7, 2010

You had chicken wings? I lost my damn eye getting a copper pipe and I could use some comfort food right now..
posted by loquat at 2:17 PM on December 7, 2010

I don't think private games are possible, although it would be vastly less aggravating. If you pay real money you gain the ability to pick what world to play in so you would need 39 paying friends to block out the random chicken wing thieves. This is a strange game because it is very easy for a new player to abuse the commons and very few ways to stop them.
posted by ChrisHartley at 2:47 PM on December 7, 2010

Oh! You can form coalitions! Teams of five, the first person in the coalition who joins a town brings the other 4 with them. My town is already at 40 so I can't join a coalition but someone else should.
posted by ChrisHartley at 3:01 PM on December 7, 2010

ChurchHatesTucker: "Hrm. Sounds like a more limited version of Urban Undead"

Damn, a long time ago I started a character named Spicoli. I can't remember the password. And it seems that I neglected to give them an email addy. I want Spicoli back!
posted by Splunge at 3:06 PM on December 7, 2010

I've been trying to figure out if zombies are legitimately over-exposed, and I'm tired of them, or if they're a generic genre sort of like superheroes that are exposure-proof.

I work for a games vendor, and in our booth at Atlanta Comic-Con this past week, we sold Zombie Dice*, Zombie Fluxx, Last Night on Earth (The** Zombie Board Game), Zombie Town, Zombies!!!, and its "you play the zombies" counterpart Humans!!!. You've got RPGs like All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and video games including Plants versus Zombies.

Zombie movies are nothing new, but I fear zombie TV will be the next wave of overexposure as The Walking Dead's success will spawn other shows in the same way there are a bajillion vampire properties currently floating out in the ether.

I know there are no new things under the sun, but it'd be cool if blatent genre copy-cats didn't pop up so often.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, super fun.
**a
posted by explosion at 3:33 PM on December 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

I've been playing with a bunch of people I know in real life. The game just plops people into towns until they're full (except possibly some sort of time zone thing) so if you coordinate what time you join you can get a group of people in together for free. We waited until a town had just filled and got a 10 person group in all together. You can manage the town's direction pretty well with that many people too.
posted by ghharr at 5:41 PM on December 7, 2010

The frustrating thing about Urban Dead (yes, thank you for the correction) is that it doesn't operate on time zones. So you get obsessive about checking in and then, hey, your safehouse has been overrun while you were asleep.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:59 PM on December 7, 2010

It might be very easy to abuse the commons, but it's not very beneficial to do so until after day 5, and even then, the benefit is only on the last night. At that point, there's a benefit to hoarding furniture, or to being the last guy alive. The easiest way to guarantee that, of course, is to stay on all day and lock out everybody as they go outside, then take every possible defensive item for your own home, guaranteeing the town's destruction-- but then you'd best hope you don't run into the same people the next game.

If people are being selfish, it's way better to remind them that they're getting no benefit than to try to shun them. Once you shun them, they have no motive to do anything except improve their own home. Of course, you may have to set an example, if you suspect other players will become selfish if they think that they can get away with it....
posted by nathan v at 7:36 PM on December 7, 2010

I knew it reminded me of something else, and yep, indeed: it's the english translation of Hordes, a successful (and french) browser game. Haven't played it, but both my parents (~60 yo) play it and enjoy it.
posted by vivelame at 6:28 AM on December 8, 2010

I second Zombie Dice as cheap, portable fun. However, it is much better if you amend the rules to be high-stakes. (if you have dice left over when you stop rolling, the next player can roll the remaining dice and if they don't get killed they keep the points from the prior turn and keep going, ala Farkel)
posted by jopreacher at 4:34 AM on December 9, 2010

I would like to amend my first post to say that the pay-for-hero-status option does not seem to unbalance the game. It is quite playable and enjoyable without playing. If other people are playing please update the zombie attack count wiki - with enough data we can reverse engineer the algorithm or at least make statistical predictions. I'm not sure if that will make the game more fun overall but it would be fun to do.
posted by ChrisHartley at 10:32 AM on December 9, 2010