DayZ Bounty puts money on the line

The developer of Arma 2 mod, DayZ, is hoping to introduce a program to the game called DayZ Bounty, which will create a kind of club or community where members have a monetary stake in the game, PC Gamer reports.

The plan for the program that the developers detailed to PC Gamer involves players buying "packages" valued at $5, $10, $15 or $20 which will entitle them to a certain number of in-game lives on dedicated DayZ Bounty servers. Different targets will carry different values. Sample values used during the program's test period include 10 cents per 10 zombies killed, 5 cents per survivor killed, 25 cents per bandit killed and outlaws are valued at $5, with their value increasing by 25 cents for every hour of in-game time.

The developers say that the idea came about when they placed bets on each other while playing the game and found that the whole experience was more fun when there was something at stake.

"We figured if people had a value on their life ... there'd be something to fear besides the zombies," developer James Ortiz told PC Gamer.

The game's website boasts that DayZ Bounty will feature new maps, live stats, rankings, anti-hacks, re-imagined Chernarus and real cash prizes to encourage competitive play.

While the development team has adopted new client-server architecture to deal with potential exploitation and hacking, DayZ Bounty does face potential problems. The first is whether the program constitutes online gambling, which is illegal in many states in the U.S. The second is whether charging players for such a program violates Arma 2's terms of services. The DayZ developers are yet to receive blessing from Arma developer Bohemia Interactive.

The full interview with the DayZ developers can be read at PC Gamer.