DayZ (video game) in the context of "Survival game"

A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or via a wide area network, most commonly the Internet (e.g. World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, DayZ). Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.

The history of multiplayer video games extends over several decades, tracing back to the emergence of electronic gaming in the mid-20th century. One of the earliest instances of multiplayer interaction was witnessed with the development of Spacewar! in 1962 for the DEC PDP-1 computer by Steve Russell and colleagues at the MIT. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, multiplayer gaming gained momentum within the arcade scene with classics like Pong and Tank. The transition to home gaming consoles in the 1980s further popularized multiplayer gaming. Titles like Super Mario Bros. for the NES and Golden Axe for the Sega Genesis introduced cooperative and competitive gameplay. Additionally, LAN gaming emerged in the late 1980s, enabling players to connect multiple computers for multiplayer gameplay, popularized by titles like Doom and Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Players can also play together in the same room using splitscreen.

Bohemia Interactive a.s. is a Czech video game developer and publisher based in Prague. The company focuses on creating military simulation games such as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the Arma series. It is also known for having worked on a game conversion of the DayZ mod created for Arma 2.

Founded by Marek Španěl in May 1999, the studio released its first game in 2001, a military shooter titled Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, which received critical acclaim and brought recognition for the studio. Following Operation Flashpoint was a series of downturns, such as porting the game to Xbox, which led to financial losses and the development of a sequel later abandoned by the publisher Codemasters. The studio fell into financial troubles until the United States Marine Corps employed the studio to create simulation games to train soldiers. A new division called Bohemia Interactive Simulations was created, and later spun off and became a standalone business entity. Following Codemasters' decision of not supporting the studio, Bohemia Interactive decided to develop a spiritual successor to Cold War Crisis titled Arma: Armed Assault. It was both a critical and financial success, spawning a number of sequels. Smaller projects such as Take On Helicopters were also released.

DayZ is a multiplayer open world survival third-person shooter modification designed by Dean Hall for the 2009 tactical shooter video game Arma 2 and its 2010 expansion pack, Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead. The mod places the player in the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has infected most of the population, turning people into violent zombies. As a survivor with limited resources, the player must scavenge the world for supplies such as food, water, weapons and medicine, while killing or avoiding both zombies and other players, and sometimes non-playable characters, in an effort to survive the zombie apocalypse.

DayZ has been praised for its innovative design elements. The mod reached one million players in its first four months on August 6, 2012, with hundreds of thousands of people purchasing Arma 2 just to play it. In response to its popularity, Bohemia Interactive made a standalone game based on the mod. The mod itself remains in continued development by its community.

Arma 2 is a 2009 tactical shooter simulation video game developed and published by Bohemia Interactive for Microsoft Windows. It is the second main entry in the Arma series and the third installment in the series overall. The game is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Chernarus during a civil war between the Chernarussian government and communist revolutionaries, and follows escalating tensions when the United States Marine Corps is deployed to defeat the rebels.

Arma 2 was first released on 29 May 2009 in Germany, with further releases in Europe, North America, and other regions throughout June and July of that year. The game was positively received by critics who, like its predecessor Arma: Armed Assault, praised its realism and accuracy but criticized its difficulty and bugs. Arma 2 has sold 2.3 million copies as of February 2015. Arma 2 maintains a significant modding community and is well-known as the origin of DayZ, a survival game conversion that was later developed into its own standalone game in 2018 and contributed to the development of the battle royale game genre.