After playing the beta, I can firmly say that my biggest concern is with the Dark Zone. The Dark Zone in theory seems like it would be a good idea - players grouping up to tackle tough AI challenges or even other "rogue" players that want to target their own - like a modern day cops and robbers...but in practice, it's not really like that. It's more like Mad Max, where players need to constantly be aware of their surroundings, and taking on seemingly innocent tasks, like simply exiting a safe zone, can result in being ambushed. I can't tell you how many times simply walking past other players resulting in paranoia and tension, as both p[layers turn back to see what the other was up to, making sure they weren't going to get a bullet in their back, or players working together to tackle a task, only to have one or more of them turn against them and do just that. And don't even think about venturing in the DZ alone. Doing so means you're either brave, stupid, or a bit of both.

Now, the fact that the Dark Zone is optional content is a start, but the devs seem to have stressed that the best loot is in the Dark Zone, and if this turns out to be the case, if PVE content simply can't match the loot found in the DZ, then the name of this game is fitting, since it will effectively divide the community... Hopefully my concerns with loot are misplaced and the PVE zones will offer comparable if not the same loot as the DZ. If not then, Ubisoft effectively just gave the PVE community a huge middle finger.

If this was a competitive genre like moba or a dedicated competitive shooter, then maybe I could see reasoning behind their "greater risk/reward" formula behind the DZ, but it's not those games...it's an rpg. They even specifically state that it's an rpg in the intro vid of the beta, and RPG's are a genre saturated in pve content and players that want only that. Having access to different items is one thing, but the devs have apparently made it pretty clear that if you want the best items, you need to play in the dark zone, and if that's the case, that seems like bs. I guess we'll see when game launches.

The loot issue aside, the DZ is still rather "lawless" and unforgiving. It seems to want to punish players, no matter what. You were minding your own business and were just gunned down by a rogue player? Yeah, you're still going to be punished in the form of loss of credits or xp or both... The DZ in general needs to be addressed, because in it's current state it's a huge, frustrating, discouraging mess, that actually rewards being an asshole.

Some ideas for cleaning up the Dark Zone:

- Players who are not rogue that are killed by other players, do not lose any loot/xp/credits upon death. This can help with players who are ambushed by other players, or had no interest in pvp.

- Have the PVP element be optional. Make it so players can only participate in PVP or be targeted by it under certain circumstances. Ex: 1.)You kill a friendly NPC - people on the street, guards at a safe zone, etc. 2.) you need to actively enable "pvp mode" which can be done through the menu or whatnot, and/or or 3.) you fire on a rogue player. This means that players could not target other players unless the target is already hostile. This way players who want to venture in the DZ without having to worry about getting killed by players, can do so.

- Extraction zones are safe zones. Once the chopper arrives and it's time to extract, players within the zone cannot be targeted by other players nor target other players. They could also just significantly reduce the extraction time, this way any potential rogue players would need to already be close by, or otherwise miss the opportunity to gank people's loot. They could also just get rid of extraction zones altogether, and just let player decontaminate their loot at safe zones.

- Players will have some sort of indicator on them to let others know about their overall rogue status, like how many times they've went rogue, total time spent rogue, etc. This can help give other players info when passing by each other, if they should perhaps be on their guard or not.