The Arma 2 mod that Kotaku has described it as "possibly the greatest zombie game ever made," is "about two or three hours away from complete disaster at any time." At least according to the mod's creator Dean Hall. In an interview with edge online, Hall remarked on the balance between keeping the game current, and not isolating his ever growing fanbase.
"There are almost two sides [to the community]," he says. "There's the side that will just support anything that happens in the project, and then there's the side that's very critical of things that happen but continues playing...And I think that's very important, because otherwise it'll lose direction and ego will come into it. For me, the importance is that the right community is involved in it, because if we don't have that then we can't push the experiment of having players create the world."
Hall set out to make his mod based on his time in the New Zealand Army, where his experiences directly shaped the development of Day Z. Z has been praised for it's realism which adds to the challenge of the game. The player can fracture bones, die from shock, receive infections, and must eat and drink regularly if they expect to survive, as well as maintain body temperature. The concept has apparently caught on, the total players now number over 500,000.
Hall has definitely noted the rising popularity of the game from its humble beginnings, saying, "It's gone from being a little experiment in a lab to being in some particle collider in Europe somewhere. It's taken on a life of its own, which has impacted on the ability to do anything."
Hall may be terrified to make changes in updating Day Z, but it's for the right reason - he's loyal to his fans, something every game company could take a lesson from.