Psychologically trying PC game re-creates tension faced by soldiers

I was going to say, it sounds like Eve. Except Eve isn't at all boring if you get deep into it, as in invested with a group in wars in 0-security space. Eve is one of those games that is lots of mundanity punctuated by sheer terror. I can easily believe that people who've played Eve have had (very mild) cases of PTSD.

I believe the fundamental difference is that the time to get to null-sec in EVE (the actual interesting component of the game that generates strong narratives) takes a significant time investment from the player. Leveling up skills, purchasing ships, and developing knowledge of the game are fairly tedious.

In comparison, you can get thrown into interesting situations from the get-go in DayZ. Basic FPS skills and a little knowledge of the clunky interface are all you need to generate strong player narratives. Whereas you make need several weeks to months to motivate an interesting experience in EvE, DayZ only requires a time investment of a couple hours (maybe).

You misunderstand, there aren't any teams.

First off, there's no such thing as "teamkilling" because there are no teams. From what I understand, anyone can kill anyone.

Second, you start off with no resources. It would be pretty silly to play long enough to get enough resources (guns) to kill someone only to throw yourself at anyone and everyone you see, considering each attack would diminish your resources and they are likely to try pretty hard to fight back and kill you, at which point you'd have to start over.

It might be fun, but it would get tiring quickly I think

1) The only teams are ad-hoc and the servers are sparsely populated. You can go hours without seeing another player.

2) When you spawn, you have very little in the way of equipment. You have to dig through abandoned houses to find a lead pipe, much less a gun. You wouldn't be able to kill an established player.

3) Following from 2), people would catch on and kill you quickly.

It's certainly possible, and people certainly do it, but griefing in DayZ is really unrewarding. You wouldn't be able to do it without a huge investment of effort.

besides the obvious lack of knowledge of how the game plays, I find most people underestimate by half the age of most games jerks.

As in, most games the jerks are twenty somethings.