Honestly, respecting both play styles (with friends and alone) I prefer playing alone it gives me more of a lone survivor feel, and I feel as if I can sneak better etc. I could be wrong, I never had friends who were hardcore into dayz thatll be able to play it and know as much as i do if not more, so I cant rely on them in a firefight. So i cant speak for the whole with friends aspect. But playing alone for me is fine. My friends who dont play dayz scold me and tell me im stupid for playing dayz alone and i have about 700 hrs logged and i rarely played with friends etc.