The War Z sticks players in an open-world test of survival against nature, carpets of zombies, and fellow survivors, but here's another punch in the gut from realism: you can permanently lose cash shop items purchased with real money through the in-game store. Good heavens, is it griefing o' clock already?

In an interview with Gaming Blend , Hammerpoint PR representative Alex Josef said the risk of losing items in Normal and Hardcore modes, including those purchased with real money, is "a price players will pay" while exploring The War Z's sprawling maps .

"We've discussed that a lot and at the end decided that this will provide a pretty good incentive for players to either be extra cautious while playing, or just not spend too much money in the game and, instead, try to procure all items by finding them in the game world," Josef said.

This sets up a new avenue of emergent gameplay touching upon the desperate nature of scarce resources in a post-apocalyptic environment. What's stopping players from forming roving bands of highwaymen extorting victims at gunpoint for their cash-shop goods? DayZ's PVP certainly contains its fair share of resource wars, but embellishing that formula with microtransactions definitely runs up the tension. Server stability presents another issue -- if a player's faulty connection causes a death, are they justifiably "paying the price" of lost items? We'll see Hammerpoint's balancing efforts -- and whether its intentions actually make it live -- when The War Z releases this fall.