[Lore Question] Infected as People

[K2U]

Although we are only on day four of the new lore, and it has only been about two weeks since the infection began to truly get out of control lore-wise, I have been encountering many, many people who refer to the infected as "Zombies" and even more who openly slaughter them with large melee weapons or shoot them with guns, showing absolutely no indication that they're interacting with a human being. My character, a civilian veterinarian, has been reacting to this with horror and, after the driver of a vehicle she was in swerved to intentionally run over an infected, trauma as she feels she was part of wantonly slaying an innocent person. With the exception of only two or three other characters, everyone she has confronted about this has told her some version of "They're dead already and it doesn't matter". I've had at least a half dozen people criticize her point of view and one vaguely threatened her for locking an infected inside of a building instead of killing them. How long are characters expected, in general, to view the Infected as people who are sick before they start to view them as a background threat, like having wolves or coyotes as a danger to one's farm livestock, and dealt with in the same manner of "Have to kill those annoying things, they could hurt me or my property"? I understand that this shift in mindset is going to happen, and because this is a game with mechanics that are very difficult to interact with/complete without killing the Infected along the way, the mindset is likely to shift quickly, however, I feel that less than two weeks is not near enough time for average people to people willing to openly slaughter, in painful and bloody ways, their fellow citizens without so much as a second thought for their actions.

[Brayces]

You would be correct.

The infected are not "zombies" they do not eat people. They attack you, yes.They run at you too. But they are still considered "people." Typically, the best way to deal with them is to yell at them and then melee them to death or lure them into a house or something.

What I do is ask them to stop, when they do not I tell them I am acting in self defense and then go about killing them. Typically I try to avoid them though, sneak around and not bother with them. No need to go into a place they are in unless I am looting of which I do not do a lot of.

As we progress these things such as killing them will be come less and less horrifying as is the way of most lore with AI such as these. But we'd prefer, as LMS, to have people try and treat the infected as if they are human. Of course, not everyone is the same nor is everyone playing the same sort of character.