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Optimal < Fun
You know how everyone complains about Tunneling, Camping, Decisive Strike, Flashlights, Unbreakable, Infinites, Slugging, BBQ and Chili, Deathslinger, Spirit, P3 Claudette, Pallet Saves, etc. etc.?
I think that Camping and Tunneling is miserable, and the fact that people say that its a valid tactic is a defense mechanism because they don't want to lose it. I think that the existence of Flashlights are unhealthy for the game because they can take 15 minutes of hard work away from a killer in an instant, with minimal effort.
But no matter how much I ######### and cry about being tunneled and camped and having all my effort be for nothing, I realize that these options, no matter how braindead or degrading, can not leave the game, because trying to fix one aspect would suddenly make the game 100% more imbalanced.
And that made me realize that every single option a player has to win, involves nothing but stripping the fun out of the game and ruining it for the other party.
You think being camped is fun? You think chasing someone just to lose them because their friend on Discord got flash save and a laugh at your expense? Every option you have to win tears the fun out of the other person, and what's worse is that the community has it so ingrained into their heads that it's the ONLY way to win.
"Adapting" and "Working around it" stop working when you realize all mistakes can be fixed with a button. Or you get no points and are killed instantly, because you just happened to be matched with a Hag who wanted to get revenge on you for something that happened in their last match.
You can't even use meme builds because the only people you'll be matched against want to kick your teeth in to validate how good they are at the game, and when fun is only achieved when you ruin the day of another person, that's when you really know you've sunk low.
I don't know how to fix it, I bet you don't either because nothing is ever told to us.
People can't tell you how to play a game but when it comes down to it, when the only people you're playing against get mad at you for winning it doesn't really matter what you do. They're still going to get mad when you succeed and humiliate and taunt you when they succeed.
Dead By Daylight is a game about stripping the fun from your opposition and then acting like you're better than them to validate yourself, and I'm slowly growing to hate both it and myself for continuing to play it.
Comments
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I'm a survivor main but I do feel that camping and tunneling are viable strategies. Pressure, mind games, etc. They have a place in a game like this (how much of a place is subjective). Both also have counterplay - if the rest of the group is focusing on objectives while the killer wastes their time going after just one person, it's to the killer's disadvantage.
Now, do I myself ######### DESPISE being tunneled and facecamped? Yes. Just because something is a valid strategy for one side doesn't mean that it's not a potentially game-ruining waste of time for the person on the other side.
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If you hate it so much don't play it, sometimes it's as simple as that.
Alternatively, if you want to keep playing, don't let a couple of bad actors screw up how you feel about the game as a whole. There are scumbags and tryhards in every game, DBD isn't special in that regard.
So the best thing to do is to not take everything so seriously, and take the occassional break.
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This too. It's always good to take a break from this game from time to time. A month, a week, a day, even a few hours (depending on how much you play). There was a while where I was playing like crazy, hours a day every day, and sometimes I'd get a bad run of really irritating and unfair play several matches in a row. I got fed up and said "Alright. Enough. This is pissing me off. ######### it, that's it for today". I found that the next time I played I wasn't anywhere near as angry, and I also had a better run of matches.
In a game with this many players and this many variables, sometimes luck is just totally NOT on your side. When that happens, and it's really starting to get to you, it's best to step away for a while. It happens to most, if not all of us, at some point or another.
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Yeah, feels like people let this game get into their heads too much.
I also get the feeling we might have fallen for a God tier bait post.
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He's being very sarcastic but I think that the emotions are genuine. I know that I get long winded and spiteful when I get on a good rant.
But I agree, people do let this game get into their heads too much. I think that's because the game is basically a microcosm of humanity in general: You meet good people who just want to have fun and shake hands afterwards, and you meet bad people who couldn't care less about how you feel and only care about "winning". Meeting enough of the latter is enough to drive anyone crazy, especially if it happens in a relatively short time.
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It's PvP, we will never have a chill experience on both sides at the same time.
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"I think that Camping and Tunneling is miserable, and the fact that people say that its a valid tactic is a defense mechanism because they don't want to lose it."
People say that it's a valid tactic because BHVR have publicly and repeated come out and said that they're perfectly valid tactics, no "defense mechanism" required.
Hatch & Keys are miserable too but again, they've been repeatedly confirmed a valid tactics by the people who make the game so survivors don't need to defend their use either.
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But.
You don't need a 4k every game.
Sometimes you will get sacrificed first.
The game for me, is enjoyable because I'm not trying to be almighty when I play.
Yes, I have objectives that I try to complete, but the fun is in the process. The chase. Whether hunter or prey. I believe a change of perspective will allow for a more "fun" experience.
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Tunnelling will be pretty much impossible to resolve, but I do think camping needs to be adressed, since that ruins the game for literally everyone involved.
I enjoy a meme build, I've got a silly Plunderer's, Ace, Streetwise, Appraisal one, but it really is borderline unplayable.
Though my field medic build (We'll Make It, Botany, Desperate Measures, Self-care) does considerably better.
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Flashlights op lol
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There are a lot of things you can do in this game to deny another player the opportunity to take an action, and that's generally a pretty frustrating way for a game to be designed. The core gameplay loop isn't too bad -- the killer chases and hooks the survivor, the survivor gets rescued and healed; everyone gets to do something; it's fine. But, as soon as you break the loop and stop someone from being able to get a hook ever, or being able to get saved from the hook ever, you're basically making that person miss a turn or sit out the game, and it feels annoying.
If DBD were being designed for the first time today, I think there would be ways of planning the core loop so that everyone has fun/productive actions available to them, even when it gets interrupted -- but, the way it was designed in reality, you can spend the whole match feeling like you're blocked from doing anything.
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Flashlight saves are fine. They are a risk reward where the risk is that if they don't pull it off the would be saver wasted a lot of time not doing anything for their team.
If anything things like flashlight saves are what the game should be more about. Using teamwork to deal with the bigger threat.
The fact that the best playstyle right now is to stay as far away from your team is kinda weird
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"And that made me realize that every single option a player has to win, involves nothing but stripping the fun out of the game and ruining it for the other party."
I've been saying something very similar for a while, now. This game is designed in such a way that each side's best chance of winning is to deny the other side a chance to participate. For survivors, that's rushing through gens and avoiding interacting with the killer as much as possible. Their objective is a boring series of places to sit and hold M1. No interaction with the killer is required for survivors to win, and in fact it's better to avoid interaction if possible if escaping is the only goal. Survivors' only way to fight back once found is to stun the killer. No one likes being stunned in games, it means you're unable to do anything. It can actually feel unpleasant to the stunned party, and the amount of time spent stunned doesn't have to be very long for the player to get frustrated.
For killers, there's a basic set of tools that's available to all of them, two of which are part of the requirements of winning: slugging, hooking, and killing. Survivors who are slugged or hooked aren't actively participating in the game. And a survivor who's killed is completely removed from participating, after which it's back to the queue to spend more time not playing as they wait for the next match.
I'm just talking about the tools built into the game, here, I'm not even talking about how players choose to use those tools. The game's design is flawed, and it encourages people who main one side to hate the other because it can often feel like the opposition is trying to stop them from getting to play. But that's by design!
Crazy, right?
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And what about the gen speeds that make those playstyles the meta?
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Kills = Fun, Camping = Kills. Just sayin'.
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People have fun different ways, that's why i think it's hard to get to a consesus about changing a game mechanic based on fun.
Who's in right or responsible to define which mindsets have fun? Devs. Their design.
Now, can you change what makes you feel fun?
- If Yes or I don't know, focus on if your expectations are working against you. Relying on other's actions; be developers, killers, teammates... to have fun feels unhealthy.
- If no, find a game that fits better.
May you be safe in the fog.
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A pvp game, no matter how casually designed, will always have people that want to try and optimise it to a certain degree.
The devs themselves have stated they never expected dbd to be taken as seriously and have a community as competitive as it has.
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