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The Dead by Daylight team would like your feedback in a Player Satisfaction survey.

We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.

Access the survey HERE!

What is fun (baby don't hurt me).

What is fun?

What makes a match fun for you? Is it the reward of ranking up? Is it the 'journey'- the experience of playing the match? Is it successfully killing off four survivors without a single gen getting done? Is it getting all the gens done with no survivors killer? Mori killing survivors? Key escapes?

What makes the game fun for most of the players? What sort of 'interactive churn' makes the game more fun for ALL players in a match, the killer AND the survivors so that all 5 want to play the next match?

What are your thoughts on this question?

Comments

  • Sypherpathic
    Sypherpathic Member Posts: 488

    I like your last sentence. This is what I think of as 'churn'. Everyone's ability to participate and have some kind of (non-dull) experience. It sucks as the killer to get "gen-rushed" and it sucks as the survivor to get 1-2-3 hooked even if maybe your skill isn't up to the killer's level. I wonder if there's some way to make the game fun even under these circumstances or if the best course is to get out and on to the next match...

  • Laluzi
    Laluzi Member Posts: 6,226
    edited June 2021

    I have the most fun when I'm able to interact meaningfully with the other players - especially in unexpectedly friendly or camaraderie-laden ways - and when I neither dominate nor get dominated. I like having to put effort in to get results; I don't like when my effort doesn't pay off and I don't like when I get results without effort, because then there's very little engagement for me. I may be a weirdo for this, but I despise getting 4ks unless it's a situation where I stopped the last survivors at the gates, or caught a final gen at the cusp of popping. A 4k at 3+ gens remaining is just depressing. I also feel bad about 4-man escapes when the killer got <=4 hooks.

    As survivor, this means not getting removed from the game immediately, having chases where I manage to stall the killer, getting some difficult objectives done or enabling their completion, and rescuing a teammate (as in bodyblocking, luring the killer away from them, or a smart BT save, not just routine safe unhooks in a dark corner of the map.) I'm happy when I get to make meaningful contributions that any bot with a mouse key couldn't have accomplished. As a killer, this means mindgaming and successful predictions, having chases that last some time but don't stretch upwards of a minute, not getting significantly outplayed, having the opportunity to be merciful and acknowledge funny moments, and not having the survivors blatantly screw with me. When survivors BM me, any fun I'm having immediately vanishes, because I want to have fun with other people, not be the targeted source of entertainment. At that point I'm no longer playing casually and instead playing to punish, which isn't an enjoyable state for me even when I get what I want.

    I enjoy befriending survivors as killer because it's just so incongruous and adorable - something about the lack of clear communication resulting in awkward pantomime between the short people and the tall murder beast. The subversion of the rules really charms me, but I want to play the game to the fullest extent I can before doing so. So if I'm winning too hard, one of my favorite things to do is to start ######### with people (in ways that are confusing but not cruel) and see how they react - like slugging survivors, picking them up and dropping them in a pile, and then leaving so someone else can pick them all up, or following one survivor without attacking them and seeing how long it takes them to stop running.

  • A_Skinny_Legend
    A_Skinny_Legend Member Posts: 919

    Idk, it depends on my mood. Fun is a feeling so I could be enjoying it for the first few times but later the novelty of it all is gone for whatever reason.

    I felt the same way with minecraft, I spent a lot of time building dirt houses but eventually that got boring. Then I learned how to sculpt for the gods & that was exciting for a while, until it wasn't. Haven't touched that game in over a month or two.

  • Sypherpathic
    Sypherpathic Member Posts: 488

    I wonder if some solution like... slower gen progress for more hooks or inability to do certain things for being hooked more would be something interesting. So the survivors don't die, exactly, just see a diminishing return for play... maybe unless they do so in a co-ordinated fashion with less-hooked survivors.

  • Laluzi
    Laluzi Member Posts: 6,226

    It'd be pretty strange to have a slasher game where the killer can't actually kill anyone...

    I think that if you were to do this and hooks still remained a meaningful way for the killer to make progress, you would ultimately have the same result - a player who gets 'tunneled' under this system would still be around, but their ability to contribute to the team was nerfed so hard so early that they may as well be dead and in the next game, because they're mostly dead weight in this one. All you could really do is have chases and stall the killer, and killers aren't going to target players who can barely touch gens when they could be chasing someone who's still a threat to them.

  • VioletCrimes
    VioletCrimes Member Posts: 878

    Skilled killers, not being tunneled, having team mates that aren’t potatoes, having a fun, silly match once in a while (like a match where we play ‘tag’ booping the pig’s snoot).

  • Moundshroud
    Moundshroud Member Posts: 4,458

    The challenge of it and pretty much nothing else. A victory is meaningless unless the outcome was in contention. If I know the outcome in the first minute or so, the match is already boring. I don't want a blowout. I want it to go down as close to the wire as possible.

  • Sypherpathic
    Sypherpathic Member Posts: 488

    This is also a great quote - I wonder how to make sure to design a game where there's contention for all five players would even be done, without someone feeling either stomped on or like they are the one doing the stomping, even with a great disparity of skill.

  • Sypherpathic
    Sypherpathic Member Posts: 488

    Yeah, this is a good point. I fully understand why I am not a game designer :D

  • Sadsnacks
    Sadsnacks Member Posts: 677

    As killer it's either getting deviousness points (making use of my power and catching survivors off guard), like seeing people run into my traps as trapper. But I also enjoy goofing off with survivors. Playing clown with only the yellow potion and just spamming it for direct hits nonstop with the no perks or addons except for the party bottle. As doctor just spamming the shock on one person over and over and doing nothing else.

    As trapper I'll bring two bag add ons and then gather all of my traps into one central location (killer shack for example) and lure survivors there. Then watch what shenanigans ensue. Spamming plagues vomit is fun too.

    As survivor I enjoy holding Victor hostage for as long as possible. Booping the snoot. I enjoy dropping pallets in front of the doctor so I can spin in circles screaming while he shocks me from a safe distance.

    I don't need to "win" to have fun. Either shenanigans or moments of skill paying off are what I play for.

  • meowzilla69
    meowzilla69 Member Posts: 408
  • Hagravating
    Hagravating Member Posts: 25

    I'd say a game where both sides are competent enough and where neither plays in a toxic way (facecamping on the very first hook, T-bagging and clicky-clicky, mostly interactions between both sides rather than a playstyle really) is usually rather interesting at least and can be fun most of the time, although RNG such as which maps you get can easily give an advantage to either side so it can be a bit frustrating at times (cough Nurse on Lery's cough).

    Now if you get a somewhat balanced map with such conditions then it can be very fun in my opinion, so it mostly comes down to experience and behavior (get it ?)

    Although I have to say nothing will ever be funnier to me than playing Scratched Mirror Myers on Lery's and see those poor survivor stop moving when I pop out of a corner cause they had a heart attack, I don't see him often but it's always very entertaining somehow.

  • Laluzi
    Laluzi Member Posts: 6,226

    You sound like my kind of player. I've done birthday party Clown before; Trapper minefield sounds like a ton of fun and I'll try that one out. In return, may I suggest Get Off My Lawn Hag? Take Disfigured Ear and place all of your traps in shack/main building/a high traffic area, or on a map like Lery's/Midwich, in a straight line through a corridor. Then laugh hysterically when a survivor runs through the hell zone. Maybe save 2-3 traps for normal gameplay and relocate your death house after it gets cleared to keep survivors on their toes.

  • Moundshroud
    Moundshroud Member Posts: 4,458

    Well it is tricky in a 4v1 to be sure. :) But as a Survivor as long as I did my best and my team wins and they are still in contention even if I go out before the rest, that works for me too. There is no "I" in team.

  • Sypherpathic
    Sypherpathic Member Posts: 488

    I suppose like anyone, I hate when I get caught first, then basically caught again and again before I can get anything useful done. Part of me knows that this is just a sucky match where I am likely doing poorly, but it does feel like bad luck can abound in this game. I also like to feel like I contributed 'enough' before I am out of the picture!

  • Sadsnacks
    Sadsnacks Member Posts: 677

    OMG That's GENIUS!!! LMAO I am definitely trying that! Thank you for the suggestion 🤣🤣

  • Huge_Bush
    Huge_Bush Member Posts: 5,424

    For me, in either role, run is when everything is as fair as can be and no one is playing toxic. No t-bagging, tunneling or camping from the start, no clicky clicky flashlight vault spamming come get me survivor, and everyone is around equal skill.

    The equal skill is the biggest factor. Its not fun stomping my opponent in either role.

  • Kira4Evr
    Kira4Evr Member Posts: 2,025

    A fun match? Uhh, a match is fun:

    • When people don't sweat to an extreme level.
    • When people aren't playing like #########.
    • When I'm not facing a Deathslinger, Doctor, Freddy or a Clown. (There are more boring killers. But they can be fun sometimes)
    • When I'm not on a boring map.
    • When the killer doesn't use Franklin's. Gosh, I hate that perk.

    Basically, red rank = Big Boring

  • TheGorgon
    TheGorgon Member Posts: 777

    As killer, I find close matches exciting and enticing.

    As survivor, I don’t like blowouts, but if I’m the main attention for the whole game and I’m looping like a god, that is a ton of fun for me.

  • TheClownIsKing
    TheClownIsKing Member Posts: 6,278

    The constant unpredictable nature of each match, and that chaos can break out at any moment.

  • Hex_Llama
    Hex_Llama Member Posts: 1,844
    • When I make meaningful progress toward a reward -- rift challenge, daily, collecting iri shards, etc.
    • When everyone is at about the same skill level, and there's a lot of back and forth in the match.
    • When something funny and unexpected happens.
  • DraconDirnc
    DraconDirnc Member Posts: 121

    Best fun I have had as survivor was in KYF against a friend running fragrant tuft of hair and judith myers tombstone. He chased me during egc The entity took me because he ate every pallet at Gideon.

  • NoelleMina
    NoelleMina Member Posts: 638
    1. Almost anything that isn’t the objective or main goal.
    2. When unexpected things happen.
    3. Trying out new builds.
    4. Anything new, really.

    Nowadays, I try not to take DBD too seriously.