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How could you reduce toxicity in a multiplayer game like Dead by Daylight?
Multiplayer games where you have to rely on your teammates and go againts other players always had their fair share of toxicity.
Do you think Dead by Daylight stands out as one of the more toxic ones out there?
If so,how would you fix it or at least try to minimize it?
So far,these are the things players in general find toxic in this game:
Flashlight clicking,t-bagging,camping,slugging,trolling,wasting pallets for no reason,hitting a survivor on hook.
Personally I think the game was designed in such a way that it will create a lot of toxicity just based on the mechanics of the game.
Comments
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Dbd is pretty tame compared to other games imo
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There's something to be said about "strength in numbers" mentality. If the killer isn't threatening enough, then survivors will feel braver. You'll note that when faced with a good killer, survivors are less likely to taunt them. Take away fear = take away threat = take away power. The roles reverse.
I also put it down to the mentality of the individual at the time of playing, experience with previous trials, vendettas and other aspects that can fire up players into becoming less sportsmanlike.
And there's also how people perceive others. For example, a clicky-clicky survivor can be seen by the killer as "toxic", when actually the survivor is being tactical because they want to protect a survivor who doesn't play as well and is being tunnelled. In fact, that survivor is being tunnelled because the killer may be feeling they're under pressure from survivors under the presumption that they're on comms.
The reasons for actions can be interpreted in many ways, and really it always comes down to subjective reasoning. If people think objectively and with sonder, then not only will poor sportsmanship reduce, but perception of actions will change.
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Make your steam profile private then just queue for the next game instead of reading post game chat then crying.
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- Ban toxic people. "Toxic" meaning people who do things to purposefully piss off other players.
- Zero tolerance policy for racism, homophobia, and so on. You do/say any of these things once, you get a hardware ban.
Yes, this may seem extreme, but it'd definitely cut down on the toxicity.
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I think this is a solution as well,I highly doubt toxic players are even punished in the first place,since it would just mean for BHVR to lose players just because they are toxic,because priorities.
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Content algorithms have shown that anger drives engagement. Until if and when people choose to disengage from that content, toxicity will be a boon, and no company will shoot itself in the foot like that.
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Just add a cool down to things like flashlight clicking and t-bagging etc.
Then also award people like those camped for the whole match ( if killers in X metres gain distraction BP, splits in all categories etc.) Sure you still get face camped but you get something from it
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If u are going to complain about flashlight clicking, t-bagging, camping, slugging, trolling, wasting pallets for no reason, hitting a survivor on hook, then i suggest u never go on PvP games. Because every single PvP game has something that will make u mad.
While i can agree sometimes clicking and t-bagging are annoying and not everyone plays according to survivor rulebook, there's nothing that harmful about it. Unless u are 40 years old virgin, but i think it's a different story.
If anything is toxic in this game it's after game chat and it rly needs to be improved. Cause it doesn't matter how u play, players are always mad. They win - ggez, they loose - they will find reason to blame u even if one of them literally suicided (played bad) on u, guess who is guilty?
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I wouldn't say DbD is more toxic than most other PvP games, but I believe toxicity in DbD comes from survivors being the power role.
All the toxic survivors I see act that way when they know they are completely safe. For example when a killer is carrying a survivor, when they are waiting in the exit gate, when they just dropped a pallet or vaulted a window etc. The confidence of knowing they have the upper hand at all times causes this. On the case of killers, most toxicity I see from them comes from frustration with survivors and trying to feel in power against them. I see many killers BMing and facecamping a hooked survivor just to have power over them, knowing they are throwing the game.
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You'll never add fear to most killers, survivor is just naturally easier and more chill especially when you reach a certain level of play. I guess more fear is stronger killers but those arent allowed in DBD as well still go off bad data of 2kills, 2 escapes
But I dont get the strat you say of purposely trying to annoy, they do it when alone and at the exit. It's in game BM and it's just abit annoying and unnecessary. I have sensitive eyes and ears, so much so I try to avoid certain killer due to sound/visuals.
Iv played enough to not get tilted by such BM, that doesnt mean it's not annoying or cant be removed/reduced for a better experience
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This...Period
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That's burying your head in the sand. OP asked for ways to get rid of toxicity, not how to ignore it.
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basekit bloodwarden for all those survivors tbagging at exots gates. That'll teach 'em fast.
But in all seriousness, the only thing I can think of is disabling post game chat in your settings, as of right now. and for an improvement that could be added? I want to say have a sportsmanship system added like in Grand Turismo, where in game activities will influence wether the game sees you as toxic or sportsmanly. Should survivors be caught tbagging and flashlight clicking it could go down, where as simply playing the game, being altruistic etc would raise it. Add to that if you haven't disabled post game chat and find survivors being toxic af, report them as normal and upon review their sportsmanship will be lowered in accordance with the severity if their toxicity. As for killers, hitting people on hook and intentional slugging to draw the game out could be considered unsportsmanlike. Similar to Smite, post game you can commend players for being friendly or helpful however lock it to being able to commend somebody once per day, as so SWF dont go boosting each others rating after every game. Then just match players with like wise sportsmanship ratings. To top it off, add incentives like cosmetics, bloodpoints and iri shards for those who achieve high sportsmanship ratings.
that's my idea anyway. Otherwise, just disabling chat and ignoring the toxicity will suffice, most likely players will continue to be toxic as long they get a reaction. So just dont feed their need for attention and over time they should mellow out.
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You can perhaps make certain changes to reduce it, but the game encourages toxicity by its nature (4 v. 1).
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No it's self care action where you don't want to see or not experience toxicity and that's best way, there's no way to get rid of toxicity and we all are well aware of it why you act like they're running away or hiding from something? They are just enough smart to not interact with community because why would they? It's a game nobody needs community to play it therefore no toxicity I have no wish saying to strangers gg or whatever I'm good I play my match and go into next I have no any interest with interaction with them
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And in game "toxicity" well I just deal with it I don't go around saying git gud etc not that person
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Let me put this another way.
The question is "How would you reduce toxicity in DbD?", not "How would you deal with toxicity in DbD?". You are answering the second question, which isn't the topic at all. OP doesn't want to know how you deal with toxicity, they want to know what you would do that would decrease the actual toxicity in the game. Just because you don't experience it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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And u reduce it by doing exactly this....
There's no other way to reduce toxicity this isn't game problem but community problem
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How will not reading what people write make them stop writing it? Again, the toxicity doesn't stop existing just because you don't look at it.
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The toxicity doesn't exist for you when you ignore it and u enjoy just game and only game without interaction with community I understand your point and that it won't disappear but in situation that we can't do anything about we can distance from toxicity therefore we won't be bothered by it
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And to the question about how it will stop them from writting.... It won't but they will talk to wall which makes them mad because they indeed want reaction from you
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as long SWF exists, never
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Frustration breeds toxicity. If the game was more forgiving to both sides, we'd probably be seeing less toxicity.
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Forgiving to one side just means frustrating to the other. If killers could lose every chase because of the survivors' skill and still win because the game is "forgiving", then the survivors would just feel frustrated.
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never, this community has embraced and endorsed toxicity.
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The game has the mechanics to recognize bad behavior, tell it from regular flashlight use, staying near the hook because you are looking for someone etc.
It's complicated, but the mechanics ARE there. They could be used to discourage and outright punish bad behavior, but that would 1. require cleaning up the code, and 2. Be willing to lose a chunk of the community who'd throw a temper tantrum over these things suddenly being called by what they are, namely bad, skill-deprived nonsense.
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I don't think he meant having one side more forgiving and if he did he wouldn't say
If the game was more forgiving to both sides, we'd probably be seeing less toxicity.
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I know, I was pointing out how being forgiving to one side is just frustrating for the other. I didn't think I needed to explicitly say "and vice-versa".
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Flashlight clicking: Can’t do anything about that unless put in a troll command that depletes the battery after one too many clicks lol
T-bagging: Same as above unless there is an animation or command that slows you down after one too many crouches lol
Slugging: Nada. Legit strat. It’s just annoying to deal with as a survivor. Your time is being wasted.
Trolling: Player who are cornered should have a push animation if they lean into the troll for 3 seconds. Shove them out of the way. Someone coming to farm you off the hook in front of the killer? Should be a kick prompt so you can kick them in the face and they stumble back into the killer’s arms, as he approaches from behind 🤣
Wasting Pallets: Same as Flashlight clicking and t-bagging, hell the in game tips even say you can “drop pallets” as a distraction. People who do this btw are usually someone who tried to let themselves go on hook, got saved, and are now throwing a temper tantrum cause they’re stuck in the game. Careful who you force to stay in…
Hitting a survivor on hook: They can make it so the hits don’t register, but that wont stop players from doing the animation. Message will be the same and everyone knows it.
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Oh sorry. I didn't read your post thoroughly.
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The only real easy way to reduce it would be the remove end game chat... or only allow a couple of canned responses like "GG" or "Well played"... then the most toxic thing you'd get is probably someone spamming that as a community understood way of meaning the opposite... lol
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I think the game could benefit in general from having longer running matches. Killers don't like it when they don't have any breathing room to get anything done, and survivors don't like it when they get tunnelled out or camped. If matches just lasted longer so survivors could do more and killers were under less pressure, I think toxicity would go down.
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So, with the strat to annoy it's best to look at horror movies for how it work and I'll use "Aliens" as an example:
The queen xenomorph has cornered Newt (the young orphan) and is about to kill or harvest her when Ripley comes in within a mechanised suit and gets the queen's attention by shouting "Get away from her, you #########!". The queen turns her attention and Newt manages to escape.
Using teabagging or clicking to take away the killer's attention from another may work because it irritates the killer. Some killers understand the tactic and ignore it, whilst others get triggered and change the opponent, and finally some may even change targets because some understand that a survivor is weak, so changes when they get why the other is distracting.
In terms of the exit I 99% agree with you that it's rather dumb and proves nothing - just pixels bouncing about. But 1% may be a genuine reaction to a killer playing in a manner that the other finds a form of bm'ing too, so it's like the last scene where the protagonist says a cool line before blowing up the killer. But that only works if the killer has been a dick (hard tunnelling for no reason, slugging a survivor then nodding over them without picking up, etc.).
And fear can still be a thing, or moreover a slight fear. If a survivor knows the killer is good and dangerous it hits the adrenaline, and whether it's excitement or apprehension, it still works as a bit of fear.
I'm with you completely on reducing bm'ing, but taking into consideration all of the above, what would be a good solution?
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That won't work because DbD is a zero-sum game. Less pressure on the killer means more pressure on the survivors and vice-versa.
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honestly they shouldn't have to worry about doing that because it's pretty tame compared to other games like uh idk
wait who's that over there
oh right
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I agree with you. The toxicity is more in the aftermath of a trial. Many survivors deem it necessary to undermine another person because they didn't get a kill or the killer got a 4k. A lot of people having been on the receiving end, but what I noticed when I've been targeted for toxicity after a trial is going directly for their reason.
Ask why they're even messaging over a game, taunting and etc.. and they immediately go silent on the other end. I've ended such discussions with logic and slapping people with kindness. That's what bothers toxic people the most, no anger responses and toxicity back, but treating their childish antics with kindness and throwing their reasons right back at them.
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I cant chat on a Nintendo Switch so I don't see any toxic comments. Is that where the toxic comes from?
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I agree so much with you here,I think most of the toxicity comes from the frustrating mecahnics in dbd and how some things that shouldn't be in the game in the first place,are there.
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Honestly, until the devs, mods, and everyone in BHVR who has a modicum of power starts to actually do s**t to not only enforce but hardline get rid of the toxicity within the community, nothing can be done. We as the players can only do so much on our end by ourselves.
For example, Final Fantasy 14 has a pretty decent community and they're real quick on stomping out any kind of toxicity that gets reported. From my understanding they have GMs who review each ticket and investigate, then go with the appropriate course of action, which depending on they did could resort in a hard ban. Again 0 tolerance depending on what was done. Without the guys running the show doing anything to help, the toxicity is only going to fester as time goes on.
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You really think? I played LoL and other mobas and none of them came close to DbDs toxicness level.
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- Teabagging and flashlight clicking might piss off many killers (personally i find it unneccessary disrespectful) but how would you ever be able to ban them because of using a button or even an item? Thats silly. On top of that: Pissing off people is subjective. I might be pissed off because of getting camp and tunnel off the hook while others dont mind that too much. Should the killer now be banned because i can not deal with that?
- I agree. Maybe not instantly banned but starting off with a warnining and then a 7 day (then 30, then perma) ban would be reasonable.
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Nintendo Switch is probably the safest platform for DBD, no end-game chat, and no nintendo messaging system. That's where the real toxicity comes from. The rest is just ways people play in the game.
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Fix the issues that breed toxicity:
Survivors tbag and “clicky clicky” because the game is too easy for that role. Remove some safety nets from them and the potential of them being toxic diminishes.
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I think they should pull from overwatch a little bit.
Firstly, make the reporting system better. Make it easier to do, and let people know if their reports did something. And maybe instead of just banning people there could be certain restrictions applied, like if someone is overly toxic in endgame chat they wouldn't be able to use it anymore.
Add an endorsement system. Evolve the "give props" system into something more and give rewards to the players that are a display of good behaviour.
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For an asymmetrical game i think it's surprisingly toxic. I never expected when i got this game that people would treat it like a competitive game. I seriously thought the community would just be people that like horror. And a casual grindy online game.
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+1
I will never trust BHVR/Dead by Daylight's in-game report system in its current state. At the very least, tell us you reviewed it - even if you can't tell us what specific action you took. Right now it just gives the appearance of buttons to press to make a player feel better. Doesn't help when they always want additional reporting outside of the game client. Never needed to do that in Overwatch, even in the case of cheaters. So what gives?
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You'd have to change the mechanics of the game.
When a killer does his objective and kills a survivor, that survivor is removed from the match entirely and can no longer participate, can no longer make points. They're being removed from the gameplay. That alone can create a feeling of anger. It's even worse here because quickly getting the match from a 4v1 to a 3v1 works hugely in the killer's favor. If the survivor who gets taken out first waited in a long queue for a very short match, that feels downright crappy.
Killers feel pressure because they're one person up against four others. That pressure gets worse with each generator that pops. And if the survivors are good and wasting a lot of the killer's time, that quickly becomes frustrating.
The most efficient way for both sides to win is to prevent the other side from participating in the gameplay as much as possible. Both sides have the ability to make the other side feel powerless. DbD's gameplay loop breeds toxicity.
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Lots of people just get annoyed at legit gameplay though so its hard to police what is "toxic" in game.
Outside of abusive etc endgame chat and blatant exploiting of the game, cheats etc there is little else you can ban for.
I reckon solo mode custom game bots would help a lot. You have a series of bad games you either quit and think this game sucks or you take that anger out on other players. With a solo bot mode you could have a few games against mindless bots, take your anger out on them and then return to online play refreshed. I think it would cut down on a lot of toxicity.
We all get tilted from time to time but that's no excuse to be a jerk to other people. Be a jerk to bots they can take it.
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To be fair the endorsement system was pretty useless
It's just a free way to get lootboxes in overwatch lol
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It deters people from making their endorsement go down though
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