The killer is not your dungeon master

OpenX
OpenX Member Posts: 890
edited January 2022 in General Discussions

I have recently attempted to explain the toxicity of DBD to multiple people who have not been exposed to the community. DBD is hands down the most toxic game I have ever played. And I have played pretty much all of them. So trying to explain it to someone totally new brought up a lot of interesting thoughts to me.

How would I do it? I want to say there is the overall layer of toxicity that comes with a mutiplayer game. But then there is the added layer of toxicity of people who shame the killer for playing to win.

No other game I have played is anyone shamed for playing to win. But DBD? You are. It is an anomaly. And I think the root cause is that people assume the killer is actually the power role and has the decision of life, death, and if the survivors are allowed to have fun during a game. And I will say, that is only true if the killer is facing unskilled opponents.

The graphic depictions of violence against baby survivors almost traumatize me. It is just murder simulator against unarmed opponents. SBMM was supposed to solve that but obviously it is not there yet. People still assume the killer can do whatever they want, when in reality the killer has to scramble for kills against equally matched opponents.

Comments

  • Steel_Eyed
    Steel_Eyed Member Posts: 4,033
    edited January 2022

    Every community seems to think their community is the most toxic. Just visit another reddit channel or forum. Rainbow six was one I found interesting recently. Or look at how the Battlefield community talks about their developers.

    Like just as another example some of y’all don’t even know what game(s) teabagging came from but ‘this one’ is the offensive one.

  • Brimp
    Brimp Member Posts: 3,683
    edited January 2022

    Well this community does seem to have some of the weirdest and plain stupid takes and or balance decisions. Also, about teabagging.... it was generally popularized in Halo but was a thing before from a 1998 movie.

  • Shroompy
    Shroompy Member Posts: 7,959

    tf are you on about? If you've actually played any other game you'll realize that DbD isn't NEARLY as much of a toxic fest as other games. Being bitched at and called a camper/tunneler is just generic salt from any multiplayer out there.

    I have thousands of hours and in about 90% of my games I use end game chat, to see what others have to say and I can say with certainty that less than 1% of those have actually threatened me, called me slurs, or wished me or some one in my family some nasty things. Meanwhile you play something like CS:GO, LoL or For Honor and it might as well be a part of its culture.

    In every game you are shamed for using "scummy" strategies that give you an upper edge. From what I remember in my time of CS:GO it was the auto sniper, it was almost an unwritten rule that you don't use the thing and if you did, you basically just started a war. For Honor or League, pick a Legend/Hero that recently just got a huge buff and is basically over tuned and you're gonna hear about it. Haven't kept up with League in a while and haven't played it all too much when I did simply because of the toxicity, For Honor I still play actively and the amount of times I see people called slurs or literally told to off themselves is practically every session.

    I think the actual issue of why people think DbD is toxic is because they haven't been exposed to anything else. Is there some form of toxicity? Absolutely, and that comes in the form of entitlement. But to give DbD the medal of "Most Toxic Gaming Community" is just wrong.

    Toxicity in Dead by Daylight has lost its meaning, its a word that is over used and thrown literally every where.

  • WeenieDog
    WeenieDog Member Posts: 2,187
    edited January 2022

    'I do what I want' post #9024682894694

  • Brimp
    Brimp Member Posts: 3,683

    Out of my list... GTA, DBD, and (2008-2014)COD are my contenders for top 1 most toxic community.

  • N8dog
    N8dog Member Posts: 541

    I personally think that any survivor who uses dead hard, decisive strike, iron will or adrenaline has no right right to complain about noed. So you believe survivors should get rewarded for playing poorly or get a second chance but the killer who got chased around by Feng with a flashlight should never catch a break? If you hate ALL second chance or catch a break perks that's fine but don't you dare whine about one side having griefer perks and then using your own.

  • SilentShepherd
    SilentShepherd Member Posts: 527

    DBD is almost as toxic as RUST.

  • TruEternity
    TruEternity Member Posts: 320

    Tunneling is most certainly a thing in this game. Some killers will ignore a free down on a survivor they aren’t chasing, just because that person annoyed them. It happened a lot with old keys, killers would just focus that 1 person and not hit anyone else. It has become a very overused term, much like gen rushing.


    Some people just dislike strategies they don’t use. People in Fighting games get mad if you dp them over and over, even when they keep jumping. A lot of people on DBD dislike playing the most efficient way possible because it’s boring. Having 4 minute games or just sitting on a hook or gen isn’t very much fun.

  • Predated
    Predated Member Posts: 2,976

    I mean, same applies to the opposite, survivors are not toxic for getting a 4 man escape. I've been called toxic 3 times today for rescuing a teammate and bodyblocking for their safety.

    Survivors are not your pawns.

    As for killer scrambling for kills against equally matched opponents: No. They dont. If you're scrambling for kills, you're not equally matched. Here's why:

    1. your opponents brought overall stronger perks than you did, that's not equally matched.
    2. your opponents prepared for a certain map while you prepared for a generic one, that's not equally matched.
    3. your opponents on average have similar skill, but that doesnt mean you're equally matched, because the weakest survivor could be doing gens while you're chasing the strongest one, and you dont realize it untill it's too late.
    4. you're assuming you're equally matched, but in reality got mismatched.

    The same is true if you get 4 kills very easily, odds are that your opponents are equal in skill, but that you overall brought stronger perks, or that its a mixed lobby and you found the 2 weakest survivors very early on, cripping the stronger ones.

  • Brimp
    Brimp Member Posts: 3,683

    Well I never said it wasn't a term. I guess I should re-phrase it to "the way people commonly use it is to cope" cause I did say true tunneling is focusing 1 person out of the game and ignoring the rest.

  • ThiccBudhha
    ThiccBudhha Member Posts: 6,987

    Dungeon Master? Why do you have to make this so unreasonably kinky?


    In all seriousness, when it comes to toxicity, it is subjective as to what bothers people. I can see why people being rude just because you are playing to win could be perceived as toxic.


    For me it was Overwatch where your own teammates were essentially enemies and would counterintuitively throw games to project blame, and talking to Overwatch players, they often found the generic slurs found in games like Counterstrike to be peak toxicity.


    It just depends on what they value, I suppose. I do not mind old school Modern Warfare lobbies or survivor mains acting a fool too much. Your own homie throwing a fit, though? Nah. It made me hard throw so many games just because I wanted that person to have a bad time.

  • Predated
    Predated Member Posts: 2,976

    Play Overwatch, DBD is simply a bowl of delicious salted peanuts compared to that pile of salt, especially if you turn on comms. Your mom's bed activities are suddenly very well known to every single player you kill. I have maybe met 1 player like that in DBD, every 75 games.

    DBD has a lot of interpreted toxicity. People being frustrated over something is not people being toxic. People lashing out to their opponents are not them being super toxic. It's slightly toxic, but not overtly. Remember that documentation of that one super toxic player who literally went live just to trashtalk people? THAT is the average toxicity of the toxic overwatch player, but for DBD, it's an extremity.

    Yeah, there are toxic players in DBD sometimes, but compared to other communities, and considering the general design of DBD, it's mild. If Overwatch is a Carolina Reaper, then DBD is a mere Habanero.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,714

    Not that there aren't killers who aren't rude jerks, but most of the people I personally meet in game who complain about tunneling or camping are just sore losers who don't know what they're talking about. I once got a 12 Hook game with Legion for instance and a survivor complained I was "tunneling". I even had a survivor who complained I was "camping the gens" one time.

    So yeah, call me skeptical when I see someone in my game chat complaining that I was unsportsmanlike because I "tunneled" them. 🙄

  • KFChris18
    KFChris18 Member Posts: 128

    The whole dungeon master analogy is actually a pretty good one. Neither side should expect their opponent to care how much fun they are having, since the vast majority cares more about their own fun. The ire of the community should not be focused on those using unbalanced perks and tactics, but should instead be focused on the devs who allow such things to exist in the first place!

  • CyberDragoon656
    CyberDragoon656 Member Posts: 960

    So another community had problems before therefore this community isn't toxic? No this game is the worst game community now because instead of deterring it the community seems to welcome it due to entitle ment and inflated egos not to mention the fictitious scripture of bullshit known as the survivor rulebook being a thing that exist now and the devs mentality of survivor biased thinking or just problems in general doesn't help either.

  • CyberDragoon656
    CyberDragoon656 Member Posts: 960

    Why not just say "I'm defending my objective" cause that's what you did you chose options that help you win the game instead of following some double standarded honor code.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,714

    It’s not even just them not understanding that zone defense isn’t “toxic”, it’s that the word “tunneling” is so vague it’s practically a worthless complaint. There’s zero consensus on what tunneling even is, let alone whether it’s fair or unfair or rude or whatever. I swear when I get called a tunneler it’s because someone happened to get downed twice in a row or I spotted a person coming in for a rescue and forced a trade or I don’t know what. Or maybe I ignored a healthy survivor to hit an injured one, who knows?

    Literal “face camping” at least has kind of a rational description of what it is - a killer standing around a hook waiting for survivors to come to them. “Tunneling” doesn’t even have that.

  • CyberDragoon656
    CyberDragoon656 Member Posts: 960

    Face camping can also be considered defending the objective if you know people are nearby why would you not try to weed them out.

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,714

    For sure, I agree that Face Camping is just extreme zone defense. I don’t think it’s optimal in a lot of cases though, you’re better off typically proactively finding a different survivor to chase then hoping they come to you quickly. If you can have one survivor on a hook and chase another, then they need a third person going for the rescue which means only one survivor doing the gens. Whereas just standing at the hook waiting means potentially three people doing gens the entire time.

    Face camping is strategically only useful in specific situations, not as something to just do most of the time.

  • CyberDragoon656
    CyberDragoon656 Member Posts: 960

    Never meant it to sound like it's an end all be all but much like any strategy that survivors hate there are legit reasons why people use them, they work so why not use them?

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,714

    Personally I don’t facecamp much because it’s less time efficient, plus it’s kind of boring to do for long stints.

  • Junylar
    Junylar Member Posts: 2,308

    So racism, homophobia etc. are toxic, but all the other kinds of insults are not toxic? I've always found this kind of logic equipped by BHVR extremely funny, like all personal insults and offenses are officially allowed, but only specific kinds like racism and homophobia are bannable. You can insult anyone however you wish, just don't touch their race, gender etc, and you are fine, it's not toxic whatsoever, just a good comradely refreshing "#### ####" in your face after a good match.

  • CyberDragoon656
    CyberDragoon656 Member Posts: 960

    I don't either however with the game's "balance" now it's hard not to.

  • Sonzaishinai
    Sonzaishinai Member Posts: 7,976

    Oh, this "us vs them" mentality of some killer mains has gone too far.

    This is quite the ironic statement