200 hours thoughts - the Prohecy is Fulfilled
This is my third in thoughts about the game as I get more hours.
30 Hours: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/342870/noob-thoughts-the-balance-is-a-joke-right/p1
100 hours: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/3196090#Comment_3196090
In the 100 Hours thread I had two sets of comments that worried me.
Gary_Coleman
At 100 hours, most of the people you're playing with haven't become total jerks yet. Enjoy it while it lasts. I've actually considered starting over on a new account so I can have fun playing dbd again.
Aubwie
How it must feel to be innocent and hopeful
I was hoping these comments would be off, but sadly they turned out to be true. The amount of toxic behaviors skyrocketed. Worse, I found my own attitudes getting more and more angry at other players.
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In the 100 hours post I outlined 5 things that had never happened. All of them have occurred.
1: Never escaped via hatch: Has happened a few times. When it gets time for hatch turning up the volume on my headphones really helps. Never escaped via using a key.
2: Never had a toxic chat: Yeah, this has occurred a few times. Players insulting each other at the end is not quite a common occurrence, but it has happened an (increasing) number of times.
3: Cheaters: I still wouldn't say this is common, but there have been some times playing as killer that a survivor seems to be clearly going a little faster than they should for way too long.
4: Never had another survivor sabotage me: Had an instance of a survivor working with a killer (actually a couple possible, one definite) and once got blocked in by two survivors. The amusing thing about the block game is one of the blockers was killed and we actually managed to get the gens done (ended up we were playing a completely new killer with a single perk).
5: Never had a killer rage quit: That's happened multiple times now.
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The Things I Still Like
The Feeling of Tension: Even after 200 hours I still feel more tense and on the edge of my seat than any other game. I really only feel this as survivor, getting out feels like a substantial accomplishment and I don't feel "safe" until the doors are open (even if we're trouncing the killer). Against some killers getting 5 gens done feels amazing.
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My Current Biggest Problem With the Game
Items/add-ons: I hate the add-ons system. This seems to be just a me issue as I don't see others complaining about it, but I think a lot of problems stem from this. I feel like the system was designed to self-handicap, the killer determines how good they are in relation to survivors and plays off that, but it doesn't really work out.
As example, let's take Trapper: If you knew you were playing a bunch of new players you could run Padded Jaws to make him weaker, playing stronger players you can run some combination of Tension Spring, Honing Stone, Iridescent Stone, or Bloody Coil. All of these make the Trapper considerably more dangerous. The problem with the game design is that there is no way to tell for sure who you are matching. Maybe you run ultra-rares and the survivors are soloQ running brown medkits/nothing, maybe you run no add-ons and hit a SWF with a coordinated play style. I wish the add-ons were either more like Trapper Sack: a clear pro/con that adds some powers while also taking some things away or the game made it assumed that everyone would be playing with add-ons to determine balance (much like you can play with fewer than 4 perks, but it is very rare to see).
I definitely enjoyed the game a lot more during the first 100 hours when add-ons were rare and inconsequential.
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Thing that just flat annoys me
Bloodweb: It's slow and pointless. My highest level survivor is Claudette(11) and she has 1081 offerings.
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Toxicity
I feel like if you were going to design a game to make people dislike each other, you'd make it just like DBD. This comes from the asymmetrical nature of the game, but it is asymmetrical in two ways
1: Killer vs Survivor - This one gets talked about a lot. There are certain elements of the game one type of main dislike, which the other views as a core component of enjoyability. Anytime the game makes changes you inherently upset one group.
2: Play as you Like - This baffles me as a concept that BHVR let's players decide what they want the game to be about. I don't mean as a strategy element, every game has that. As an example: you are on a gen and someone is on the hook, is it worth it to save them or finish the gen is a strategy question. However, BHVR let's you decide whether to view them as a teammate or not. Other things they let you decide: should you bring the best addons, voice chat, and try and maximize kills/escape, or is that sweaty? Judge a win by bloodpoints, pips, or escapes? That's up to the player base who are going to be randomly matched up.
To use children's games as an example: let's say a bunch of kids couldn't decide between hide and seek or capture the flag, so they end up playing both at the same time. So on your team you have some people who are hiding, but you think you're playing capture the flag so they are hurting the team. Or if you are a hider some times a teammate leads an opponent right to you which pisses you off, but they think it's good strategy because it allows them to get the flag. A game like that would be awful, but BHVR leaves it up to the players to decide what they are playing.
This just breeds a mass amount of toxicity and self-policing via toxic behavior. As a survivor if I don't like a killer choice/playstyle/add-ons well I can disconnect/slow down/hide, as my ways to indicate 'I don't think the way you are playing is fair'. As a killer this can be done via camping and if all of the survivors are down leaving them to bleed out. Or, if you are old fashioned, just yell at each other in the chat.
I notice this in myself. While I realize Killers are just other people, sometimes I actively dislike them. Like I feel like if I knew them in "real life" I'd think less of them for how they played. And this isn't how I have ever approached games. I'm probably older than most of the player base, I've been playing online games since the mid 90s. I've gone through periods of extreme dedication to certain shooters as well as the intensity that was holding my place in the original Starcraft ladder rankings. Never have I disliked, cursed at, or otherwise had a problem with anyone in a game for how they played.
I haven't done that in DBD yet, but wow, is it tempting. Hit a killer running double ultra rare or a hook camper, I want to build an urban evasion survivor not for the hatch, but just to trap them in a game for as long as possible. It's not healthy, but that is what I feel like the game drives people too.
This is probably why I see people recommend pretty frequently to "take a break" from the game. Maybe I'll take one of those now, also because it feels weird to play with no 'special' ongoing. If I make it to 325 hours, I'll do another one of these.
Comments
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It's always baffling to me how people think league is more toxic than this game, I have 10x the hours in league than in dbd and dbd is sitting at 700. I think in general it's true that while killer's have the ability to be more toxic, survivor's have a higher ratio of toxic player's. I would also say that most of the player base only plays one side and lack very much empathy for the other side because of that.
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I don't have much more hours than you do (sitting at something like 310), and most of what you talk about ring true.
Dbd is a weird game in that it is very different depending on how you go about it. A lot of it is about attitude.
Some people want sweaty matches (or want to win at all costs and will then complain about sweaty matches), some people just want to enjoy the game. Some people find their fun in winstreaking with the most disgusting builds, some take the matches as they come.
The problem arises when all these players are matched together with absolutely no separation between competitive and casual.
As survivor, you don't get much choice in how the matches go, since unless you're in a 4-man you can't really set the tone of the game.
But as killer, you can find your niches where you play at a level that is enjoyable for you, and you can easily set the mood of the game. I tend to play very fair, since I don't mind taking a few losses, and survivors generally catch on that I'm not sweating and will be nice in return. Toxicity is an oddity in my experience of the game.
Unfortunately, I don't see a way of separating casual from comp that wouldn't hinder player's fun or be easily dodged by comp people wanting easy stomps.
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