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This game has a toxicity problem
Even within the gaming community at large, Dead by Daylight stands out for how much I can rely on at least one player in every match to do something toxic. Easily on par with MOBAs.
And I'm not talking about optimal strategies like tunneling, proxy camping, looping really well, running in the open to draw the Killer's attention, or "genrushing" (Whatever that means, honestly), I'm talking about things that serve no other purpose than to be hurtful to the other side. Hitting on hook, teabagging at exit gates, facecamping on the first down, toxic endgame chats, and so on.
I cannot remember the last time I saw more than one Survivor escape without at least one of them taking the opportunity to teabag.
And usually, when I point this out, I get told over and over that it's my fault for not growing a thicker skin. I get the distinct impression that toxicity is viewed as an endemic problem that we shouldn't do anything to address. That one of the worst things you can do in this community- worse than being a toxic player- is calling people out for it. Teabagging at the exit gates is rude, but making people feel bad for it? Now that's just unforgivable.
What should we do about this? I guess BHVR could block Survivors from teabagging in front of the Killer, but more broadly, I think the community needs to take a tougher stance on toxic behavior. Is it really so hard to remember that there's a human being on the other side of every interaction in this game?
Comments
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I'm talking about things that serve no other purpose than to be hurtful to the other side. Hitting on hook, teabagging at exit gates, facecamping on the first down, toxic endgame chats, and so on.I will agree with most of what you said however in the highlighted section you went 3.5 for 4, facecamping first down while sometimes doesnt have a purpose other than toxicity, it can sometimes be a tactical descision with gameplay reasons, so doesnt quite fit the mold of the other 3 examples.
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There is some context to it, but that's usually not why a player has chosen to do it in my experience.
Though a more unambiguous example would be, purposely leaving survivors to bleed out, even after everyone is down.
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"I will agree with most of what you said however in the highlighted section you went 3.5 for 4, facecamping first down while sometimes doesnt have a purpose other than toxicity, it can sometimes be a tactical descision with gameplay reasons, so doesnt quite fit the mold of the other 3 examples."
Considering this caveat, I agree with OP.
I think the dev's inability to react to balance concerns in a timely fashion fuels this toxicity.
It's also a competitive game so having your opponents get mad can be a way to make them do mistakes that provides you with an advantage.
After the match toxicity remains childish at best
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It does have the most rude playerbase I have ever seen. I played dota for many years which has a reputation for a hostile playerbase and this game is far far worse.
And pretending like it's a "both sides" thing is fallacious. It's not. Survivors are several times more rude than killers. Proportionally, the number of survivors pointing and waiting until the last second at the exit gate is way way higher than being hit on the hook or whatever. Literally 95% of my killer games have people who desperately need me to watch them leave. Your camping complaint is invalid though. It's not "toxic" but frequently the only way you can get a handle on the game.
My belief is the it's caused by the inherent us. Vs them nature of the game. Killers can't really express themselves like survivors can and they're all menacing and evil so it's natural to ascribe malice to them. When a survivor wins they're a hero who escaped the clutches of evil so they want to rub it in the face of the evil. When the killer wins the "bad guy" wins and that leads to hurt feelings because we're conditioned to think the bad guy doesn't deserve to win.
In truth the killer is just another person trying to have fun, but people who play mostly survivor don't empathize with that. They see them as evil and malicious in the game and that translates to antipathy toward those who enjoy the role. This is the source of survivor entitlement and the assumption that killer players just want the worst for them.
What's the solution? There isn't one. You can't force empathy down people's throats. The only thing you can do is try to be kind yourself and set a positive example for others. You cannot and should not control how other people choose to behave.
Anyway that's the essay goodbye
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I will say hitting on hook has a purpose, specifically the fact that the guy screaming is significantly louder than grunts of pain and other noise survivors may make. I almost never do it myself but if someone wants to be thorough then whatever.
More than once is just being an ass though.
But as pointed out while there are definitely awful killer players, awful survivor players are significantly higher than the proportion should be. I can sometimes go months without finding a killer doing something awful, but the number of days on any given month where I haven't seen a survivor waste my time tea bagging at the gate can be counted on one hand (this is keeping in mind that I play one game per side a day because I can't tolerate this anymore). The number of days they try to justify or straight up lie about it need no more than both hands (I've literally been told by someone crouching at the gate for a solid half a minute that they were walking out).
It's gotten to the point that I'm just DCing if I don't have a kill because I'm not getting a lot for it anyways and I literally have every perk unlocked for every character at the moment, and all that time I can't play publicly is time I can spend practicing Nurse.
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Funny you should say that, I just ran into a full-build facecamp-on-first-down Bubba who hit me on hook for the audacity of having Reassurance and unhooking his first victim.
I think the numbers may be skewed a little just because there are four Survivors, and only one Killer per match. Four opportunities for a toxic player to show up, versus one.
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Here's the problem with that logic.
I cannot go a single day without at least one survivor who wants to tea bag at the gates unless I explicitly get a 4k on the match.
But the last time I ran into a toxic killer was like a month ago against a Nurse that just downed everyone and put people on the hook one at a time so there was no chance of winning.
I play a single game for each side per day, so why is it taking a month to run into a single bad killer but I can literally run into an entire team of survivors almost daily that want to prove how awful they are.
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