i'm not understanding the excessive level of negativity within and outside of dead by daylight
hi im back to rambling again but i've noticed that ever since maybe around... 4-5 years ago or so, the environment in community platforms surrounding dbd as well as the game itself have been becoming less and less positive
people are just generally unhappy and tend to treat the game and its content like its a chore or an absolute requirement to stay involved, or feel like they have to be in control of the decisions that are made for the content itself based on what ive experienced over the course of my time playing this game
while i do understand the want to see the game succeed, and some dissatisfaction with some decisions that were made or how players may feel based on the conditions they are in personally, i cant help but just not... understand why people have developed such an unhealthy relationship with the material? so much controversy surrounding game mechanics, cosmetics, maps, and even outright artwork or character lore sometimes..
maybe its just me being autistic/adhd/neurodivergent or whatever and not understanding the true depth of human emotion when it comes to becoming attached to something, but i sincerely wish individuals would understand and try to work on themselves first before forming an opinion or feeling an emotion as intensely as they do
some of you wholeheartedly concern me with your instinct to beat down on another person or someone who's trying their best to manage their product, or to generalize. it sometimes hurts to see 5 thread headers in a row full of negativity and people only mentioning the things they dislike each and every single time i go to browse the forums.. it actually genuinely demotivates me from posting sometimes because i even end up generalizing myself and think "they'll all just have some complaints anyway" when thats not 100% true.
all-in-all, it would be nice to see changes in mindset for once, imho. i feel like it'll do all of us good if we just tried to have fun with what we have and not take things as seriously as we usually do, its okay to let loose and enjoy what you can enjoy
there's nothing wrong with feeling like something is off or being in disagreement with something that's provided to you, but sometimes something's just gotta give, yknow? i cant really see any reason to constantly be infuriated by something and wasting your precious time here on this planet by bothering yourself
anyway! time to disappear off of the forums for another 200 years, i just wanted to share a thought of mine, thanks for reading :)
Comments
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Thing is positivity does not get traction on here. You post something positive it will most likely get no comments and a few upvotes or it will get 1 page of people explaining why they disagree with you. Idk about anyone else but when i feel negative, positivity looks like delusion and the other way around is negativity looks like overreaction. When both of these view points interact negativity always seems to prevail in the discussions.
I also feel like when it comes to the game it self, stuff like the regular content updates and archives incentivised playing the game regularly. And eventually SBMM encouraged playing the game competitively. So now playing this game can feel like a job depending on how you approach it.
A lot of people might feel attached to this game because it's going on for years now and they may have sunk cost fallacy. Some are streamers that have made it their job. There is also no other game to jump to.
So that's some of the reasons why i think it there is a lot of negativity.
I use to be like you and did not understand why people are so negative about the game. It gets constant updates, it is very standout and i use to find it extremely fun. Nowadays i am really burnt out and playing this game almost makes me upset.
You are right though i think we all need to know when to take a break cause all this negativity is a bit destructive...
Anyways thanks for posting 😄
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My personal belief is that the vast majority of the negativity surrounding the game has not nearly as much to do with the product as it does with the consumers.
The factions for a start are very childlike. You're either killer-sided or survivor-sided. Should you choose to be down the middle you'll be largely ignored. It's "us v them" mostly and people like to be forth-right, rude often unresearched because apparently the devs are biased (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary).
The elitism is bad too. You may have noticed nearly all the forum is in the top 1% mmr. Doesn't matter it's all lip-service here, everyone else is a n00b and they have to shift through the dirt. The fragile-egos are cringeworthy at best.
Many do not care about other players without realising the consequences. These "band-aid" fixes often come about due to playstyles, which may be some quick-fix scheme but often comes off the backs of how people are playing.
It's sad and I could go into way more detail, but my belief is that, when the game does end, it's more likely players will be the cause, not the devs. The devs make mistakes sure, but some of the playerbase would be by far the main reason.
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Like with most long lived games, the positive aspects of it aren't really going to hold the attention of the people playing. Keep in mind that the most players don't engage with the forums or reddits or discord splinter groups in any meaningful way by default. Folks usually don't come to social outlets for DBD until they feel they have to and if you're happy with what the game is at the time then you rarely will have that feeling. So most of us here on the forum usually have vent, rant, complaint we want to express in the hopes that it helps make the game better. Not all of these are done in the best of ways or even in good faith.
As for the Us vs Them mentality, it has been that way pretty much the entire time after year 1. By design the game isn't equal and there are no ways to engage with it that isn't Us vs Them. Often people who don't play one side or the other a majority of the time will tend to be overall less vocal and because y'all generally have I guess one could say perhaps a more compromising view of various issues, people who are only playing the game for one side are gonna aggressively drown you out until you have enough folks being vocal who share your views. The game breeds the community and for as much as it has changed for the better mechanically it is still breeding a vocal community of players who more often than not view those outside of their role as enemies.
Not gonna lie, killer players can be overly sensitive about the state of the game. We spend a great deal more time dealing with the game in a sort of vacuum and the things we want or need to enjoy the game rather fight with it can often feel like they are constantly getting chipped away at by survivor complaints. Is that true? Who knows, but it feels that way and that feeling is often a driver of negativity. Doesn't help when a lot of the complaints aren't construed in constructive ways or when they are about just telling them how we should be playing the game.
Survivors on the other hand get extremely touchy the overall player experience of their side. DBD's a hard game to onboard despite being a very simplistic game mechanically and there just isn't really much of a fix for that. So 9 times out of 10 their early experiences are going to be extremely negative and they'll waste no time letting us know about it. Aggressively. There isn't really a way for them to interact with game that isn't just going to constantly be negative for hundreds of hours. More experienced survivor players often get in the habit of being extremely abrasive about things they don't like to the point of being flat out unreasonable in their requests. Add in the same communication issues they get from killers and you a recipe for perpetual vitriol.
Lackluster content drops also compound on top of that which after 6 years not everything can be a banger. Sometimes you get stuff that you just have to see how it develops, but people are just generally wanting to have fun playing their favorite game, but finding it harder than ever to do so and we get to see that sentiment daily on the forums because people who are still having fun and happy tend to not have time for this place.
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I’d say a lot of it is simply catastrophisation of even minor issues.
There is a real modern trend toward self victimisation and catastrophisation of any scenario.
So something happens in game that someone doesn’t like… it’s immediately always happening to them and they can’t do anything about it (victimisation) and also the worst thing imaginable making the game experience completely miserable (catastrophisation).
Players who think like this then come to the forums to express just that.
It’s rarely objective almost always seeking validation rather than solution and is highly reactionary to any suggestion that it isn’t the absolute truth.
I think the DBD forums, or at least the general discussion section isn’t a great representation of the DBD player base as a whole. Because this is where the self proclaimed victims come to catastrophise their issues with the game.
Of course it’s not everyone but there are enough that it gives off a rather negative vibe which is a shame because the game is a lot of fun.
The other issue is the number of streamers who seem to fall into this behaviour too which is a shame because there are streamers out there who don’t and they are usually fun to watch.
Post edited by pseudechis on1
