A better DBD
Dead by daylight is almost akin to a living being, as many games are. While it sounds odd just hear me out. dbd gets updates, changes, etc. from the dev team, which creates these ideas and changes. The community around dbd talks, or yells and screams, about their thoughts and ideas on changes to the game. And over time with the devs and the community the game, and the latter, evolve and grow. While it is still going strong the community has grown into one of the more... displeasurable game communities I've been a part of. Neither killers or survivors are innocent of being toxic or awful to play with or against. At times I am thankful that there's only endgame chat to deal with. Both sides foster this toxic cycle of "the player(s) last match were mean and so the next people in the match will have to pay for that" thus creating an infinite loop of toxicity. Or people making it their goal to, rather than play the game normally, make sure the opposing side gets to have no enjoyment whatsoever. That being how they get their kicks. I feel like as a community we need to work to be more positive to eachother. I've never been a sunshine and rainbows person but when I get on dbd to unwind and have fun only to be met with toxicity it just sucks. One idea would be to add a system where players could commend others for being sportsman like or a good teammate and give people bonus shards, bp, cosmetics, etc. for getting so many commendations. To give people proverbial cheese for being nice. Honestly I'd just prefer it if everyone would be nice to eachother without incentive but... I don't see that hapoening. I feel that long story short we as a community need to come together to be sportsmanlake and if not nice at least neutral to eachother. I feel like this'll just get swept away because people dont care but it'd be nice to see a change in the community for the better.
Comments
-
I depends what you really classify as toxic.
DBD is a game where you can face pretty imminent non-participation and elimination. Those kind of hard consequences can be triggering but they are what make DBD so great.
There are actual stakes in this game, in most PVP games I know I'll respawn and therefore I'm not really bothered by self preservation. There are virtually no consequences outside of overall game result and score at the end.
This means I can pretend to be a super hero because frankly outside of endgame score there are no consequences for any of my actions. Therefore no real emotional investment besides the disappointment of not getting the result I wanted post game.
In DBD there are no heroes, just villains and victims. The gameplay can be visceral and consequential. That is the biggest drawcard.
It's also in my view one of the reasons people get so emotional about the game, because the hard consequences can stir some pretty primal levels of frustration.
It would be great if people were adult enough not to take petty in game events out on each other but that's the nature of people we can be petty and vindictive when we don't get what we want.
There is very little in game that is actually "toxic", what tends to be toxic is the overreaction to in game events.
- A mechanic/playstyle was frustrating and denied a person the game they wanted
- They assume the motivation of the opponent must be to maliciously deny them the game they wanted
- They turn the in game event into a personal attack and then go on to feel justified in attacking other players over it
The recipe for toxicity. You see it played out time and again on these forums and by streamers on a regular basis.
It's possible to play a game of DBD against the most one sided tedious broken mechanic and still walk away not hating your opponent for it.
Unfortunately it's a lot easier to just give into emotion, feel like a real life victim rather than just a pretend game victim and project all that angry emotion onto everyone around you.
Just look at the forums its 1/3 constructive feedback/discussion, 1/3 Sharing game experience and general enjoyment, 1/3 entitled self victimization rationalizing why they hate everyone and everything. Like all things guess which 3rd screams the loudest.
2 -
The issue is there is "Toxic" behavior and "scumbag" playstyles/behavior. For instance Slugging/camping/tunneling I see as more towards the scumbag behavior while it Isn't outright toxic, it's not exactly nice. Toxic behavior to me would be, t-bagging at the exit gates, flashlight clicking at the killer, killers hitting survivors that are hooked repeatedly, doing their weird little movement ritual on survivors that are slugged, etc.
3 -
Scumbag is, in my opinion, fine. you paid for the game play how you want. My issue is the legitimate toxicity like endgame chat slurs, leaving hateful comments on steam etc. The people who go out of their way to be awful.
1 -
Firstly, I like your outlook and desire for a better community. Quite a few players take this game so seriously to the extent that they are ruined by it. Every imagined slight feels like someone insulted their heritage. It's pretty painful to see. What is sadder is that those who decide to take out their anger on others still simmer even after doing so. It never truely goes away until they acknowledge they are the only ones who can make it better.
There are a couple of other things:
Streamers can be a force for good or toxicity in this game. I prefer streamers like HybridPanda, Ohmwrecker or Coconut because they focus more on the games, silly builds or news. They're fun amd entertaining. Then there are others with a different agenda.
Some streamers will focus on toxicity in the game. Often focusing on other streamers who act disgustingly, they use them as examples or content. Maybe some have good intentions, calling out this behaviour to say it's not okay. However, I'm not sure they understand their audience. People become motivated to play to teach others a lesson and make an example, rather than enjoy. The negativity spreads. Emotions heighten. People even revere those who are being called out, because they see something in them.
I feel streamers need to move attention away from the trolls and more towards the wholesome and funny ones. Focus more on the positive aspects such as "Light in the Fog" or more enjoyable things. Make people feel good and are going to play the game with a good time in mind, rather than go in with this darkened view of what players may be out there.
There are other things, but this has gone on for a bit already, so I'll call it here for now. Keep positive! Well done on promoting this.
1
