Positive vs. Neutral vs. Negative Experience
Often in DBD we get varying takes on people's perceptions of the game. Some will state how every other game has toxicity, or some form of bad manners within the game. I didn't share this experience, but likewise I never thought to really note and record what my experiences were.
So, for the past few months I've documented the last 100 Survivor trials and 100 Killer trials I've had, making notes as to what the experience was like. To make it simple, I've removed the idea of defining "toxic" and focused on positive, negative and neutral experiences. Positive is based on how the other side showed some form of altruism or "in on the joke", such as giving the hatch, mutual joking and such. Negative are BMs such as vigorous teabagging at the Exit Gate (not just 1 or 2, which could be a way of saying "gg"). Neutral is when the trial goes .. well, neutral!
I will explain the general good and bad experiences after, but firstly here are my results. The Keys are: PG (Positive in-game actions), PC (Positive post-game chat), N (Neutral), NG (Negative in-game actions), NC (Negative post-game chat)
From 100 Survivor Games:
PG: 5
PC: 3
N: 89
NG: 3
NC: 0
Out of these, the Positive Experiences were being given the hatch 3 times and the Killer showing mercy due to a Survivor killing themself on the hook, and the final was the Killer and Survivors working together to help 1 Survivor who was stuck by Gas Haven and couldn't move, followed by farming. The chat was never instigated by myself and were 3 messages from people with compliments, 1 by another survivor and 2 by the killer.
The Negatives were 1 cheater and 2 times where the Killer repeatedly hit me multiple times in a row whilst on the hook.
From 100 Killer Games:
PG: 3
PC: 6
N: 83
NG: 5
NC: 3
The positive in-game experiences included 1 survivor offering themself as a sacrifice at the end, and 2 games which played out properly, but lots of jokes between us knowingly done. The endgame positive chats were all regarding having a fun time.
The negative in-games were 4 lots of Survivors waiting at the gate teabagging like their lives depended on it and 1 cheater. I don't coubt times where survivors either teabag once or twice, as that could mean anything. The chat was .. as expected .. "Trash Killer", "Uninstall" - that sort of thing. No death threats though.
Basically, what I did find from this personal experience was that the negative experiences really were not that big, and it's more the impact of them which makes them stand out. There were actually more positive experiences than negative overall. Now, this is just my experience; I am in the UK and play afternoon and evenings.
These experiences DO NOT reflect what everyone should be having. There also are factors which could have altered games, such as what Killers I played as (I played Trapper, Ghost Face and Oni) - if I was Skull Merchant, perhaps the negative experiences could have been worse, for example. No collection of results would be 100% perfect. However, it would be interesting to sometimes take note of the experiences from each trial and find out what things are like. For me, at least, it's not appearing that the playerbase I faced is this horrid collection of people, and actually more are willing to be nice than not.
Is it possible that the idea of a "toxic community" is actually imagined than really exists? For me, the playerbase came across as much more positive than some suggest.