Pay To Win, Fairness, and DBD...

Iron_Cutlass

Before going forwards, I have to go on a limb and say something…


DBD is one of those games where I dont exactly thing it is "Pay to Win" entirely and the topic is a bit "iffy" in the since that what you could define as "Pay to Win" tends to change depending on who you ask. If you spent money on "something" and you win with said "something", some would say it is Pay to Win while others would say "you could have used X or Y and gotten the same result". This topic in DBD becomes a bit more complicated since DBD has a large amount of mechanics on either side and many ways to unlock licensed content for free, meaning there is a lot of nuance to this kind of topic.


This being said, I can now continue…


A majority of "meta" characters and perks are unlocked for free, through non-licensed content, some exceptions do apply. Which leads to a very important issue… there is no "effective" way to unlock licensed perks for free. In most cases you are shoehorned into spending money to buy the character(s) to get access to the perks.

The Shrine of Secrets does exist, but it rotates only 2 Survivor perks and 2 Killer perks per week, it often is bloated with non-licensed perks, and often has 2 perks (from either side) dedicated towards Rift/Tome challenges. The Shrine of Secrets is old and has aged like milk, the system would be fine if it received changes but it hasnt outside of the Patch 6.1.0 changes that happened with the Prestige rework.

While we currently are in a meta where free (or perks that can be unlocked for free but require Iridescent Shard grinding) are meta for most Killers, this was not always the case, and periodically a licensed perk becomes meta, leading to gameplay where you actively have to pay money to keep up with everyone else or fall behind.

We saw this when Eruption, Call of Brine, and Overcharge became meta during the Generator-kick slowdown era of DBD, 2 perks in this combo are licensed perks, and with other slowdown around the time getting nerfed, players felt forced to spend money to keep up. An older example could be how people bought Leatherface specifically for old BBQ since it provided a Bloodpoint bonus that would heavily curve the amount of Bloodpoint gains to provide a significant advantage to significantly reduce grinding; you could technically use WGLF for Survivors on average earn less Bloodpoints than Killers so the difference between the two was noticable.

Ultimately, I feel like the fairness of DBD has always been slanted towards those who forked over more money. While now things are relatively fine, things can changed. This is an online game where things get buffed, nerfed, and reworked, nothing is set in stone and something can very well turn Pay to Win like we have seen in the past.

And dont get me wrong. I love DBD. But I also see people say that this game doesnt have Pay to Win elements which I just disagree with. Im tired of seeing people make the same excuses for these systems being flawed.


Here is some constructive criticism and ideas on how I propose this should be fixed or changed…


1. Shrine of Secrets Rework

The Shrine of Secrets will now be a Catalog of all perks that can be unlocked. This way you can unlock all non-license and license perks without needed to own any of the characters.

The "4 Slot" system will be traded out for a "Weekly Discount System", which will provide a discount to perks for a week, the goal here is to still make perks unlockable at your own pace but to still provide incentive to check the Shrine of Secrets every week to see if it has the perk you want so you can save currency.

2. Separate Currency For Unlocking Characters ~ Alternative Unlocking System(s)

One of the biggest things that prevents BHVR from increasing the rates that you earn Iridescent Shards is the fact that Iridescent Shards are used to purchase store cosmetics.

The easiest way to improve the pace/rate at which you unlock characters in DBD is by making it tied to its own currency this way Shop Cosmetics can still be a decent source of revenue but it does not directly affect the pace at which you unlock characters for free.

Furthermore, certain characters can also be tied to certain requirements to unlock that force new players to engage and learn systems within the game. David King and Wraith are already unlocked through doing the Tutorial, but a character like Zarina (who has important anti-tunnel and altruism perks) could be tied to teaching players how Tome/Rift system works.

3. "Free Trial" Characters

In DBD, it is easy to spend money to unlock a character, but they might end up not matching a playstyle you like. I think the easiest thing DBD can do is provide the opportunity for new players to try out content before they purchase it to make educated decisions and purchases.

I know someone will probably ask "why not just watch a video on the character" but watching a video and actively playing a character are two different things and often players might like to watch certain playstyles but not actively play it themselves.


When saying all of this. It comes from a place of concern and care. I love DBD a lot, it's one of my favorite games, but just because it is my favorite doesnt mean it is perfect either. I think DBD has a lot of potential but it also has a lot of room for improvement. I hope this doesnt fall on deaf ears and BHVR takes the time to look into these issues.

angrychuck

As I was reading this I genuinely had the same idea for the shrine rework, but with the slight change of the cost of perks is bumped up just a little to compensate for the variety that is now there. I definitely would love to see a shrine rework though.

Iron_Cutlass

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3844593#Comment_3844593

To be fair, BHVR has gone on record to say that a Shrine of Secrets rework is something that they want to do (an old Reddit AMA), but it's on their backlog of changes. This being said, I do hope we get a rework to it sooner rather than later since the issue of unlocking perks (licensed and non-licensed) will only continue to get worse as time goes on and more content is added.

SoGo

I feel like it could be a part of the tutorial.

For example: Playing as Zarina makes you play a bot match with her 3 perks. This could be available for all killers and survivors.