My Thoughts on Allowing Crossplay on PC.
TL;DR:Asymmetrical games limit the disparity between different platforms when arguing crossplay and this must be considered.
When this idea gets tossed around, the same arguments have been repeated since the dawn of online gaming. Everyone knows that PC players will stomp consoles; the advantages of PC are just that good.
However, do these arguments hold up when you consider that Dead by Daylight is inherently different as an asymmetrical game?
First of all I will absolutely aknowledge that a mouse and keyboard is superior over a controller in nearly all games. After all there is a reason that huntress is fairly rare on console.However, Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical game, and this fact is why I feel this is a weak argument. This is not a standard FPS, where you can match and compare your skills to the same skill of your enemy.
If crossplay was allowed, what difference does it make to a PC survivor if a killer like the Trapper uses a controller? The only difference is perhaps 360's are more effective against him, and maybe some red stain mindgames. But his knowledge of trap placements and survivor pathing is a skill he develops regardless of how well a survivor can spin in a circle.
Or vice versa, a PC huntress against a console survivor. While the huntress is more lethal on PC, and is more likely to take and land shots console survivors don't expect, that doesn't affect their ability to outplay that huntress with their own map knowledge or abilities to loop and stealth.
They can still learn strong tiles and run them just as effectively with a controller as with a M&KB, and while it may be harder to 360 or moonwalk, these are both just gimmicky techniques to showoff against any competent killer.
On the technical side, Dead by Daylight is aiming for 60 fps in a few months, and so the framerate disadvantage will be nonexistent hopefully. Dead by Daylight is horribly optimised, I have played better looking and more demanding games that run better than this, and it is on the Devs to fix this.
A big issue to contend with is the use of 3rd party tools and hacks on PC. I doubt Microsoft and Sony would ever agree to crossplay unless these were either removed or limited (most likely removed). Which is a shame because I know MLGA is important to a lot of survivors, as well as some retextures that would be a shame to lose. The issue of hacking is complicated, perhaps most hacks would go away with dedicated servers but until then I doubt crossplay would be on the table for some time.
Still, the simple fact that is an asymmetrical game means crossplay has less inherent disadvantages than other pvp games. As a guy in Australia currently on Xbox, the playerbase feels really small, with little variety in killers and long wait times. Crossplay would help immensely for the games future popularity and support, Survivors would see more variety like Huntress and Nurse and they will become better players not expecting a free win, and killers will have a larger pool of survivors and will get into more games faster. Also, people would likely keep their progress when switching between platforms, which would be nice.
If you actually read all this this, you are a legend. Feel free to throw obscenities at me or debate in the comments.
Sorry about formatting, I'm on mobile.
Comments
-
Most gamers are situated on the east or west coast of the United States, Europe and Canada Anyone not living in those areas dont usually rack up high populations of people to play unless they are local ,online and servers is another story as some developers implement region locks to combat the horrible lag that comes with playing with people from other countries etc. It's sad but I'm not sure what can be done about this.its always gonna be a problem I guess. Unless some miracle technology is made
1
