Do developers even care about their players?
Developers seem to never listen to the critics, they never look at reported players like killers who camp on the hook (which should have any type of descompensation, but it seems developers don't care about their survivor players too, which are the ones who make the game flow), they never even care about the game errors and crashes that led players to involuntarily lose their ranks. It is about the 7th time the game crashes by itself, not me have abbandoned, and they keep punishing me.
I've been playing this game for so long and I've not noticed any type of compensation about the errors, any type of action done to those anti-game killers or trolling survivors, any type of little thing that can show that developers care about their players.
It seems that they only care about making new features, new characters, new maps, without correcting the errors that keep players losing the interest in the game.
I'm not telling that I don't enjoy playing it, but I'm getting tired of all these type of ######### things that developers don't even try to change.
I feel that soon I will stop playing if I don't see the ranks that were lost by crashes reestablished and any type of countering to those crappy players.
And if you, developers, have at least a bit of consideration of their players, please at least reply to these comentary or give me or us some feedback on this subject.
I still love this game, don't let my love fade out please
Thank you
Comments
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I'll start by addressing some of the specific points you made. FIrstly, camping isn't against the rules, nor should it be, so the fact that they don't ban people for doing it is hardly an indication that the developers don't care about their players. Neither is the fact that they don't do everything their critics tell them they should - anyone who works in any kind of collaborative field will tell you that just because someone doesn't take all of the feedback they receive on board doesn't mean they're not listening to it. As a designer, I can bear first-hand witness to that fact.
Yes, there are problems with the game. Yes, some of them aren't fixed yet, and for some we haven't received any word on whether there are even plans to fix them. It doesn't logically follow, however, that the developers "don't even try to change" these features that are causing problems, because we simply cannot know that. And with every new patch that comes out with new features, there are dozens of bugs and old features that get updated. You could argue that there is too much new content and not enough fixes, or that things aren't getting fixed quickly enough, but you can't legitimately say that they only put out new content and never correct existing errors.
Regarding compensation, BHVR doesn't seem to be in the habit of handing out rewards to players who are affected by bugs. None of us can know for sure why that is - maybe it's too technically difficult or time-consuming, maybe they don't have the infrastructure to make it possible, maybe they consider it a waste of resources. But regardless, it's not something we should feel entitled to. We did sign an agreement that said that from a legal entitlement standpoint, we accept the game as it is, bugs and all, so they don't owe us compensation of any kind. If they want to do something like that, it would be nice, and maybe it would be profitable for them in the long run by growing the playerbase, but that's up to them.
It's important to remember that BHVR is, first and foremost, a business. That doesn't mean that all their employees are heartless monsters, but it does mean that they will generally prioritise the interests of the business over those of individual customers. At that same time, it's worth noting that keeping the players happy is in the best interests of the business, which is why we have dev streams and sales and Blood Hunts and other things that basically only exist to improve the players' experience. But as a company, no, BHVR doesn't "care" about us in the way that one "cares" for one's friends, nor should we expect it to.
On an individual level, however, I believe that the devs do care about the players. Peanits, for example, one of the Community Managers, frequently streams DBD in the evenings and answers questions from the chat about the game and the team while doing so, just because he's nice, not because it's his job. Almo, one of the Game Designers, spends a lot of his free time outside of work answering player questions and responding to feedback on the forums, which he is likewise in no way professionally obliged to do. I've seen others doing the same in places like Discord and Twitter. In my opinion, the fact that individual members of the development team take time out of their personal lives to interact with players demonstrates that they do care on a personal level about the game and its community.
In summary: Does BHVR as an entity care about the players? Only to the extent that it's profitable for the business. Do individual members of the development team personally care about the players? Signs point to yes.
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I totally understand your point of view
You told things that I really didn't know like those individual aspects of people working on the development. That was very important for me to read as I was absolutely not in that and i was feeling that devs just didn't try to help the community. Fortunately, my view changed in a great part.
Of course this is a business and they have in first place to earn with it. I was just a bit disappointed because many other games that I played cared so much about the errors that damages players that they give frequently some sort of bonus to compensate that. Unfortunately this game does not give us this type of compensation wich is a bit sad, but as you said distinguishing the errors and the abbandoned action may be more difficult that I originally thought. Anyway they could improve it a lot and I still think they are not focused enough on doing so, although in terms and conditions I agreed with dealing with errors.
But well, for me killers who camp should be punnished more heavily, although I know that it isn't against the rules. I think it should be as it dramatically breaks with the enjoyable part of the game and I really think devs should reconsider that part.
Concluding, thank you so much for all that information I didn't know before. Its was very kind of you to write that text and my view has really changed. That's a pitty those errors don't get fixed more effectively and quickly though, but yeah, I agreed with accepting them in the terms and conditions, and maybe they are even trying hard to fix them, although i personaly don't think so xD
I am much more happy with the devs after reading your text and I really hope they start getting some sort of compensation for errors as it would improve the game experience very much :)
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Ok I don't know what happened, I replied to your comment and my reply just got deleted xD
Sorry for the few words of this message but I don't remember all I wrote in the previous reply I made
In a generall way I was writing that I totally understant your point of view and I was also thanking you so much for taking your time to wirte all that information as I didn't know much of that before and it greatly changed my point of view, for example, with those individual aspects of devs. Of course this is a business and they need to have profit. There are just a few things I think it would be great to change, you know.
Knowing that this isn't against game rules, I think it would be very nice that devs reconsider that that killers shoud be punnished more heavilly when camping as it dramatically breaks the enjoyable part of tha game.
Anyway, many games I played before cared so much about the errors causing prejudice to players that they were regularly giving players bonus to compensate that. It would be very nice if this game does it too, but I don't think of that happening unfortunately.
My overall impression is that devs are not focusuing enough on correcting those errors and this might have been the principal reason I wrote my previous text, but it may be very difficult I know, specially distinguishing crash errors and the abbandon action. I know that in terms of condition I agrred to accept them but that does not mean it would be very great and it would make sense to have some sort of compensation sometimes as it would really improve tha game experience.
Concluding, thank you again so much for writing the text and giving all this information as it changed my mind and, consequently, made me happier with the devs and feel that, in fact, they personally care about us. :)
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Your reply probably just got stuck in the spam filter. Don't worry, it came through.
Anyway, I'm very glad to hear that! I honestly was not expecting such a positive response at all 😊
Camping is a difficult thing to address, because it's not fun for the survivors, but sometimes it is the smart and reasonable play on the killer's part, and I don't think it's fair to punish killers for playing well in that context. Personally, I think that if anything is to be done about it, incentivising killers to leave the hook would be more effective than punishing them for staying nearby.
For what it's worth, I also think better customer service, more events, faster bug fixes, etc. would be nice as a player. But knowing that the devs are almost certainly aware that doing those things would improve player satisfaction and thereby grow the playerbase, and would therefore be in their best interests as a business, leads me to the conclusion that the only rational reason for them not to be doing those things is that they are already doing the best they can with the resources they have available.
Having said that, I would absolutely encourage you to keep giving feedback on the forums, keep making respectful requests for features that you would like to see in the game, take the player satisfaction surveys, etc., because it does make a difference. Even if they can't grant all those requests for other reasons, at the very least it puts the idea out there and lets the devs know that this is something that's on the minds of their players.
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A roblox game that is basically a rip off this game has a non-camper radius around the hooked survivor. Why can't dbd do the same?
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