I used to play killer a lot more...
Hello folks. I am reposting this from the steam forums, as per a request I got on that very thread. This is mostly in regards to killers, although if survivors are curious about an opinion from someone who plays both sides, read on.
So, in the wake of people complaining about queue times as survivor and not fully grasping why people don't enjoy killer nearly as much, I thought I'd post my story as to why I stopped playing killer a lot, and the game entirely.
Whenever I play, I play the side with the shortest queue. I'm impatient. This is almost always the killer side, sometimes survivor, but this isn't about survivors (Even though solo experience is a PITA)
To be perfectly clear, I still play now and then, it's not really a rant as "OMG this side is totally unfair VS the other side." It's more... "I don't play killer as much as I used to. Maybe this is why others don't as well."
Let's get a myth out of the way.
Not playing as much has NOTHING to do with Ruin. At least for me. Ruin felt needed because of killers having poor map pressure in large maps, but it was a worthless perk often cleansed within the first minute of the game.
So...a few reasons I don't play that much anymore, especially as killer:
1: The community.
Now, I try to be a nice killer. I've seen both sides of the fence. I know what it's like to be camped and tunneled and hook farmed.
It's a shame not a single survivor gives a flying ♥♥♥♥ if you're a fair killer.
Despite how nice I try to be, despite how I only camp during EGC because that's the only way I can still kind of keep on playing the game and not give up, I get told the worst things.
I quit playing for a month or so, came back, the VERY FIRST game I used a mori with blood warden and NOED.
TLDR: I have to kill survivors during EGC. I had 0 intention of using the mori before EGC, and I didn't use it before then.
People told me the worst things. It was disheartening. Here I am not tunneling, not camping, yes I use NOED and a mori for an archive, I told them that in chat, but no, I get told things I can't repeat on the forums.
Yes you can ignore the community, but you have to admit how sad this is. Playing fairly, being nice, and you still get trashed on. Why the hell would I want to play against people like these? It's not always my feelings getting hurt. It's "Why would I want to play with you guys in the first place? I know how bad you are."
2: The matchmaking.
You see this now and then. Rank 16s VS rank 1s and 2s. I have endless screenshots. Now, I'm actually a decent killer so I can kill these rank 1s and 2s somewhat consistently, but it's not really enjoyable. There's a third point which kind of relates to this too, but there's also another problem with this: Out of every killer I have, only 1 killer has meta perks to kill red ranks. The others do not. So if I wanted to play Wraith, I don't have good Wraith perks. If I get put up against red ranks, I'm shooting myself in the foot because I've handicapped myself with subpar perks as a subpar killer.
Can I kill most survivors if I put in thousands of hours? Most likely yes. Is it worth it? Oh, hell no. Not for free. I don't want to dedicate my life to DBD to become better than most survivors. I have better things to do. Call it laziness, I call it "A life."
3: Difficulty curve.
This is one of the biggest issues I see as a killer.
My nights consist of 4k, 4k, 0k, 0k, 4k, 0k, along that pattern. Some games I get 4ks so effortlessly that I feel bad. 0 generators get done. I get all my hooks. Game's over.
The very next game that very night I'll get 0k as I struggle so hard and just get taunted to.
Now, name one person, just one person, that enjoys difficulty curves of this degree.
If you're a new killer, you're going to get more 0ks than not. Once the 4ks start coming in, you'll see yourself likely in a similar pattern. The most fair matches I get as a killer are semi competent, not godlike, SWF teams.
I'm not complaining about SWF teams. I've met some friendly ones out there. However, some of them are the biggest tryhards I'll ever see. Maybe because some killers play the same. It's not very fun to go up against though.
4: Simply put, repetitive and boring.
The game has little difference from previous games. Unlike playing survivor where you have the option to play SWF, killer games are usually the same from one game to the next. There is no different strategy. There is no different method. It's just...I have to try to kill survivors.
Is there an obsession and I have 0 obsession perks? That means one of them has DS.
Set up traps around pallets as trapper, or chase someone and predict the way they're going to run because I know they're going to want to lure me away from the generators and 9/10 times I'm right and I get a very easy down because of this...there's little variety in gameplay.
Maybe someone has a different experience as to why killers have become a bit more dull to them, but these were mine. Like I said, it had nothing to do with Ruin. It has to do with a lot of other factors, and these factors weigh heavily on a player over a long period of time.
Survivors have a lot of issues too, mostly solos, so I cannot blame a survivor joining a SWF team. However, the community isn't 'quite' as bad as a survivor. Yeah you get a camper/tunneler on occasion as a survivor, but almost never you'll see toxic talk directed towards you.
Comments
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You'll also never see toxic talk directed towards you if you close the chat box. These are all reasonable complaints, and I can see why someone might stop playing killer for these reasons. Good post.
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This is true. When you see the toxic talk a few times though, you know the kind of people you're dealing with. I don't remember who said it, I think it was Bob Ross, but it was to surround yourself with the people you want to be around.
I'd rather not surround myself with people that I just want to ignore straight away because I know how the majority of them will often talk to me.
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Exactly why this is a reasonable complaint :)
I know some people like myself that just want to have fun and even make friends but it is often ruined by toxic people.
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Well put. I used to play DBD, as killer, almost on a daily basis but for the last 6 or so months I only come in around updates. The main reason for this being the terrible messages I receive from strangers, regardless of whether I play fairly or even lose. I play multiple games online (console) but DBD is the only game I have to set my messages to private when playing. Even then once in a while I will receive friend requests with nasty messages attached.
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I would say that maybe you need to spice things up with a different killer, or just play the game for less time in a streak. I'll usually only do about 5 games a day of a night, and not really binge out a play session. That way the repetition doesn't really get to me that hard.
I'm also completely OK with versing reds and purples right now, even though I recently got back to green ranks, because I actually perform BETTER against them than I do a full lobby of greens. It may be because there's usually 2 reds, a purple/green and a yellow, but still. 3 players who are way above what I should be versing and I cream them.
As for the community, it's always going to be a particular struggle that's unique to this style of game. Since you've played both sides, you know first hand that killer and survivor are essentially two completely different games. We have two separate games arguing and sharing a space, with some people who only play one side, some mainly playing one and a rare few who evenly bounce between. THEN we get into the division of the killer community with their unclear "win condition" and which particular character they use. Survivors have do generators and escape, if you can't hold off the killer for as long as possible. Killers? Your baseline goal is to kill all survivors, but it is also essentially to torture the survivors, inflict pain and be a horror movie antagonist but some people only see "KILL. ALL. SURVIVORS." and that's it.
I can understand using NoED and a mori for an archives challenge, but they just feel so unrewarding on a survivor's side, and to be brutally honest, I hate that the devs put in the NoED and EGC kills challenges. One is reasonable, two is throwing the game and just annoying survivors unless they gen-rush you.
Also, I like the initial difficulty curve and hidden parts of the game, such as mindgames, perk combinations and all that good stuff. Is it frustrating to learn? Can be. Early killer games for me were a nightmare. It is rewarding though, to finally learn how to be a good player.
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I personally feel very different from you.
- Maybe it's because I have thicker skin but I love when people send me toxic messages. I get an absolute kick that someone got so upset over a video game they sent me enough profanities to make a sailor blush. Even as a kid, I never cared what other people had to say to me that were not people I cared about or at least showed me some form of respect. I always just roll my eyes and smile when people get overly mad in this game.
- Matchmaking is a very fair complaint. The devs have mentioned somewhere when people leave the game they try to instantly fill the lobby so this is why you get rainbows so often. At the moment it's more focused in getting you in the game then making sure the game will be fair. Is this the best choice? Depends on who you ask. Personally, I'd rather wait only a couple minutes for a bad game then 30 minutes for a fair and balanced one. I'm sure others would feel better if it was the other way around.
- I actually enjoy the difficulty this game has to offer. The more I play the more I realize how bad the average survivor is and while I enjoy curb stomping people I don't enjoy it so much that I want that every game. Most games as killer if I run meta perks it's normally a win for me and if I do lose, I can tell you exactly where my mistakes were that would have changed that or at least made it closer. I always feel like I had the chance to win and it was mostly my fault that I didn't. It's so rare that I get destroyed by any group where I feel I had no chance no matter what I did.
- Also a fair point. There is only one game mode and while the Killers are different the main gameplay is the same which just comes down to trying to prevent burnout. I play with friends which makes the game a ton of fun survivor side and when I play Killer I'm usually working on a challenge, trophy or just messing around.
I don't really take the game super seriously when I play killer. Hell, I just had a game yesterday where I got bullied pretty hard as I was messing with the new PS4 sensitivity. I was missing swings a lot trying to get used to it and I played pretty terribly all around. I got a few hooks and at the end of the game I downed a person by the gates as the others left and the hatch opened up. Instead of hooking her I just let her go through the hatch because I thought that was funny. Entity displeased with no kills and not even a full stack of BBQ. It was still a pretty fun match and I think the fact that I can personally enjoy matches like that since I don't take "winning" all that serious let's me have a lot more fun and keeps me going more than other people.
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With regards to the toxic messages I would think you are in the minority, I don't know anybody personally who enjoys having profanity and abuse directed at them without provocation. You can ignore it or spin it but it's still unpleasant behaviour that nobody should have to endure.
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I agree with OP. Thing is, there are players on both sides of the fence who seem to feel DBD is a competitive E-Sport. It is clearly not. It does not matter who feels what side is more biased. It is hide and seek time killer that you can AFK a lot with. (Versus say, other games that require your attention for much longer periods of time). I like DBD because it is small bursts of something to do. I agree with hiding chat. It does not matter that one has a thick skin or is sensitive, etc. You are simply far less inclined to reply if you never see it in the first place. Personally, I just hit the 'Select challenge' button when a game finishes and its a quicker way to move on. I appreciate your points, and hope you have fun in whatever other games or activities you fill your time with. Cheers!
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Honestly, I would be surprised if he's in a minority not caring what random strangers have to say. It probably feels like most people are strongly affected, because naturally they would be more vocal about it. If you don't have a problem with random people spamming you with profane messages, there's not really any reason to even mention it.
Like bobcat, I personally enjoy getting "salty" messages from the people that I play with. Whenever I get something I always reply and try to see if i can poke a little bit of fun at them and get a stronger reaction (i.e. see how far they'll take it). The reason is I try super hard to make sure everyone has fun in my games which includes everyone getting at least 18-19k points, everyone gets at least 3 chases and 3 hooks and so on. Therefore, if I get someone complaining and insulting me I know for a fact that they've created some sort of delusion in their head.
If I did play a bit scummy, I'll just apologise and move on. There's not really any reason taking an insult form this sort of person to heart. At the end of the day, these are just random people that you'll never talk to or meet again, there's no reason to let anything they say affect you.
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I have no issue caring what random strangers say, salty behaviour is to be expected in a pvp game, I do however take issue with unwarranted verbal abuse regardless of source.To be clear profanity is usually the least of it. Not everybody has the same degree of mental fortitude, I for example take multiple types of medication to help balance my imbalances. Frequent unsolicited messages amounting to ######### while playing a game would affect me more than somebody else, that you are able to tolerate it doesn't make it any less acceptable. As I mentioned before i play multiple pvp online games and I've never had to set my messages to private playing any of them.
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End yourself*
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I didn't mean this as an accusation towards you. Just wanted to illustrate a different perspective
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