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Stereotypes and Biases
Back for more psychological analyses - this time, I'm interested in how players perceive particular characters, based on things they've heard, past experiences, etc.
They could be survivors or killers. Do you expect certain killers to camp or meme? Do you dread being put on a team with someone playing a specific survivor? Do you judge someone's likely skill level based on who they're playing or what cosmetics they're wearing? Do you tunnel people or let them live based on their character or cosmetics? And why?
Let me know all about your in-game prejudices, rational or otherwise! It doesn't have to be limited to the questions above, those are just prompts to get you thinking.
(Usual disclaimer applies - I am a design student, using the DBD forums as a case study for my Honours research project. I won't include any personally identifying information, such as usernames, but insights gained from this post may be used as part of my studies.)
Comments
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I'll simply answer those questions in your 2nd paragraph.
- No.
- No.
- Character no, cosmetics yes.
- No.
- Because then i'd have to make lots of exceptions every match, i want consistency.
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The questions were mostly just examples to get the gears turning, but I appreciate the response all the same. Would you be able to elaborate on what sort of cosmetics influence your opinion of a player, and in what ways?
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• Usually no but I’ve had at least one of every killer meme with me.
• Not unless it’s a default character like a baby Dwight or baby Meg.
• Not who they’re playing but if I see a lobby full of bright neon Nea and purple pants/orange schmock Claudette then I probably think I’m in for a rough round.
• No, I rarely tunnel and I usually let the last person get the hatch if I know where it is and they don’t wiggle.
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I only dread immersed Claudettes. Nothing like insult to injury when you see one self caring in a corner while you're on hook. When there's a party wipe, you can bet they'll probably get hatch too. I suppose they just seem like the least cooperative players I come across. Which is funny, 'cause my husband likes Claudette best, lol. He does try to save folks a lot, but he's just really bad at looping.
David's are hook hogs, because obvious perk benefits I suppose. Megs are either really good teammates or the worst, and I guess that would be because she's one of the first characters survivors normally level, and a fav among vets. I love seeing a flashy Nea, because I assume she'll be able to loop the killer for days. Rarely am I disappointed on that front, either. In fact, if I see someone in bright neon colors, I generally assume they'll be good players. You gotta have balls to wear bright neon pink pants on Ace, eh? Speaking of Ace, if I see one in the vicinity, I assume they want the chest I'm about to plunder and give it to them.
Pigs are either brutal or love a good snoot boop. Ghostfaces are mischievous tea bagging little rats, but I love him. Deathslingers and Michaels always feel so serious, but are usually good sports in end game chat.
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Bright ones, stuff that stands out.
To me, it's a clear indicator that they're very confident in their ability to loop, and probably use at least 3/4 "meta" Perks.
My opinion on them doesn't change, they're just another player like anyone else and my gameplay doesn't change depending on what they wear.
I simply expect them to be different from normally-dressed players.
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Let's start with the classic camping Leatherface.
The following killers with P3 makes me think they are good: Trapper, Bingbong, Billy, Nurse. Basically the "classic" ones.
Ghostfaces are either tryhards or absolute memelords.
Players using legacy outfits usually gain some respect from me and I expect them to be good at the game.
Blendettes are useless.
Nancys are the "megheads" for me.
Survivors with bright outfits are usually the toxic ones and will dc if you outplay them. Bonuspoints if they stay for the rest of the game to yell at you in the endgamechat.
Jeffs are not toxic.
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I think this is pretty obvious, but I expect all LF's to camp.
Nea's with bright clothing intimidate me as Killer because I have been ran around for a while by some of them. They also tend to be toxic.
I expect blendette's to be crouching behind a rock at the corner of the map 95% of the time. Blendies are not reliable teammates from my experience.
Quentin mains tend to be the nicest of all survivors, and make every game a gg. Not sure exactly why though.
If I see a baby dwight I can't bear to see them die by an evil spider monster. Something so cute and pure doesn't deserve to be killed and sacrificed.
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I always give Feng Min hatch, provided they don't wiggle
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No.
No.
Prestiges only and it's generally specific "tactics" that clue me on their skill level.
No, Because I don't tunnel or camp.
They're both terrible "strategies/tactics" and the devs allowing 100% free reign on them just feels wrong, since they straight up ruin games.
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"Do you expect certain killers to camp or meme?" Yes, Bubbas are usually campers and Spirits are usually tunnelers.
"Do you dread being put on a team with someone playing a specific survivor?" No.
"Do you judge someone's likely skill level based on who they're playing or what cosmetics they're wearing?" I realiced that people wearing the default outfit of a survivor have way higher chances of being noob.
"Do you tunnel people or let them live based on their character or cosmetics?" No, but if the survivor is a flashlight click-clicker and/or a vault spammer I sometimes tunnel, depending on my mood that day.
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Answering the questions in order.
yes - If it's a leatherface I fully expect them too camp with the chainsaw, It's not from the memes that I think this, it's just a common thing with Leatherfaces I've noticed. Not all of them do it but a good portion do just camp with chainsaw.
yes - Anytime I see a P3 Claud or Nea I know they are just gonna hide in the edges of the map. For nea it's not guaranteed, but for Claud it's almost a guarantee.
yes and No - I don't own a lot of cosmetics but I'm in red ranks, so I never judge someone based on cosmetics. For who they are playing absolutely. There are survivor stereotypes that are self fulfilling prophecies most games so it's not uncommon for a Claud too be P3 and never leave the corner or nea's who are just douches with flashlight spam and teabagging.
No - I only tunnel someone if they have a key. Key's ruin the game for killers like Mori ruins it for survivor, so there isn't a reason too tunnel them otherwise. Worst case I will slug them but I wouldn't intentionally tunnel someone too death, it's not fun for them.
Hope this helps with your project.
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I don't know if this will help.
Jake park, red china shirt?, and flash light.
In our server, survivors in certain clothes do tea-bagging at a high probability.
It's a prejudice caused by one streamer.
So I find another room when I see a survivor wearing such clothes.
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I expectthe chainsaw duo to be campy, tunnel and generally unfun. Leatherface more so.
I expect Neas, especially cosmetic-using ones, to be unfun to play against.
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If a bubba doesn't meme it is a sad day. Also what stereotype is hag in? I've literally gone against one hag in the past month so I have no idea.
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- "Do you expect certain killers to camp or meme?"
If I expect any Killer to camp, it's Leatherface, for obvious reasons. Any Leatherface who doesn't camp has my respect. As for those that meme, I always go in expecting the Killer to play normally, but Ghost Face tends to meme the most for me.
- "Do you dread being put on a team with someone playing a specific survivor?"
I've only seen a few people being the "stereotypes" (Dwights hiding in lockers all the time, Megs being useless, etc.). Not enough of a selection to give me reason to not accept them in my group.
- "Do you judge someone's likely skill level based on who they're playing or what cosmetics they're wearing?"
If someone is wearing prestige, I expect them to be at least somewhat decent. Outside of that, their character has little influence over me.
- Do you tunnel people or let them live based on their character or cosmetics?
I try my hardest not to tunnel people. On the flip side, if someone is paying Adam, I try to go for them last.
- And why?
Adam is my favorite Survivor and I rarely ever see him. Must preserve the species.
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Killers I expect to camp or Proxy-camp: Leatherface, Wraith, Myers, Ghostface. Then again, I expect most killers to camp because I see a lot of it. I also expect Hags to be coming back to the hook.
I don't dread being on a team with any survivor until they prove themselves to be useless.
People with Prestiged outfits I usually expect to play a bit better, on account of them prestiging. People with bright clothing i usually expect to be better at looping, even if neither of those are necessarily always true.
I don't tunnel people at all. But I'll definitely go after a Blendette over a brightly clothed character if I see them both.
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Yes for the camp.
No.
Only if it's a Blendette.
No.
Because characters or cosmetics have a dubious correlation with toxicity, giving me no reason in and by themselves to tunnel someone.
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-Players with the Prestige Outfit should be the more skilled players,the same like players with the basic clothing/no cosmetics are the beginner type of player("noobs")
-Claudettes with dark cosmetics are usually blendettes
-Survivors with very bright cosmetics are often times the toxic players/want the killers attention
Leatherfaces and Hags are often the campy type of killers
-Ghostfaces are also often meme'ing around at the exit gates from what i'vs seen
-Sometimes i can judge based on their nationality.For example in my experience arabic and spanish people are the most likely group of players to be toxic and i also had many spanish and french players complaining about the way i played as killer.
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I'll admit I've never quite understood the Meghead thing. What kind of behaviour do you expect to see from them (or in this case, from Nancy players)?
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I usually expect huntresses to be the type that "camp" the hook by never going far from places they can't throw hatchets at the hook.
I expect hags to always run back to the hook after the unhook, even if you don't trigger a trap.
Anytime a bubba has agi or iron grasp I expect a basement camping.
Blendettes and spine chill.
Slugging oni
Freddy and slowdown builds.
Free survivors with default cosmetics are usually potatos.
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How do you know if someone is a baby Dwight? Is it to do with their cosmetics, or the way they're playing, or do you treat all Dwights equally?
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I would guess it's a mix of both cosmetics (Dwight wearing the standars cosmetics) and their behaviour in-game that indicates that they are really really inexperienced like trying to hide although they are clearly able to be seen.
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What kind of tactics do you look at to decide someone's skill level?
It does, thank you! Are there any other survivors who you pre-judge based on who they're playing, or is it mostly just Claud and Nea?
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I would love to know that, too. I'd really like to find out what specific prejudices people have about each character, but I'm unsure how to do that without spamming the forum with 40 different discussion threads.
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Honestly yea. Everyone else really varies with playstyles. Dwights would be the only other survivor I judge. They either play really new and babyish or super tryhards. They either hold M1 on gens and waste 800 pallets within a minute, or they run the killer around for 5 gens and use 3 pallets. Other then that other survivors vary huge amounts I don't really judge them until in game.
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I find it really interesting that so many people have said that they expect players with prestige outfits to be somewhat skilled. I tend to assume the opposite, based on the fact that prestige is (a) easy to get, (b) therefore usually the first cosmetic that people get access to, and (c) not the favourite of most, meaning that if they have other cosmetics, they usually use those instead. So most of the people I see wearing prestige are newish players who want to show off that fact. Veterans typically don't feel the need to show off prestige skins because they've earned enough bloodpoints in their time to prestige everyone, so to them it's not that special anymore.
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Normally baby Dwights wear the basic clothing that comes for free with the character, but it can also be how they play. Baby dwight's will run in a straight line in a chase or try to hide in lockers in plain sight. Baby Dwights tend play as you would expect a completely new player would play (absolutely terrified of the Killer).
I don't treat all Dwights equally. Once a Dwight has proven to me that they understand basic game knowledge, then I continue it as a normal game. They won't get any special treatment or a free hatch escape.
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"Tactics" as in facecamping, tunnelling and slugging the last person as bait purely for a 4k. A so-called strategy that doesn't require any true measure of skill and forces the use of perks such as Decisive Strike and Borrowed Time, leading to what Killers are referring to as the Second Chance meta. And by that, I judge them as having zero skill and have to rely on underhanded tactics to get any form of result.
Am I 100% against underhanded tactics? No. I should clarify. I am not against playing dirty in order to boost your chances of succeeding. I myself will occasionally slug ONE survivor (only when there's 3 or 4 alive) in order to try and move someone off a generator. This is also usually when I'm playing as Pig and they have an RBT on which will waste more of their time. It's about controlling the flow of the game then. An example of the slugging that I judge is putting 3 people on the ground because you can't win multiple chases consistently, or leaving one of the remaining two as bait because accepting that someone got out because of the hatch doesn't count as basically a kill because seeing skulls is all that matters.
As for positive or higher-skill judgement from me is how someone predicts mind-games or skillful actions such as distant Huntress/Deathslinger shots, quality sneaks as stealth killers, perfectly timed shocks leading into a down.
One thing about your Prestige comment too is that yes, Bloodpoints are easy to get, but if you are that willing to devote time to levelling up ONE character, especially a Killer to get all 3 of the Bloody cosmetics, then you must either really like that character, or (especially in a Killer's case) then they are most likely your main character and if that's on something like a Nurse, then you've obviously devoted a lot of time to that character. It's not that you need to be a god to have Prestige gear, but if you have Prestige 3, then either you play the game way too much, you really like that character, or that's your best killer.
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You have to consider that if you prestige a character one can assume that you like and play that killer/survivor a lot and therefore should be more experienced using them.
The other factor you have to consider is that licensed characters have very little cosmetics to choose from if tjey have them at all so that way they only have that prestige clothing as another outfit.
There also some people that would like to get certain cosmetics but can't afford them so they continue using the prestige outfit
Point c is very subjective.For example in my opinion the prestige outfit is Onis best cosmetic.Also a lot of players are using the P3 Head cosmetics because the fit to a lot of cosmetics.
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It's really just a bloodpoint grind. You don't even have to play with a character to p3 them. If someone wanted, they could use their best killer to grind out bloodpoints to p3 all survivors while never playing survivor.
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No to everything
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As Killer
When I see survivors in darker clothing, i tend to be more aware and aggressive towards them. I have bad eye sight so they are my worst enemy in this game. Take them down as soon as possible. If they tend to have brighter clothing, im less aggressive. The reason why are my experiences, they tend to want to get chased and waste my time. I go more aggressive if they act 'toxic' or have a key.
I know the stereotype where characters that wear brighter clothing tend to be more aggressive and cocky, i dont see it, always. Some try what i do just be sneaky even with brighter clothing. I tend to wear brighter clothing not because I think im the bee's knee or anything, i like the clothing options.
As Survivor
I don't expect killers to meme(I have seen it) but i expect any killer to camp and/or tunnel, depending on the circumstance of the trial. I don't automatically see a certain killer and think "well GG" "Game Over" Anything could happen to change the ending result. I do dislike others more than necessary but never where i assume i already lost.
If i see my teammates play a certain character, i dont get annoyed or assume immediately on how they play. I have seen the stereotypes and experienced some but i don't think it off the bat. I judge how they play during the match. After all as the player you have control of the actions of the character. Your play style would most likely be the same even if you switch characters.
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That's fair enough about the prestige. Come to think of it, I apply a different standard in that area to killers than I do to survivors. If a survivor is wearing prestige clothes, I tend to assume they're fairly new and that's just their favourite character. If a killer has prestige clothes, I take that as a sign that they know what they're doing. I'm not entirely sure why, exactly, since bloodpoints are harder to earn on survivor.
It might be partly to do with the fact that there are more survivor cosmetics available than killers (or at least it seems that way) so the "if they're using prestige it means they haven't bought anything better yet" theory doesn't hold as much weight. Perhaps part of it is also that survivors are interchangeable in a way that killers aren't, so survivor mains have more incentive to stick to a particular character because you only need to play one character to experience all survivor gameplay has to offer. Therefore, someone who has prestiged a survivor is likely to have played only that one survivor, whereas someone who has prestiged a killer has probably spent additional time playing other killers and so is more experienced overall. Plus, killer has a lower skill threshold than survivor - if someone has played 50 hours of killer and 50 hours of survivor, they're likely to be better at killer, so even if a survivor got to P3 in that time, they're more likely to still be rubbish at the game.
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Those are reasonable points, but just to be clear, the whole thing is subjective. I'm not trying to construct a rational argument, I'm just trying to self-analyse and speculate as to where my own biases come from. It only comes out in such a structured form because that's just how I naturally think and make sense of things.
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Sure. Again, I'm not pretending my biases are entirely rational, I just think it's interesting to acknowledge them and consider where they might come from, even if they don't actually make a whole lot of sense when you really think about it.
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Thanks for the detailed response 😊 Would you be able to elaborate on which killers you particularly dislike, and why?
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They will make a move, that is so dumb (or basic mistakes) that it will either cost the game or they get away with it and the game goes on. But mostly it's the first case.
My last experience with 2 Nancys was: My friend died 1 hook, I got slugged for 4 minutes and leatherface camped me, because one of the Nancys failed a skillcheck at the beginning of the game. They both did 1 gen the whole time and died shortly after my bleedouttimer went to 0. That was the final straw for my nancy bias.
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Every time I hook Dwight I die a little inside
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I agree with you, I don't expect people with Prestige to play better. Might be because I think Prestige is useless and don't prestige my characters anymore, but especially on non license characters I can't understand going for Prestige Outfits when they have so many more interesting ones in the shop. To be honest, if the Player with Prestige has an open profile and I can see they have only a few hours, I presume they have poor jugdement. (I think it can be a different case with Prestige on Killers.)
To the other questions: Like many others I expect LF to camp, also the Hag. Nurses and (spirits) tend to be really sweaty imo, I don't think any Killer is more likely to meme from my experience.
Dread would be to harsh to say, but I'm a bit suspicious of blendettes (because some of them do nothing) and Davids (because some of them farm for wglf).
I expect people with basic outfits (and Prestige in some cases) to be newer and less experienced and I expect blendettes to be bad at Looping.
I don't tunnel or let people live based on a certain cosmetic.
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yes, when the killer is Bubba i expect face camping as thats what most people say about the people that use him.
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I expect all Leatherfaces, Wraiths, Pigs, and Trappers to have Noed. I am surprised when Billys, Myers, and Nurses have it.
Since the change to Doc I expect all docs to be running either Iridescent king/queen and I am pleasantly surprised when that is not the case. I also expect power spamming. In this way I find him very obnoxious.
As many have said I expect Leatherface to camp, proxy or otherwise and to be the most likely to have Franklins.
Spirit means tunnelcity.
A lot of Huntresses and Legions seem easy to trigger even without bming as if they take your evasion personal.
Ghostfaces seem more likely to joke around with you.
Trappers the most benevolent.
Clowns for me have been the most toxic.
Blendies are nearly almost guaranteed to let you rot on hook while never getting chased.
Prestige 3 on almost any character usually means a hider and not a runner. Bright clothes are your runners. I even switch to Nea when I mean business after a series of bad games.
I have a prejudice against Jakes I am working on. Been burned by them too many times and can be overly critical of their motives.
Neas on Xbox to urban evade everywhere. Neas on PC to be an anklebreaker.
Good chance Megs are walking half the match to save SB.
Not really a killer bias but if the offering is Cut Coin or Hawkins I brace for a rough match. Cut Coin for toxic and Hawkins for crapshow.
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• In terms of individual survivors or killers, no.
• No. There aren't any survivors I dislike teaming up with.
• I don't judge the skill of any survivor or cosmetic in terms of how good/bad they are, but with regards to playstyle certain dress-styles make me consider if they're playing the distraction.
• If my judgement on someone being a runner from the previous question is right, I'd actually avoid them and focus on others. But that's based on how they play, rather than outfit.
• I like to play in character, therefore depersonalising the experience to limit any prejudice I might be blind to.
Hope this helps with your studies!
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That's awesome, thank you, exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for!
One small question, what do you mean by a "day-1 vet"? This thread is teaching me that I'm not as up-to-date with the lingo as I thought I was 😅
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Right, that makes sense. Probably would have figured that out if I were less tired!
And yeah, I agree, Bills do tend to be an either/or situation. They're either unsung heroes or embarrassing roadblocks.
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The killers that annoy me the most are Legion, Myers and Plague. It's not because of the killer, it's because of the other survivors that interacts with the killer that makes the match more annoying and harder to go against.
Legion-I had a game where Legion and a survivor were teaming together. At the end he let him go and both gave a message to all players in that match laughing at all of us. I now get annoyed when i see one but i dont always expect it to always happen.
Plague-It's just that sometimes people cleanse too early and give the Plague her power that lasts ages. When I vs a Plague, i hope my teammates don't cleanse too early.
Myer- I have experienced this as and against Myers. Some players would twerk for him and give his power early when they see him. There are times where they would DC after they get hit by him. I do assume if he gets it too early that someone gave it to him. It's not like"Damn it who's the A-hole who gave him his power" "I hope someone didn't just give him his power so damn early" I usually experience this as Killer more than survivor though but i cant help but to think "Did they give the guy his power?"
My least favorite killers aren't because of who they are, it's more on how other survivors deal against these guys.
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I see, so it's generally the killers whose powers are fueled by the survivors themselves, leaving you open to being screwed over by your teammates. Out of interest, why isn't Oni on that list?
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When playing against Oni, i haven't seen anyone help fuel his power intentionally. (Not counting AFK players) Oni could only get his power if he hits someone. The times i have been against him people who get hit by him run away and dont help him get his power, intentionally. If they kept the T-bag = More Blood then I would have a problem.
Ghostface is different too, kinda. While going against Myers you get stalked even if you look at him. As GF you can look at him and break his stalk. The survivors, in my eyes, are trying to break him from stalk not helping him.
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In all honesty I am a Claudette main and I know people don’t like Claudette per se for whatever reason. And I want to just put it out there that not every Claudette is a toxic Crouching selfish bush blending wannabe. I go do generators like everyone else and help heal other teammates when injured.
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Cannibal always has noed and almost always camps (though I dont blame him for either since his chainsaws so dang slow)
Claudettes going to hide most of the match and if its just you and her left shes leaving you on hook for hatch.
Just based on experience
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I’ve had this happen here and there but it’s not just Claudette mains I’ve had plenty of other mains leave me on hook and I took them off the hook they previously were on.
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