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Solution for toxic players?

I've been away from competitive gaming for several years now. I've played at the highest levels in a few games, so I'm not unfamiliar with antagonistic bantering and stuff that usually comes from young, emotionally reactive males engaged in competition. But either things have changed dramatically in the last 10 years, or DBD just has an especially toxic playerbase.


I have about 60 hours under my belt in DBD so far. I'm definitely not a seasoned player. My survivor is purple rank now, and my noob killer is rank 17. But somehow, it seems I often get paired with teams of red survivors when I'm playing killer and red killers when survivor. I've noticed this type of behavior at all ranks, but it seems especially common in the red ranks.


For example, last night, I played as spirit with no perks or add-ons vs a survivor team consisting of a rank 1, rank 2, rank 8, and rank 9. After I beat them pretty handily, the rank 1 and 2 filled the chat with insults.


Rank 2: Nice spirit shitter

Rank 1: dogshit

Me: good play at end

Rank 1: playing spirit. lmao

Rank 2: spirit lmao

Rank 1: holy dogshit. you are a terrible player. uninstall and #########

Rank 1: do you know how easy it is to play spirit and not tunnel?

Rank 1: its really not that hard. ur just a terrible player

Me: I just started playing this game a week ago and crushed your team. I don't even have any perks or anything. I can't be that terrible. be happy with the blood points you got. Happy New Year. have a good night.

Rank 2: shut your spirit ass up. trash player. absolutely horrible.


I just left the chat after this. Perhaps I should just ignore the chat window and close the window quickly after each game in the future. I feel like most other online games don't have this chat feature, maybe for good reason? Does everyone else experience this type of stuff on a regular basis? Seems to be a pretty widespread and accepted behavior in this community. I know several major gaming companies have made anti-toxicity initiatives to try to address this behavior in other games. For other companies that haven't, I wonder the most effective way to curb this behavior.

Comments

  • ZtarShot
    ZtarShot Member Posts: 838

    Turn off chat, there's no way to avoid people who get sucked into the game too much.

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 5,229
    edited January 2021

    Spirit is a top tier killer, so it's going to draw more ire than any other killer. That doesn't make it okay, but that is just truth.

    Your options are basically the following:

    • Disable chat and leave it turned off.
    • Leave it on, and just ignore it but file a report for people saying things like this. (ᵀʰᵒᵘᵍʰ, ᴵ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵗʰᶦⁿᵏ ᴮᴴⱽᴿ ᵈᵒᵉˢ ᵐᵘᶜʰ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᶦᵗ ᵘⁿˡᵉˢˢ ᵗʰᵉʸ ᵏᵉᵉᵖ ᵃᶜᵗᶦⁿᵍ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵒⁿ ᵃ ʳᵉᵍᵘˡᵃʳ ᵇᵃˢᶦˢ ᵗᵇʰ)

    That's about it. I mean there are people trashing on trapper and wraith players on the forum here right now, people are going to give you talk like that no matter what. Just play what you want, turn off chat.

    TBH they should make it an option to disable it in options; and show a mute/deaf icon next to your name in the post and pre game lobby. They insist what they do is enough; but BHVR doesn't understand human nature very well and that people are going to constantly feel the need to toggle it, or to reply, and so on....and having an option you can't change in the lobby itself would help a TREMENDOUS amount with toxic related problems in this game.

    It's why I love console players so much. We can't say anything to each other, that's how I like it.

  • Pepsidot
    Pepsidot Member Posts: 1,662
    edited January 2021

    Yes, this is the norm. If there is no toxicity in chat then the likely hood of there being console players in your game is high - since they can't see or use chat.

    The best thing to do is either A) Laugh at their comments whilst giving them no reply/attention or B) Ignore them completely and turn chat off.

    If you haven't received any comments on your steam profile so far, be prepared for that too. I used to main killer from 2016-2018 and have over 90 pages of salt mostly from that time period... and I deleted a lot of them too. I keep them as a badge of honour, they're funny to me.

  • Grandpa_Crack_Pipe
    Grandpa_Crack_Pipe Member Posts: 3,306

    There isn't one. At least, not a satisfying one.

    Don't look at chat. Barring that, don't care about what they say. Barring that, get your willies in with a GG, or better yet, an EZ.

    People WANT you to read that and they want you to react, 'cause they want to come out on top of you in at least one way. Let me guarantee you that hitting them with something short, sweet and nonchalant/smug and immediately taking your leave will soil their diapers even more.

  • JimPickens666
    JimPickens666 Member Posts: 326

    Dbd isn't "competitive" legitimately anyone can reach rank 1 survivor and survivors are constantly buff. You want to curve it, facecamp and tunnel. God the devs are good

  • Dabihwow
    Dabihwow Member Posts: 3,409
  • Animal_Mother
    Animal_Mother Member Posts: 149

    Yes, I think I will disable the chat probably.


    I have a thick skin and am not bothered too much by these comments, but I think you also can't ignore the fact that this behavior has long-term negative effects on players.

  • slim0b
    slim0b Member Posts: 551

    Honestly the wholesome moments here and there you get from it are worth all the attention deprived sore losers for me.


    Again if you can't tolerate their toxicity turn them off, if you know you're the bigger person and you never tunneled or camped or the same 5 excuses then their whining will only remind you of how good you are at the game ;)

  • Hex_Llama
    Hex_Llama Member Posts: 1,816

    Yeah, the chat's pretty bad. For me, the choice was really: 1) do the emotional labour of trying to teach a ten-year-old good sportsmanship while he calls me the f-word; 2) say something rude back; 3) mindlessly type "gg" regardless of how the ten-year-old is acting; or 4) turn off the chat and don't engage. I tried all of those options, but I finally settled on turning off the chat.

  • Father_Dark
    Father_Dark Member Posts: 84

    Personally, I like the chat. I wish that people would actually hang around for a minute to talk (as I am a newer player, only a couple of months, I feel there is a lot I could learn from them.) So far the only real toxic person I ran into was a red rank survivor (I'm a purple rank survivor and killer). Often times I am the only one (regardless of role) to say "GG" in the chat. Especially as a survivor I try to say that because as killer, I almost never see that. And the one really good chat session I had was from a couple of red ranks who said I had played well, even though I didn't get a single kill (double hooked most of them though.)

    The flip side, when I played Apex on console, there were a lot of times that I would get paired up with toxic team mates because I wasn't as good as them. After a particularly toxic pair, I decided to just mute team chat from then on.

    If the current chat room becomes more toxic as I rank up, I'll probably just turn it off too. But for the moment, I hold out for hope, that I'll have good chat conversations. =)

  • Father_Dark
    Father_Dark Member Posts: 84

    You mentioned some companies have made anti-toxicity initiatives. What did they do? How did they deal with this issue?

  • noctis129
    noctis129 Member Posts: 967

    Doesn't really sound that bad. Survivors are a bunch of whiners to begin with.


    I don't understand how ppl think dbd has the most toxic players. No one ever played COD?

  • Crazewtboy
    Crazewtboy Member Posts: 1,259

    You are probably better off just turning off the chat. People are turning off their private messages on console because of this as well. I've been told to die plenty of times just for playing well. Some people are just sore losers.

  • voorheesgt
    voorheesgt Member Posts: 827

    I have fun with the toxics. When he first said "Nice spirit shitter" my response would have been:

    "Thanks, I just got it. My old spirit shitter was pretty worn out so I got this one fresh off the lot... I was a little self conscious about the color but if YOU like it I feel better about buying it"

    It's hilarious 😂. It's confusing, it confirms at the very least you're not bothered which gets toxics FUMING😤

  • SquirrelKnight
    SquirrelKnight Member Posts: 951

    I have a solution but if i say it imma get banned

  • Animal_Mother
    Animal_Mother Member Posts: 149

    EA, Valve, the company that makes COD, and others have recently developed measures to address social toxicity. Valve, for example, will mute players who get too many in-game reports. EA said they would restrict or revoke services for toxic behavior. I think an auto-mute feature would be nice for DBD based on in-game reports.

  • GannTM
    GannTM Member Posts: 10,860

    Yeah I have to deal with it a few times being a spirit main. It absolutely sucks but best thing to do is to just ignore it. Recently, I got this one survivor that got salty I 4k’d with spirit at Mount Ormond. This same guy literally had the DS + Unbreakable combo as well which made me lul even more.


  • lKillYouSoftly
    lKillYouSoftly Member Posts: 14
    edited January 2021

    I always wondered why Spirit brought me more hate than Legion or Huntress? I've never had salty messages until I started getting into Spirit lol. Odd.

    OP, since you're on PC, I suggest blocking chat, or ignoring it all together. Type "gg" and leave. Let them rant to an empty audience. You don't deserve the damper on your mental health because an idiot got mad at your killer choice.


    Also, nice work killing them with kindness OP. They project their insecurities on video games and have to resort to namecalling. Good on you for keeping cool!


    If they have to use perks that can guarantee more chances then they have no right to say you suck lol. They need more chances because they're not skilled enough to make do with the ones they're given. This game makes me laugh more than I should lol. I also find it funny how a rank yellow did better than reds.

    Love the skin you're using, by the way!

  • toukent
    toukent Member Posts: 88

    Stop playing while you still can. If it's not the toxic player-base that makes you quit then it'll be the lazy devs that can't even fix their own game.

  • Clevite
    Clevite Member Posts: 4,335

    I'm just here to say, @Animal_Mother , I love the name!

  • rats00
    rats00 Member Posts: 194

    Because while being an ######### is being an ######### there are some seriously vindictive ######### ups out there that think things like doxing and constant group harassment is appropriate.

    People shouldn't be ######### but public shaming isn't right and going to far. Report and move on.

  • CJ48
    CJ48 Member Posts: 16

    Never read the chat unless you’re trying to rile someone else up, there will never be a “solution to toxic players” I’m toxic in game (tea bagging, flicking flashlights, etc) but never in chat

  • Father_Dark
    Father_Dark Member Posts: 84

    Explain to me the flashlight flicker and how it's toxic. I know survivors usually try to do it to get my attention, but to be honest, when it's been used against me, it's because I've already chased that survivor and I know they are better skilled than me and so I am ignoring them on purpose. Or the target I am currently chasing is the one I want. (Usually it's the former and not the latter.)

  • JimbusCrimbus
    JimbusCrimbus Member Posts: 1,060

    OR, learn to use the salt as fuel. At the end of the day, it's not up to you to provide survivors with a good time. Kick the living ######### out of them by any means, and make their tears flow like the rivers of ancient Babylon. Bathe in the tears.

  • getuy45u4iu
    getuy45u4iu Member Posts: 93

    It’s a very good idea. Option to disable chat would lessen toxicity by much.

    Also, maybe postgame chat should be disabled by default, so that new killer players wouldn’t be shocked and discouraged with what they get to read after their first matches.

  • MadLordJack
    MadLordJack Member Posts: 8,814

    DbD has an especially toxic playerbase, and it has nothing to do with age or gender. It's a casual game that tricks people into thinking it's competitive despite the developers themselves laughing at the idea, and both sides have very different gameplay and goals. This creates a cesspit of entitlement where people refuse to try and understand their opponents and often feel like they got cheated, especially when going against something genuinely unfair and unfun (like certain killers, survivor skins or perk combinations) which they then pretend is the sole reason they lost and ignore any mistakes they may have made.

    It doesn't help that the developers borderline encourage toxic, unpleasant gameplay because it thematically fits. Or at least, that's the excuse they often use. Personally I think they're either sadistic people, lazy, or a mix, because no-one in their right mind would ever defend throwing a trial to bully someone.

  • Xyvielia
    Xyvielia Member Posts: 2,415

    Almost makes you wonder what would happen if there was a live in-person tournament with interchanging groups of 5 players at a time on a stage together in front of a crowd and streamed to the world.

    Would these infuriated, toxic overtones be shouted back and forth?

    Would a physical fight break out?

    Scary to even think about😔

  • rats00
    rats00 Member Posts: 194

    Its the frequency in which players that do it DC or just flip their ######### when the killer either ignores them till the end or kills them quickly because they aren't as smart as they thought they were.

    If they can't get a free win from looping a weaker killer endlessly on a strong loop they tend to be the loudest most likely to scream tunneling or camping in chat.

    When they DC if you dont immediately farm and let all the survivors go you can instead get up to 3 players chewing you out because there are some very loud players that think if one of them DC's it's it's killers job to stop playing the game because it's "not fun" otherwise.

    Since this is the internet it's been watered down to "its toxic". Which is far to generalizing since there are plenty of players who don't act like that, and without context it really just sounds like they're mad someone has a flash light.

  • Moundshroud
    Moundshroud Member Posts: 4,458

    They are bad sports, losers who are unable to face their own failures and thus say all that garbage in a desperate attempt to try and scapegoat anything or anyone else other than themselves. You have a lots of options:

    1. Ignore it utterly; pay it no attention or turn off the chat.
    2. Be painstakingly upbeat and cheerful and friendly as if nothing they said registers. That will annoy them.
    3. Say something like, "YES! Let me taste the salt of your delicious tears." Things like that annoy them too.

    What you shouldn't do, for any reason, is try to defend yourself or engage them in an argument. There is no point. They are liars, who are doing the silliest thing of all, i.e. lying to themselves. There is no chance anything logical or reasonable will break through their self delusion. And for that matter, why give them any satisfaction at all? If you say nothing, they won't know if you heard their garbage or not. For all they know they are raging against nothing. If you are super friendly they will rage against that as you beat them again. If you clearly take an enjoyment from their salt, and try to egg on more they hate that; they don't like that you are in to it. No matter which of these three things you do, it is Win/Win. The most important thing is you have to let that stuff run off you like water. You have to immunize yourself against the demons of external validation. It is the sticks and stones lesson we should all have learned in Kindergarten.

    Nobody hates bad sportsmanship more than me. I think these behaviors probably reflect how they behave in the real world too. In my experience, bad sports here are bad sports everywhere. Why should you care what such pathetic, wannabe losers think or say?

  • lKillYouSoftly
    lKillYouSoftly Member Posts: 14

    I wish I was able to, lol. Whenever I see a survivor do something BM/salty my flight or fight gets triggered for some reason. Albeit I've been learning Plague and am working on my Legion so I can, as you say, bathe in their tears lol. I just hope to find the motivation to play Spirit again. It's not even funny how some of my killer choices attract some of the saltiest players imaginable.

  • DragonMasterDarren
    DragonMasterDarren Member Posts: 2,804

    I just put "someone's parents must be really disappointed with them" and move on, i've learned enough not to even contemplate letting the conversation go on, they're full of it and i have better things to do then listen to a bunch of bullies

  • Shirokinukatsukami
    Shirokinukatsukami Member Posts: 1,624

    What is easier? Changing the world or changing yourself?

    The solution to toxic players has nothing to do with the toxic players.

    Just grow some skin and don't engage with them and don't care about it and move on. There, toxic problem solved.