I just want to have fun

This is super true. Look at something like WZ sure there are literally thousands of gun and attachment combos but if you don't run the meta you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Can you still win? Yes but it's harder and you have handicapped yourself to do it.

I think bot matches would certainly increase the game's fun factor.

~That's all I really WAAAAaaaaUUHHhhnnttt is some FUUUuuuuUUUHHHNNnnn!!

im the one exception to this. may favorite perks consist of. babysitter, no mither, saboteur, diversion, head on, any means necessary, breakout, overcharge, monitor and abuse, distressing, dark divotion, hex retribution, dragons grip, tinkerer, and mad grit, I don't know why but i run the dumbest perks. so saying every or most killer/survivor's run meta perks would be wrong. ton's of people run non meta perks because let's just say this. every perk has a situation that it solves best. the reason meta perks are meta is because of how often the situation shows. people always forget that no mither makes you quieter while on the ground as well as let you pick yourself up whenever. I can't count how many times i have crawled into pyramids trail and made the killer's head melt looking for me. every perk has use meaning running a variety is a good thing. but running the same thing is looked at as better because most of the time it is sadly. but that doesn't mean it's always ganna work nor is it ok to bully people for not running meta perk's. if people want to run meta perks, let them. but the best thing to do as killer is to try and prepare for the meta to try and bulldoze you. in otherwords just bring devour :) survivors won't get to use there perks when you get 3 stacks because they will be bomb rushing your totem

Well, personally, this still boils down to SWF. They are so strong that Killers have to run Meta. In the past, Killers who saw a bunch of Solo survivors join the lobby and maybe if they didn’t all have items, then the Killer would switch to his “fun” Killer with his fun perks on and have a relaxed game. NOW? Well now we’re locked in and have very little time to switch to something more laid back, even if we wanted to.

Game pretty much always boils down to SWF and their unfair advantage despite them always saying they barely make call outs ect ect lol.

If you want to win, you need to be running the meta perks. If you want to have fun, you need to replace them with fun and interesting perks. You'll lose a lot more games with the fun perks though. But you'll need to lose some games for the MMR to put you with killers who care more about about having fun too.

My Pallet Freddy hopes you will join him in a game or two.

If you didn't being the stuff to not die and you died more then you'd actually face players who don't sweat so much and then magic

I can’t even tell you the countless times i’ve had to go against 3-4 survivors that all were running the same meta build. That’s way more exhausting.

Your wish is granted, you now get facecamping Insidious Bubbas in every game.*

* Assuming that facecamping lowers your MMR.

For me at least the problem is not so much about "winning" (in quotations because the win condition is actually not clearly defined at all) but about having fun. I feel like a lot of complaints that talk about winning/losing are actually more about having fun / not having fun.

As an example: I generally play without add-ons. I know I could do a lot better if I was using add-ons as the vast majority don't have any downsides, only upsides. Still, even with the new MMR, I sometimes get matched against SWF who use Brand New Parts, Keys, ... and it doesn't feel fun for me. Could I use add-ons to get more kills in those games? Yes, but it wouldn't actually increase my fun.

OP seems to have the same problem. If they stopped using the perks they are currently using they could probably lower their MMR naturally, but that, based on my experience at least, won't necessarily mean that you get more fun games. There are a lot of mechanics that, regardless of MMR or "skill level" of the player(s) are just extremely unfun to go against and it is just extremely frustrating because some of these issues, like being found first and getting camped to death, are ancient and nothing has been really done to combat that.

This actually reminded me of an old game. It was 5 years ago, more or less. It was a PvP game and because of an oversight it was literally impossible for one (or multiple, technically) players to lose if the players played in a certain way (that was also as far as I know not bannable). Even though this is obviously horrible game balance players liked the game and it's still alive today. I guess that shows that winning is not the only thing that matters to the players!

... And that game is of course, Dead By Daylight. I am talking about the literal infinites where it was literally impossible for the Killer to down a Survivor if the Survivor played the infinite right (and it was not very difficult to do that).

I feel like recently a lot of focus on more on perfect balance and less on ensuring the game is fun. I don't remember seeing any mentions of "fun" or increasing player satisfaction or anything during any of the MMR discussions for example (from the developer side). Good balance increases the fun, but it is not the only (or even main thing) that determines fun. With how common threads of players saying that they are quitting (like this one for example) are becoming maybe it is time to focus more on fun again, and less on balance.

Old Dbd was horribly unbalanced but it was fun. I am not saying that it isn't still fun or less / more fun (in fact I would keep my opinion on that to myself here) but I will say that I definitely feel like fun hasn't been the #1 priority for the developers lately, more like the #2 or #3 priority.

Those other players also just want to have fun. So why is your fun more important than theirs?

I empathise where OP and yourself come from in terms of it being unfun to face the same setups, the same items and so on. It does feel stressful in the early stages when gens pop like bubble wrap.

But when I say there doesn't need to be a situation where someone feels pressurised to use specific perks, what I mean is not to get a lower MMR using lesser perks - I mean use lesser perks to perform well and get 4k against good teams. The fun isn't just in winning according to what you consider is a win or doing well, but also in experimenting, and there's no reason to not run non-meta perks regardless.

Running less powerful perks doesn't mean you can't do well. If a player uses skill, stealth or clever thinking they can be a powerful player by using the one thing people won't ever be able to pre-empt, and that's your own, unique approach.

Try running random or different builds. Set up meme builds, or even focus solely on a non-perk build. The more you get comfortable with it, you'll see beyond the meta and the endless ways of having fun and experimenting with what the game has to offer.

“Dear devs

Time to play your game…” FTFY