http://dbd.game/killswitch
DBD isn't dying, but it's not progressing either
For years players have been clamoring for something new. Imagine if you could only ever play death match in games like COD or Halo. It would grow to be stale and repetitive, and I feel that's where we're at with DBD. It's been 5 years of the same old thing. We don't need new killers and survivors, we need new ideas. Hell even Friday the 13th incorporated single-player missions as a way to attract players that don't play multiplayer games. The DBD audience has suggested concepts like 2 v 8 or bot modes. They've even gone to the lengths of playing their own mini games like red light/green light as a way to change things up because the thought of doing another generator bored them.
At this point there needs to be a focus on game health, because if the multitude of bugs are any indication, constantly interjecting new content every 3 months isn't doing the game or it's player base any favors. Yes I'm looking forward to Ringu, but if the last couple years are any indication, it's once again going to be something that we've seen before, because every killer has to follow a certain set of rules. If there aren't plans for a massive overhaul down the line somewhere that allows for new mechanics and new ideas in the DBD formula, then they need to find a way to spice things up.
Comments
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Actually new killers is what the kept the game is alive believe it or not. Ever wondered why this game somehow lived despite being in a God awful state ages ago? That's how. I think you're just bored at the game, It's been five years after all. Five years is a long time for a game like DBD so if the game suddenly tanked in player base they pretty much got their money's worth off this game.
By the way I'm just being logical about this, I want an Operation Health for the game as well but the playerbase would probably decline by then lol.
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That's just it though, new content will always bring players back, but it's not enough to keep them playing. Sure DBD has managed to hold on to its loyal players, but it hasn't been able to build onto that base either.
Like I said, the game isn't dying. There's never been a mass exodus of players, but there hasn't been exponential growth either, and a big part of that has to do with lack of competition. There are quite a few asymmetrical games on the horizon, and if just one of those games can manage to pull away any of DBD's player base, then that competition will only yield good things for the future of dead by daylight. Games need more than new content to keep it alive, there needs to be innovation too.
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I'm convinced DBD is a revolving door of players.
Most people who have been playing for years are in the vast vast minority. I'd wager most of the current playerbase (say, 60%) joined AFTER Trickster released.
But that's just speculation.
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I'm a firm believer in that as well. Most people that stream this game for a living do so only because they're getting paid. That's not to put DBD down, it's just a simple fact that playing a game with only one mode for multiple hours day in and day out would drive anyone nuts. If it wasn't for the money, there wouldn't be an audience to reach out to.
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I mean you can rant about this all day long but all I'm saying is the game lasted for five years doing this, the facts are there. They're clearly doing something wrong and the rest that came beforehand died in a ditch. If they ever have to implement something to keep players in the game or try to increase it it would be after they officially stop supplying the game with licensed killers. Makes no sense to stop doing this currently.
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To be honest, whilst I know that not everyone who works at BHVR works on DBD, they should have enough people to make better patches.
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Maybe most of their team is working on their crappy MMR system which took two years to calculate kills and escape lol.
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Perhaps.
Whoever is in the art department (as well as the sound department) needs a raise. They are doing the Lord's work and have never messed up imo <3
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Don’t forget music. Dbds Art and music department are ######### phenomenal
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I disagree. Maybe it's just my area but there has been a significant decrease in players, both survivor and killer. I mostly see the same people every time I play which was not the case before the RE chapter.
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That may be an mmr thing. I play around 2 years now and have almost never seen a player twice this time.
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If done right, they can keep players and bring in new ones with Operational Health if they manage their resources properly. Rather than 4 new killers a year, they can scale it back to two if they can get some big name licenses such as the Xenomorph from Aliens and Jason (I know legal issues, this is just an example) while also creating a separate group of dedicated developers who focus on the health of the game, though they would probably just have to write the code from the ground up with how bad it currently is.
The question is will the corporate suits ever allow for such a thing to happen?
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I play several hours per day, and I rarely have the same players in my lobbies.
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The thing is yes it is dying but very slowly cause instead of making meaningful changes to make the game balanced and fun for both sides they are doing the same thing that they do with the problems of their game they are replacing old with new, trying to band aid the problem and hope for the best and given how one sided it is now and there are other options coming it is probably going to start decreasing more that normal
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They got more players on steam than last year.
We don´t have console numbers afaik.
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I feel now is around the time it needs to be making changes to its core and expanding on the gameplay aspect. Effectively, redesign the game in terms of challenges, objectives, the state of the trials, map-layouts and some new objectives for both sides.
Completely agree that this game is not dying, but there is a growing sense that the formula is becoming stale, and the game may face some huge problems moving forwards if it refuses to change, especially now more companies enter the asymmetrical realms and have time to expand and develop.
Obviously, the changes can't be drastic, and recent holiday additions they made like the pumpkins (which have huge potential to come back as something else), Snowmen (great to see a new idea, even if sided towards survivors than killers, but still nice to develop on), and that rebuilding totems and boons (again, alterations needed, but applaud the idea of something different) have shown that smaller changes are possible to be made fairly easily, so larger ones can be developed over time.
If the team go forwards with new ideas and changes, whether good or not so good, it'll be exciting to see the changes and will bring people in to see how it works. Make people come back for significant tweaks, objectives or changes, as well as the new chapters. It's worth the risk.
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They will not change much.
They try with EPIC or the sales to get new players.
Big licenses also do their part.
What they will have to really address big is the new player experience. Perk grind and mmr screws new players as you can see in a lot of threads. And that are only the ones who post here.
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I've also read a fair bit about how some who have played this in the long-term worry about changes being made solely for newer players and making it harder for long-term players, as evidenced in games at high mmr, so I do definitely agree it needs to be more accessable, but a focus on new players over existing would have detractors. It needs to retain as well as bring in.
As for change to the core gameplay, I still feel there needs to be shake-ups in this area. As more competition learns of what works and what doesn't in this genre and DBD decides to cling on to what it knows, people will ultimately tire of it, and I don't just mean players but developers too. If there is no advancement, some may look to other projects out of stagnation, so keeping them interested is also as important. Maybe that's why the Halloween and Christmas celebrations were more favourably received, because of this new additions.
Maybe it's an idealised view, but when a creative job just feels like a business after some time, the heart goes out of it. Besides, PTB can be used to trial out new ideas, so if a new objective is received favourably then great, and if not at least they tried.
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I think the changes they try to do are done with the new killers and survs and their new perks.
The last killers had some better ones. I think they try to steer in another direction with this and also incentivise buying the new stuff for the perks.
The won´t change much of the old ones - even if these should be reduced or something.
We will see - maybe they surprise us with the Ring chapter. Not sure but i hope so.
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The game will slowly die because of cheaters mostly, unfortunatly this game is made by one of the worst comanies ever, bhvr.
They just care about money, selling skins etc, they cant care less about real problems (cheaters, game bugs, balancing).
Just consider that many KNOWN bugs were fixed after 2 years. (YES, T W O YEARS).
So yeah, there isnt much to do.
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I believe that recoding the game may sort out a lot of problems
But then it's up to SBMMR... and we all know what that means
The Devs do have a group of people that are on the balance team... but updating the game every month and a half doesn't bode well
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I agree. There was a lot of positive feedback from the pumpkins and the snowmen because it was something different, and something different is what players have been asking for. The state of the game has grown very stale, and BHVR needs to not only implement new ideas, but they seriously need to focus on the health of their game.
For example, cheating and hacking has run rampant, and it's absolutely ridiculous how easy it has become to hack this game. Hackers shouldn't be able to take the game hostage, but they do. BHVR needs to take 6 months off from releasing content and fix their game, and maybe while they're at it, start planning some new ideas to help shake things up.
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