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The DbD Playerbase Seems To Be Shrinking At An Alarming Rate...I Wonder Why.
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License characters will always bring in more players. I'm an idiot and I know this. Why come and play as a wholly original character when I could come in and play as my favorite horror movie monster/ slasher!? Dunno about you but if I never heard of DBD but loved horror movies, I would be more excited for the prospect of playing as Bubba, Myers, Freddy, Ghostface, Pinhead, Samara, Demo (R.I.P) and the like over, say, The Doctor. Come on, think critically here.
Exactly. It could have shot the numbers up ten fold and there still would be a big drop off. DBD is late into it's lifespan and isn't exactly welcoming to new players. This will be a trend come second half of the year as well. Just watch.
Jesus Christ, look at last year this time and compare. It's ALMOST identical. As I said above,come the anniversary chapter, the player count will undoubtedly skyrocket then come back down over the months. That's the only trend worth noticing.
The player counts are fine. There's no real alarming drop in players. If anything, it's consistent. You're just cherry picking steamcharts to fit your narrative instead of looking at everything as a whole.
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Totally dying. Dead any second now.
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In my experience when we didn't go hard on gens at the beginning the game quickly snowballed into the killers favor. After the 2-3 gens the game usually slows down, sometimes substantially.
I have no idea why the start of the match is like that but it seems like the best case scenario for getting an escape or longer game is to pump out those 2-3 gens as fast as possible.
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That's because while someone is on hook and others are chasing, there is only 1 people on generators as opposed to 3 on start.
And you can't ignore all the perks that rewards WINNING too, those things makes generators little harder to do once killer manage to hook someone.
Basically game is extremely swingy, if one side starts winning they win more.
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Like the slow boil of climate change. Mid 2021 was peak DbD. Looks like downward slope from here.
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I have NOT played Dead by daylight since November of last year. I come by to see if they do anything different with the game. But My reasons are as FOLLOWS:
1 ) Penalties for people that lose connection to the server.
- - I played this game on business trips. Not always does the hotel Wifi stay connected. I am told not to play the game if I don't have a solid Connection. So i don't play when I am away on business. Otherwise I use to play it all the time and try and buy DLC so I wasn't bored while having to wait for my next meeting.
- - When playing on a stable, wired, home connection. hackers do not always mean I will keep a solid connection. SO it is too high of a risk now to play this game.
- - I made the suggestion for Casual matches and competitive match modes. Where competitive has penalties and Casual does not.
2 ) Hatch changes. Last chance escape methods were REMOVED from the game.
3 ) locator perks for the side of the killer needing to be REMOVED.
4 ) Hit registration - I was going to say this, but I found out it is NOT BHVR's fault. There is an ongoing issue across all games, which is caused by VPN users.
5 ) Slugging and face camping NOT addressed.
6 ) I can't get new players into the game because the GRIND that they require in order to gain perks and level perks up.
7 ) Item nerfs.
8 ) One-sided metas exist.
9 ) too bright and "cheery" now. This game use to be really scary. It use to be DARK. I realize that people had darkness adjustments in monitors. but to solve this, horror games use "fog of war" to limit rendering distance. In order to keep players from taking advantage of this.
10) perks for killers that helped them Close gaps and end chases were NERFED substantially. I do feel that killers deserve to WIN chases easier in some aspects.
11 ) excessive reworks of Killers that perhaps were not really needed.
I did try the match maker that was put in. I didn't have issues with it myself.
I think that just goes to show why there is a substantial amount of Q time for survivors right now. I myself don't have a desire to return to the game and stream it. That is why I do NOT play Dead by daylight anymore, and that is at 1,889 HOURS played and a few DLC's purchased. If something Changes. I will be back to play killer and survivor 8-10 hours per day again like I use to. If not, I am playing other game titles until that day.
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- Thing is - those penalties have to exist. Someone playing with a bad connection might need a time out to fix their stuff, otherwise it's making the game miserable for 4 other people. Casual/Ranked never really works outside of massive games and usually just causes issues. DbD has long queue times for some roles at certain times of day as is.
- Hatch is fine as is. It's still a perfect last chance escape method. Keys were changed, and needed to be.
- Why? Of all the stuff to complain about, I don't get info perks.
- What? How is it caused by VPN users?
- Face camping is indeed an issue, but a nearly impossible one to solve without breaking the game completely. Slugging is not an issue unless the killer is just leaving people to bleed out, out of spite. Certain killers (Twins) are almost entirely built around slugging.
- Yes, absolutely.
- Like...?
- Like...?
- This game is already absurdly dark on some maps.
- There aren't many (any?) gap closer perks as far as I know. I agree that some killers (Onryo, Pig, probably a few others) need substantial changes to their basekits to help them deal with loops.
- I disagree completely. Wraith rework was perfect (didn't need a nerf imho). Plague rework was even more perfect. Pig needs more help, as does Myers (as well as a few addons toned down) and Twins.
Right now, bizarrely, my queue times are consistently longer on killer outside of primetime.
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I am on my 4th break since 2016 and I am sitting at 2300 hours. Stretch res, boons, and cheaters were my motivation for stopping this time. I will likely return eventually since I invested so much cash, but I find myself choosing to do other things when I have the opportunity to play. The game is designed to frustrate and there are enough other frustrating things going on right now. I need joy in my life.
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Besides chapters and boons a bit ago there is fundamentally nothing new added to the game
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The mistake many people do is complete the outer gens first. Since they spawn next to them and the killer is less likely to interrupt their progress.
BUT doing so, could easily lead to a 3 gen. Which makes the game much easier for the killer. Since the last gens are all close together.
The best way to start the game is complete the center gens first. Even if that means, that the killer gets 1-2 hooks before the first gen is completed.
For new players I recommend to use Deja Vu for a couple of matches, to get a feeling of the gen spawns.
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I would disagree. I've played killer since 2017. I would place myself in the top 20% or higher as skill level. I main Trapper, so it's not like I use a powerful killer. Since MMR, every match is balls-to-the-wall. One mistake and I'm done.
See, this system is easier to snurf than the last system. In the last system, you had to pretty much afk and avoid points. What I started seeing in the MMR system was either survivors who got the gates opened and refused to leave, tgus lowering their MMR, or killers who hooked people twice and then went afk.
Kills don't equal skills. I can 4k by being afk for half a match with Twins (Run the right perk combos on the right map and just hook each once). That's not skill. The whole system is now out of whack.
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Yeeeeaaaaahhh noooooooooooooooooo
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i mean, you're free to have whatever opinion on MMR you want, but the fact that ever since they released the MMR system DbD has seen nothing but red numbers (in terms of playerbase) does say otherwise.
its definitely not just MMR (its a combination of multiple things), but the fact that the ever lasting decline of this playerbase started exactly when they introduced MMR and has not recovered yet does suggest it plays a rather big role in it.
i can tell you one thing for sure:
the reason i quit this game is the MMR system. and the following patches and problems have made very sure that i stayed away from it.
and i will not be returning, unless they either admit defeat and permanently disable the MMR system again, or at the very least give me the option to opt out of it (e.g. a Casual / Competetive mode).
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Who knows?
Always remember the golden rule - correlation does not equal causation.
I do think that SBMM might have something to do with it, but I think that it's more SBMM not working properly than SBMM as a whole.
That said, this also coincided with the end of the anniversary event, which is where the enormous spike happened. Some falloff was anticipated.
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Why would a new player stick to this game?
You buy DBD, if you want to play survivor you'll see there's hundreds of fun perks you want to unlock but with an average of 15k-20k BP per match it's just not something amazing to see. Add a few matches with randoms that don't help or killers that camp, and you got bored of the game already.
As a killer, you will get matched with gold/iri ranks in your first matches because that's just how the matchmaking is working right now. As soon as a survivor realizes you're new to the game you won't have a good time and they'll abuse that. You'll spend your first games with 0k and being bullied. What motivates you to keep trying?
Licenses might be good eyecandy for those looking at the steam shop, and it might even make people buy the game. But once they see past the good visuals DBD offers you understand why this game is losing players.
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I'm 700 posts too late but congrats on your whopping 10K posts.
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Yeah, the game went bad the moment people were not being carried by bad matchmaking anymore. Was soo much easier when you just could stomp noob solo survivors.
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I introduced a friend to the game recently and their comments echo some of what has been said - bloodweb is too grindy, with too many perks and useless items (what's even the point of keys now, seriously? It's a one in a hundred chance to actually use one which makes them and therefore all the key add-ons a waste of points but you often can't avoid buying them) and the second major flaw is killers camping. If you're new as survivor your teammates are probably quite new too - you'll likely get downed quickly and if the killer camps, without experienced teammates you might be stuck on that hook until you die. You've maybe had a minute of actual game - why would you keep playing that?
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Thank you!
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Well if hate these forums so much why even be here?
I for example am exactly here for the drama and the salt because the league of legends forum got closed and I could no longer snicker about people making an ass of themselves for appealing to obviously deserved bans.
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I just noticed looking at the numbers is that the company is really pulling out all the stops to try to get players back for this but the numbers are still in the red.
We have a free week of play, A new licensed chapter, A sale on effectively everything but the newest chapter, and yet the numbers still are going down.
I am starting to get the feeling the developers are getting worried by the player count numbers.
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Massive balancing issues. Stale meta perks on both sides. SWF. Solo Q is garbage thanks to MMR. Also being a new survivor is just complete cancer. Booting up the game for the first time going against a ruin/undying/pain resonance/dms/noed that also tunnel/camps is just completely gives new survivors a hopeless feeling. Not to mention, good survivor perks are locked behind a paywall with a hefty grind to get. I've tried to get about 8 friends in the past year to play this game with me and they all quit after a couple days and never touched it again. I myself have like 2.5k hours and didn't have to deal with these sweaty ass builds from the get go. Meanwhile killers usually have a wonderful expience AT FIRST and have access to some pretty useful crutch perks like noed without having to grind an insane amount to get it. Eventually they get to higher MMR and have to deal with SWFs which can be discouraging.
Honestly, I must be a masochist because I play solo and every night it is incredibly infuriating. I get paired with 20hr survivors who barely know how to play the game going against the sweatiest meta killer builds. I don't blame the killers for running the builds bc they may be going against a coordinated SWF and need to be prepared, but those builds just demolish and steamroll solo q teams. Every night I get multiple games of 3k+ hour killers with 3 survivors who have less than 50 hours and it's just an utter L. I still have to take week long breaks every now and then because honestly this game is just not fun. I feel like I'm forced to run meta perks like DS, DH and BT along with a flashlight every single game just to get 2 gens done by myself and get the hatch after the killer kills the the other 3. That's after I've been flashlight saving them all game, taking chase and getting hook saves.
However, I'm sure killers go through similar situations with SWF crews where there's just literally nothing you can do even if you're playing really well.
This game is just so based around meta, it's no longer fun.
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Hahaha ha good one
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I stopped playing as it felt as killer that the game is very survivor sided and the main reason you have a chance as killer is RNG or the survivors are just not very experienced so you can take advantage of that. As survivor I got sick to death of camping and tunnelling and very unfun killers like Trickster or Pinhead, along with the endless Blights as well.
The excessive number of perks in the game that keeps on increasing makes it very overwhelming for new players and even at 2.5k hours I find it a lot to keep track of.
The toxicity of the community, particularly survivors, was really the final straw for me. I am a survivor main but I liked to play some killer too, however the ######### killers have to put up with from survivors is unbelievable and makes it hard to want to subject yourself to that by choice.
I may return as I have quit for nearly a year in the past but at this point I cant bring myself to play DBD, new chapter or BP events are not even enough to make me want to.
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Matchmaking is a big factor imo
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I haven't noticed a big difference in games since MMR was introduced. I still get paired with suspect survivors when I play solo and still go against good teams when I play killer.
Same as it ever was.
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a 50% drop in steam players in half a year is an alarming shrinking rate. "We had less players last year" Well, not really, because I am looking at the steam charts and it shows 34,217 average in the past 30 days. In March 2021 the average was....34,160. At this rate we will end March 2022 with less players than March 2021. If the excuse is the big RE patch, then my question becomes: "Why does this game have a zero percent retention rate? What is it about this game that has caused every new player to drop it right after trying it?"
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I’ve been playing about 7/8 months after watching it on YouTube for years. This isn’t my “main game” so I don’t dedicate a lot of time to it. The new player grind is ridiculous. Hardly rewards bloodpoints in relation to how much I have to spend. The bloodwebs are terrible, even though I’ve unlocked “meta” perks through levelling up other characters, I don’t find them in other characters bloodwebs till after 50. So I’m forced to play lesser perks against things like noed, camping/ tunnelling killers. It’s not fun.
My first handful of games were all facing camping killers with noed as killers seem to unlock that on their blood web immediately. Not a great first impression of the game and I’m not sure how many bother you stick around after that.
If a game can’t keep hold of new players or entice them in, it’s not going to survive. The more chapters they add (all be it a good thing), increases the grind for new players even more. Which is already an uphill struggle.
MMR, whilst better for newer players, means I’m only seeing the same handful of killers over and over again. There’s no variation, again not fun. I also only play solo survivor which is just torture 9 times out of 10.
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Not at all what we are talking about here. We are talking about 50 percent of your matches being sweat fests bs every match. We are talking about good players, but not focused on meta builds vs every group being a meta group playing like they are paid to.
Same for survivor side.
Nice try though.
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So, you just seperate a think in the discussion which you cannot seperate in the game. Yes, that makes sense.
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Yea I can't think of anything for the past two years that would have encouraged people to stay at home and play more video games artificially bumping growth, absolutely nothing at all, the game is just collapsing around us.
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Agreed. I either have a failing memory, or that I'm being bleed out, tunneled, or camped more often with MMR than before MMR, even if I am escaping more often. I don't care if I die, I care that I'm being allowed to play the game I paid for.
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New games of the genre will come out soon.
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