http://dbd.game/killswitch
You guys want to know why the community is the way it is?
In the past, I assumed the reason why toxicity is so common is because this game attracts the "terminally online" crowd, but now I'm starting to think it's because this game gives you so many tools to screw with the other side.
- Quad meta SWF's playing in the most optimal(boring) way possible.
- Strong Killers with really strong add-ons that can abused for easy wins.
- Playing in ways that are unfun for the other side are encouraged, and "playing nice" is often heavily punished.
The way the game is set up is to make you into a meta slave, and before you say "I only play curve Billy and go for 12 hooks, you just need to stop tryharding." No one is a perfectly stoic machine who can just ignore losing hard and getting it rubbed in your face, and everyone will get upset at this game given enough time.
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I always equated it with people getting frustrated at the game and building a vendetta against their opponents. There's a lot of extremely unfun things to go against that (probably) aren't done for the sake of being nasty, but rather efficiency and maximum success chance - but after a slew of awful games, that's not a distinction most people care much about anymore, and they assume the worst.
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Great Sid Meier quote:
Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game,” and therefore, “one of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves.” If players find a way to exploit a game, by optimizing and repeating a mundane task to get resources or defeat enemies, they will do that.
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IMO The community is the way it is because often times they don’t have an ounce of empathy for the other side.
I have been on both ends and I am also at fault sometimes for saying stuff that I regret later, especially when the match was frustrating as hell. In the end there are things that are more important than “winning” like actually having a fun match.
I played Clown all night yesterday and guess what? I got really unlucky with. the maps I got, but still I decided to make it more fun for me and for survivors. So I won some and lost some… I had more fun than if I had gone in thinking I would win every match.
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I think there's something inherently 'othering' about an asymmetrical PVP game.
You don't see the same sort of toxicity in 'symmetrical' PVP games, because it's overtly obvious that your opponent is in the same boat as you, and a loss is merely a misplay or due to a skill imbalance. You understand that one side has to win and one side has to lose, and so a 50% win rate is acceptable and expected.
'Unsportsmanlike' tactics in symmetrical games are obvious because they apply to you just as much as they apply to your opponent, so it's much easier to agree on things like 'spawn camping', 'sniping', etc.
With an asymmetrical game, it opens up the potential for a myriad of excuses.
"The other side didn't play fair because they can do things I can't."
"The other side has the ability to prevent me from doing things, in a way I can't do to them."
"The other side has it easier than my side because of x!"
What's more, is that 'survivor mains' don't seem to be able to accept escaping 50% of the time as fair, while 'killer mains' don't seem to be able to accept a 50% kill rate as fair.
The best thing we can all do is, when we start to feel aggravated by losing, is to play the other side for a bit, and picture yourself in your opponents shoes. And this is why everyone should endeavour to play both roles, regularly, and to not become a 'survivor/killer main'.
Once you become familiar with and understand all the gripes of each side, you learn that most of the battle is against RNG. Matchmaking and map balance are your main enemies, and some battles are going to be tougher than others.
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I agree with all of these comments. The game design doesn't provide a lot of barriers to discourage bad sportsmanship or a lot of rewards for good sportsmanship. The thing I wish most is that it had always been designed so that five people queue up to play and the killer is selected at random.
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I agree with a lot of these comments, it also doesn't help that any game that has even the faintest whiff of competitive play it'll attract people who like to find the quickest way to "win".
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I mainly play survivor and I still think survivors are op
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Very prescient quote. And it's further compounded in DbD by the fact that loadouts swing the balance of power in a match by a tremendous amount. Simply trying harder than the other side is often enough to win handily, and there's really no mechanism with matchmaking to account for that.
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Z n
Been playing for 6 months and it blew my mind how toxic the community was against one another... & even more on how the blame was extremely biased and inaccurately placed, time after time.
1st majority lesson I learned... PLAY BOTH SIDES! Its a MUST if wanting to gain adequately skillful advantage on opponent's.
Love that you posted this!
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