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Thoughts of a Bad Player
I’ll give a chronology of my experience on DBD.
When I first started playing the game, I was totally overwhelmed and did not really have a clue what I was supposed to do - my inclination was to look for a generator and start working on it - skill checks were hit or miss at first but the sounds and fear of the killer were what made me miss skill checks the most, drawing the killer often. When faced with killer, I would be hit or downed in seconds. Killers are faster, have powers and often tunnelled me and camped me to death. It was honestly unfun and just horrible.
Killer is the power role and that’s the challenge, but rising to that challenge as a solo is honestly not easy or enjoyable. It took me hundreds of matches to get a feel of the different components of the game - work on gens, but know when to hide or run if killer may be approaching; when to go for unhooks and when to heal. Even the concept of trying to unhook yourself being only 4% was something I didn’t realise until a good few deaths and I got to know it is better to wait. All the different killers and powers and their perks being different just adds to the confusion for new and solo players.
After being destroyed and utterly stomped by killers (including slugged, hit on hook, face camping and tunnelling) it either makes you stop the game or find solace in other ways. This is why I think so many survivors who by the time they improve, have little love for killers and can create toxicity. Most solo and baby survivors experiencing toxicity first from killers - they are not starting a new game with the intent to be toxic, but they get stomped on.
For me, playing on console meant I could never chat or see end game conversations - let alone comms, but I sometimes had the odd kind player - good or bad, their acts of kindness (even coming to unhook or heal) would make me feel a sense of camaraderie. I’ve tried to make in-game friends with such people and we’d play partial SWFs - not comms, just people who are online at the same time and have the patience with each other to not give up and actually go for unhooks. This means by nature, we’d develop an altruistic tendency (and I know that isn’t the most efficient etc, but it’s infinitely better than someone who you don’t know at all leaving you hanging).
After a while, this would enable us to get to grips with each others play styles and perks preferences and we’d make some improvements individually and collectively.
Then I see a lot of killers on forums say that the game is survivor-sided and SWFs are toxic etc and survivors saying the same about killers.
I get the killer should have the power role, but I think many people forget just how uncompromising and almost impossible it is for new survivors to get into this game - their experience is getting destroyed which fosters bitterness and anger.
When I see people say stuff like the game is survivor sided it is truly shocking. Survivors have a ridiculously low margin of error and even at 4-5 gens done, mistakes can create snowballs. With soloQ, that’s game over.
By having a buff to soloQ, it will create more balance and less stomping of randoms. This in turn will probably (hopefully..) mean more of a natural way to practice and learn the do’s and dont’s in the game.
I’ve seen those God players - killer and survivor on YouTube etc and they make the game seem easy - it is not. But it also creates this us v them mentality.
Half of my friends list by the way, were killers who killed me in soloQ games lol but they were not toxic and or showed some form of kindness (no I don’t mean hatch, sometimes they would let me get practice in stuff like chases or let me finish a challenge before killing me).
Anyway sorry for the long post - it’s my first one so go easy on me.
Comments
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Just out of curiosity and since i don't see it mentioned anywhere in your text, have you ever played killer and if yes, for more than a few matches?
Post edited by Rizzo on0 -
I mean before 6.1.0 the game was flat out survivor sided. Yes, the game does favor killers in the beginning, it's not hard to just m1 people at the start. The game can become flat out healthier with the action icons over a long period of time for sure. Now it is killer sided when we talk about solo queue with the current killer meta which is pretty low skill. But in general both sides can snowball very hard. A minute long chase can be gg for the killer and getting downs every 30 seconds can be gg for the survivors.
Keep in mind there was a 53% kill rate before 6.1.0 and considering how killer sided the game is at low mmr, that number is just absurd and that is what justified people saying the game was survivor sided. You never ever can talk about balance when referring to new players.
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Ehm this thread has been double posted (i commented in the other one and wondered in this one where my comment went), could the mods maybe merge them and delete this comment here then?
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Game was survivor sided but is now quite killer sided with Eruption in particular carrying a lot of killers. But a skilled SWF team will roll over most killers playing in public lobbies, with solo survivor being the weakest.
Killer was a pretty miserable experience a year or so back and queues for survivor were painfully long as very few people wanted to suffer playing killer. The conduct of some survivors doesn't do the community any favours either, as behaving like toxic children who watch too many try-hard 'toxic' survivor compilations creates bitter killers with a grudge.
Killer is still by far the most stressful role in my opinion, as you get no down time since every second counts and you're on your own as far as getting a good result or failing. So I do understand why some go into matches starting at 110% aggression and never stop.
I do think a lot more people playing killer could learn to chill a bit when they realise the survivors they are going against are not very experienced. It would create a lot healthier environment that is for sure
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Yes, I think as I grew (or continue to grow rather) in the game, I came across - and also seen videos of some pretty exceptionally talented survivors that simultaneously made me in awe as well as appreciate how difficult it can be for killers facing a group of such players.
I find it a bit of a shame that such a good game can be undermined by how the experience can differ for people at the different stages of their development and skill/matching.
Having browsed the forums, there are a lot of points of view from killer and survivor - both of which I can’t help agreeing with. It seems very difficult to balance without making it difficult for one side at some level of the game.
I wonder if matchmaking could pick up info such as how many gens a survivor had completed (I’m willing to bet that new players won’t even survive long enough to have completed a Gen and feel the satisfaction of completing an objective) or how many times/how long they’ve been ‘in chase’. This could indicate the true level of of someone - perhaps such low level players could be paired with a similar level of killer (how many hits/downs/chases/kills) etc?
I’m sure this is gonna present it’s own flaws though lol hard to see a solution 😭
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Ah sorry! My first time posting so may have accidentally done something stupid :(
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Ah sorry! My first time posting so may have accidentally done something stupid :(
To answer your question, I very rarely play killer - I happen to be REALLY bad at first person view and find it difficult to.. kill people lol (though have probably killed more teammates than I have as a killer sadly..)
I tend to play killer on some custom matches where friends all let each other try out powers and Moris etc)
I do have a healthy respect for killers in general as a lot of my friends are either killer mains or play both sides equally.
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Thank you!
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One of the things mentioned in the OP that I always notice is very true is the factor of margin for error. Whilst I don't pay him too much attention, I did see a video once by Otz where he stated that things can turn on a dime due to margin of error i.e. Survivors have a small room for error whereas a killer can have an absolutely terrible match for the most part, but pull it back really quickly in the end game. Whereas survivors can do really well wall match, get the gens done and get the doors powered only to all be hooked and sacrificed in the end game. I don't really have a major point with this, it's just an observation I've noticed a lot recently and it ties in well with the OP lol.
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Survivor role has 39% winrate. This is the only game I know where a role is that weak and yet people still pretend it's too strong.
This game is very clearly killer-sided to anybody who has placed both roles. If the killer wants to win, they'll win, especially at low MMR, the result of a match depends more on the killer's mercy and whether they decide to tunnel/camp rather than the skill of the players in the match.
That doesn't mean killers win all their games, because ultimately MMR tries to balance the game and matches them against sweaty SWFs who have 1000+ hours more than them. As a result everyone gets a frustrating experience and thinks the other side is too strong.
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"survivors experiencing toxicity first from killers"
If you think Im (or any killer for that matter) being toxic for "camping" and "tunneling" aka playing to win, then sorry, but you'd be mistaken.
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Hi, I think I may not have articulated myself well, I’m aware of toxicity on both sides. My point was that a survivor starting the game, is unlikely to go into it thinking they want to be toxic (I’m guessing there are those who may exist?) but the vast majority of their first experiences are getting face camped, tunnelled because they’re easy to spot as noobs and quite often hit on hook, nodded at when downed and so on. I’m not saying that tunnelling or camping or playing to win itself is toxic - but think of the effect it has on new players who are powerless to counter play or lack understanding of what’s going on. So when their initial experiences are such, when and if they do get better, they may feel inclined to (and I don’t think it’s right) show toxicity as retribution. Yes, I’m aware that killers may also face that and it’s an endless chain of anger but I’d imagine that when starting the game, killers are able to kill more than a survivor is able to escape. But what do solo survivors have as experience of their gameplay? Usually, attacked and downed within seconds and left hanging and then die. Killers can use their power and even if they miss, one of the thrills is the chase I’d imagine.
In any case, my point is not that all killers are toxic - I’m saying from my own perspective as a survivor, that my experience as a noob was not even getting a chance to play a match long enough to get to grips with it and improve consistently without hundreds of hours and watching other people play (and even then needing to have the skill to perform similar feats)
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Thanks for your comments guys. I think DBD is quite a unique game. I can’t really think of any equivalents myself (sure there must be some out there). It doesn’t appear to be like a traditional pvp where the (potentially) equal abilities and weakness for both sides are pitted against each other on a map that is neutral for both; power/weapon choices, skill, fluency, timing and sometimes RNG being the deciding factors. I don’t play FPS games but they’re ultimately kill or get killed. Beat em up games like street fighter is an arena where it’s the skills and abilities of one type of fighter against another.
DBD is one person who is faster, with powers and varying strategies - against 4 slower, weaker characters who have to try to escape said killer with environment and perks to offset either how many times they/teammates go down/get killed or to work on objectives to get out quicker.
If this was a one player game, would it be about a survivor evading the tough boss and getting out, or would be about a killer hulk-smashing the pesky enemies?
Who is the game mainly aimed at? What is the ‘main’ drive - a powerful character killing weaker ones before they get gens done and escape, or weaker characters not dying and getting objectives done and escaping?
Should it be more natural for a killer to kill most of the times and survivors play the numbers game and count their lucky stars if one or two get out? Or should it be more natural for survivors to escape and killers feel content if they get one or two kills before this happens?
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It's the way hookstates and downs work. Individually, Survivors don't have a huge amount of room for error--make one too many mistakes in succession, you're out. And if all of those errors compound at once, then the snowball starts. And it doesn't matter how much of the match has gone, unless people are willing to just leave someone to die and scarper--altruism once the gates are powered can be one of the weirdest swings in the game. Plus, if the errors happen towards the end, the map is likely to be resource-low and that's a short snowball.
On the flip side, the Killer can make one error in decision making (overcommitting to the wrong chase), and that's the game lost in a single action. It doesn't have to compound. Which really exacerbates the general stress of playing Killer from never having a breather in the match.
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