Why Do You Play Dead By Daylight?

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StarLost
StarLost Member Posts: 8,077
edited January 2023 in General Discussions

No, this isn't a 'if you don't like it git out' thread (although, yeah, the Eruption threads are getting up my snout right now).

I'm curious why you - be it a new or a veteran player, are still playing this game?

For me:

  • It's incredibly effective at waking me up in the morning. This game makes me feel...a lot of things, but 'sleepy' isn't one of them. Mrs. Lost refers to my early morning DbD as my 'daily rage coffee'. Which is apt.
  • A good match of DbD is exhilarating, win or lose.
  • The hope that one day they'll give me my giant spoopy spider killer and I can be happy forever.
  • Right now, I'm trying to really get better at survivor, and while some of the killers have been grating my damn cheese as of late, I am enjoying the feeling of improvement.
  • Sometimes, this game has wonderful, memorable little narratives that emerge in games.
  • For example, my last match of the night had a Clown (on Haddonfield) who'd evidently just discovered that...thing that Clown can do that might be an exploit, but it allows them to completely negate Endurance. He tunneled out the Sheva immediately, and with us trying to save her had literally all of us on the ground, no gens done when he did his final hook. David was doing an adept, and so picked himself up - then I picked up the Lisa, who blinded him with a cracker and we all got away. Somehow - we all looped like machines, used every pallet and every vault we had, and we were at 0 gens with 2 of us still alive. I ended up sacrificing myself to let David get his Adept, and postgame was actually really wholesome. A bit of a pisser that Sheva had brought streamers, but eh. Still a game that I'll always remember when I think of DbD.
Post edited by StarLost on

Comments

  • Mister_xD
    Mister_xD Member Posts: 7,669
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    Currently only because I have a friend who keeps begging me to SWF with his group. That said, the last time I had DbD open was October 28th, because he too is getting rather frustrated with the game.

    When I started I got hooked (pun intended), because I genuinely enjoyed the game. It was very unique and I too felt this continuous sense of improvement that kept me playing more and more. However, after reaching a certain skill level and realizing that your skill really doesn't matter a whole lot in the face of power that RNG holds in this game, the reason I still played changed to FOMO (fear of missing out) and sunken cost fallacy - a strong curse that kept me playing, despite not enjoying the game a whole lot anymore, for a long time.

    Then BHVR decided an MMR system was a good idea, to this day the single worst decision ever made in this game, and I finally managed to break free. Only took me around 5000 hours to do so.

    Right now Events sometimes bring me back, I did play quite a bit during 6th Anniversary and a bit throughout Halloween, but that's about it.

  • StarLost
    StarLost Member Posts: 8,077
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    Interesting. I think MMR was a bit rough on veterans, but a lot better for everyone else.

    I mean...I started under ranks, and that first week after the monthly reset was awful. Plus...holy crap the smurfing.

  • Sava18
    Sava18 Member Posts: 2,426
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    Eh, I am kinda board with dbd right now. Blight is the only thing keeping me playing.

  • Huge_Bush
    Huge_Bush Member Posts: 5,073
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    Cause there is no other game like it. I am burned out though. I switched to killer since I got tired of playing survivor for over 4k hours and now I'm getting tired of playing killer. It just feels tedious having to run around the same thing 3 times until the entity blocker kicks in, only to be led to another loop and to the shack. I only like m1 killers so there isn't much I can do.

    Good thing though, I snagged Witcher 3 on steam for 10 bucks, so I'll be taking a nice break!

  • TragicSolitude
    TragicSolitude Member, Alpha Surveyor Posts: 6,716
    edited January 2023
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    Crossplay means my friend and I can play together, one of us on the PS4 and one of us on the Switch. It's the best game we have for playing together; multiplayer games that two people can play on one system aren't really a thing anymore, everyone is expected to have their own system and play over the internet, and for console that requires separate online subscriptions as well. Playing DbD, we joke around and high-five after doing something incredibly ridiculous, it can be a good time. Occasionally. Possibly. Sometimes.

  • Mister_xD
    Mister_xD Member Posts: 7,669
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    My experience with this game has never been worse than when MMR freshly released. DbD is simply not a competetively viable game and them putting a competetive matchmaking system into it is a decision I to this day struggle to understand (and BHVR apparently too, because they have been nerfing this system so hard that, by now, it's about as accurate as the old Ranks were).

    But at that point the damage was already done.

    They fixed the MMR issue, sure - but that was just the thing that tipped me over the edge. I have a long list of things that frustrate me with this game, none big enough to quit the game over, yet each being just one more good reason to stay away.

  • HugTheHag
    HugTheHag Member Posts: 3,138
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    I play DBD because my friends and I enjoy it. On its own, I would have never started playing, or probably would have stopped playing within 50h.

    At first, it was the only reason. Then I got into the lore, and then I started playing killer and having fun on the game on my own ! I still prefer prefer playing on call with someone (even when playing killer), but I can have fun on my own as well. Playing silly and friendly as killer is my favourite role.

    I made several good friends by playing killer and chatting in postgame chat with the survivors. I have a lot of good memories on the game now, and a good faith in the people I run into.

  • Marik1987
    Marik1987 Member Posts: 1,700
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    I play it because I have a lot of fun. I know there are some issues, but overall I enjoy the game.

    A lot of people complain about the boring Generator, but to be honest I like even this part, because its chill. Im sitting in my chair, chat with my buddy how to sell the randoms this game 🙃 and so on. Its chill times. On killer-side the same, I count hooks, not kills (after reaching Iri 1). In my mindset, 8+ hooks is a win, 6 hooks is a tie.

  • Pulsar
    Pulsar Member Posts: 20,503
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    I play because it's one of the only games I'm good at.

    Considering how...unwell I am, it's nice to feel proficient at something.

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 4,782
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    Usually to chill at night after I've put the kids to bed

  • Bran
    Bran Member Posts: 2,087
    edited January 2023
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    I only continue to play the game, albeit very rarely, because I have some, just a small sliver of hope, it will one day become a good game. That is the only reason besides having bought the game of course and some of the dlc content since otherwise it would be a waste of time.

  • StarLost
    StarLost Member Posts: 8,077
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    MMR wasn't done for the sake of competitive play though. It was for us intermediate-ish players.

  • steezo_de
    steezo_de Member Posts: 1,097
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    I have about a half dozen friends that still actively play and they're all good. It makes the games really fun because everyone knows what to do so we can ######### around a lot. The only times I don't like playing is if we get a backfill killer that is totally new or if we get a killer that we don't feel like playing against. We'll just go next and there's no hard feelings.

  • Pepsidot
    Pepsidot Member Posts: 1,659
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    • Unique
    • Fun
    • Progression and Challenges

    More so because it's unique. No other game offers the gameplay DBD does and I very much like the gameplay. Plus, I like the community + the friends I've made along the way.

    Wish I could play more but I'm so busy at the moment...........

  • OrangeBear
    OrangeBear Member Posts: 2,383
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    I play dbd because i like horror, it's in fact what got me into horror. I was getting bored with Overwatch 1 and DBD seemed like a similar game and i really liked that killer was 1vs4, so i didn't have to rely on anyone else.

    I find it fun because i like seeing how the perks interact with stuff and i love customising killer powers with add-ons. And the basic gameplay of chasing and hooking survivors is quite satisfying.

    Seeing what new content comes out is also really exciting.

    Also, i have a few friends online that i talk to and out common interest is DBD so that keeps me invested in the game.

    Overall this game just seems like a good fit for me. I do have a lot of harsh criticisms i must admit, but, i think this game is really cool and i do appreciate that the devs released it.

  • Rulebreaker
    Rulebreaker Member Posts: 1,545
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    We play cause we still enjoy it after all this time. Ignoring the toxicity, we like the game play (when there's actual playing instead of DC camping and the like) and matches can be fun even if we lose. Just enough randomness to keep our attention while not completely shutting down being able to use skill or brains. Letting us play with friends is also a nice bonus.

  • Zeb89AceGamer
    Zeb89AceGamer Member Posts: 41
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    I stopped playing when sbmm came out, some months after i felt nostalgic and came back to play with a solution, basically i hook everyone twice to constantly face noobs and have my challenges done in no time, when i feel like playing i kill them but as soon as I get tryhards i start to go down again

  • HoodedWildKard
    HoodedWildKard Member Posts: 2,013
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    Because it's a bit different, I love the aesthetics and the lore. I get bored with the standard fps multiplayer games. Dbd has a really cool creepy vibe, unique gameplay.

    My interest is waning a little bit though, my regular swf are starting to drift away from the game. Solo q survivor is highly unpleasant to play by comparison and killer gets a little boring after a while if thats all you end up playing.

    We have to wade through so many games of tunneling, facecamping killers stomping us or sub standard killers that we run rings around. To find one actual decent close run game.

  • GentlemanFridge
    GentlemanFridge Member Posts: 5,384
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    Long and the short of it is that there's nothing quite like it.

    That, and I tend to be very loyal. Happened with Don't Starve up until 2018-ish, and now it's DbD.

    wonder if it has something to do with the setting...

  • DBD78
    DBD78 Member Posts: 3,454
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    Because I don't have a life

  • Mister_xD
    Mister_xD Member Posts: 7,669
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    I never said it was made for the sake of it, but it was a competetive matchmaking system nontheless.

    And whether it was intended or not, it made the game significantly sweatier. The whole point of it was to put players of the same skill level up against each other, so both sides would have to consistently try hard to win accross all rankings (I'm not saying it was necessarily very good at this, especially the determining skill part, but that's the core idea behind MMR systems).

    And the fact that, at higher levels of play, the game was utterly unbalanced and heavily favored one side over the other, meaning that Killers had to play significantly better than their Survivor counterparts just to stand a chance, was just the cherry on top.

    The entirety of my MMR experience from that time was just me trying to play casually and getting utterly destroyed by a group of sweatlords every single game. I am not exaggerating when I say that between the time they implemented MMR and me quitting I have not had a single enjoyable game of DbD. Why? Because I was not camping, slugging, tunneling or running the absolute best Killer with the strongest Perks and the most busted Add Ons every match. I do not like these things, but that's exactly what MMR heavily promoted.


    But forget all of this, because the fact alone that they implemented this system despite knowing how utterly imbalanced and unfair their game would become for higher skilled players should be the knockout blow here. They implemented this system and either willingly accepted that this would leave the game in a near unplayable state for many of their long time fans, or they simply didn't think this far - both equally bad.

    To me this is inexcusable. I'm glad they fixed it eventually, but they should have never implemented it the way they did in the first place.

  • Sonzaishinai
    Sonzaishinai Member Posts: 7,976
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    Cause it's a fun game. Something about the cat and mouse just always works.

    It's a great game, people just take it too seriously

  • Chordyceps
    Chordyceps Member Posts: 1,695
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    Because I like asymetrical games, and this one has an absurd amount of customization so its basically guaranteed that each match will be unique.

  • pocajohnny
    pocajohnny Member Posts: 219
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    I play it hoping that someday it will attract my friends that only play stuff like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Destiny 2 while saying they don't want to play Generator Simulator. If they can do something to the game where it attracts an even broader audience, I'd be most impressed.

  • Huge_Bush
    Huge_Bush Member Posts: 5,073
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    I can't.

    I'm bad at this game.

    Movement Killers like Blight, HillyBilly and Oni just shows all my opponents how bad I am.

  • humanbeing1704
    humanbeing1704 Member Posts: 8,761
    edited January 2023
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    At this point not many good multiplayer games on the market right now warzone is boring as crap and I’m not buying call of duty anymore Apex is lame and battlefield 2042 was garbage

  • StarLost
    StarLost Member Posts: 8,077
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    I still get a good amount of mileage from Starcraft 2 arcade maps. And Path of Exile is my definite 'podcast and chill' game.

  • Mew
    Mew Member Posts: 1,828
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    its the only thing of its kind thats alive right now, id 100% play VHS more if it was alive and on console.

    though its also partly because of the characters. Zarina and Claudette are amazing- and i cant really play as Rebecca anywhere else, lol.

  • humanbeing1704
    humanbeing1704 Member Posts: 8,761
    edited January 2023
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    Still wish I had a pc for left 4 dead 2 that game with mods will still be fun for the next 15 years

  • MaTtRoSiTy
    MaTtRoSiTy Member Posts: 1,734
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    Sunken cost fallacy 😜

    But in all seriousness... DBD was the first game I discovered by myself where I went in without friends recommendation and discovered everything myself and eventually made more friends from this game than any other game I have ever played.

    There is nothing quite like DBD and every asymmetrical imitator I have tried just isn't as good. So while I take long breaks from DBD (for my sanity) I always seem to come back

  • Veinslay
    Veinslay Member Posts: 1,959
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    Sunk cost fallacy is a big part. I've spent a ton of money on cosmetics and DLC. The grind for all the perks and everything is done but I like making slow incremental progress towards p100 on everyone I play. I sometimes SWF with a couple of friends and that's pretty fun. We aren't very good survivors and usually play against average to below average killers so the games are usually pretty close. I'm a hard killer main and now the games require so much focus that I can't play more than like an hour of killer before I go play a different game because of the stress. Killer overall is a fun gameplay loop there's just not a lot of room for error if you get matched against good opposition which is stressful. Also the more you get better and more you know about the game the worse it starts to feel to lose as killer especially when getting BMed

  • LSFkiller
    LSFkiller Applicant Posts: 16
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    Im a killer only. For me its scaring the crap out of horror fans. I know what they want and i do my best to give it. Jump scares! Tension! Chaos!

  • EntitySpawn
    EntitySpawn Member Posts: 4,233
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    Because it's fun, simple and just easy going tbh. (This is my survivor opinion as I dont really enjoy killer with how badly its balanced if I verse my skill but we wont dwell on that for this post)

    DBD is fun, regardless of what people say it is. Sure you can have bad games and even awful days on it but you can any game but DBD is simple and honestly not that skillful as survivor as all you do is run around or hold a button and that sure beats the effort other games require such as halo, overwatch etc. Especially when most games force SBMM now so they become less fun having to sweat all game every game (how killer can feel more often than not as I'm not lucky enough to get chill players at off peak hours)

    I'm also a great horror fan, while DBD isnt scary it still has the horror style and I play all games that do. Evil dead was a great game till they buffed survivors too much (may have changed now, but I could 1v1 the demon so that with little content gets boring after awhile) but I only just started play again after a month due to other games, I'll stop again when Deadspace, res 4 etc. Come out

  • Beatricks
    Beatricks Member Posts: 857
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    There is nothing quite like the feeling when a SoloQ match goes right.

    Just today, for the first time in my 2.3k hours in this game, I had a Kate waving at me not to finish repairing the gen we were working on to avoid a 3-gen, it was so refreshing to play with someone who had a working brain! And the rest of the team worked perfectly well to boot, managing health states, cleansing NOED, taking the Killer away from the gens being worked on, it was just magical.

    I just wish it didn't take 20-30 matches to get a good one, when the DC penalty was off at least we could speedrun through the garbage games, now I have to waste 2-3 hours to get a good team.

  • jamally093
    jamally093 Member Posts: 1,546
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    Two reasons

    1. Hoping the game will be as good as it was when I first started playing aka good matches

    2. The amount of money I put into the game so if I stop playing basically I just wasted a lot of money

  • Zephinism
    Zephinism Member Posts: 535
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    I used to play it because my friends played it.

    They have all pretty much stopped playing it so I've been playing it to finish the rift and not much beyond that. Kinda burnt out at the moment, playing <2 hours per day these days just for the archive challenges.

  • lemonsway
    lemonsway Member Posts: 1,169
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    I started playing DbD because of the Power Role Fantasy and they had already Myers and Ghostface in the Roster so it was a very appealling deal. Taking the mantle of famous horror icons to chase unknown players online? That's a great recipe for a game. It just sucks that a good game is held down by bad decisions from a dev team that refuses to listen.

  • SweetTerror
    SweetTerror Member Posts: 2,694
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    There's a certain magic about the game when as a survivor you're able to outsmart the killer, and as the killer you can completely decimate the team. However the biggest detriment to any multiplayer game is the community, and the community of DBD can be a toxic bunch.

    People will tell you that you're a horrible person that should end their life simply because you're playing your game the way that you want to. I'll be honest, in some matches as killer I'll intentionally avoid a "sweaty build" solely for the reason that I don't want to get crapped on within the end game chat. But nevertheless it can still happen.

    More than ever this is why I'm glad we now have the bots. When the day comes that we can equip them with perks and play against killer bots, unless I need shards or blood points, I'll probably never hop into a live match ever again.

  • StarLost
    StarLost Member Posts: 8,077
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    You won't stop the nasties, because they will always find something to be nasty about.

    I've been cussed out (this Christmas):

    • For letting a duo go (u think ur good?)
    • For having an anonymous profile.
    • For running Lethal Pursuer.
    • For playing Artist.
    • For playing Demo.
    • For playing Dredge.
    • For playing Doctor.

    And my absolute favorite:

    • For playing Vanity Mirror Myers.
  • HugTechLover
    HugTechLover Member Posts: 2,482
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    Blight keeps me going, with how fun he is.

    All my old buddies play DBD too, so it makes for fun SWF play. Even though some of them aren’t so good.

  • MrMori
    MrMori Member Posts: 1,217
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    Despite its flaws, it's un incredibly unique and deep game, with loads of possible playstyles. No other game has quite captured that chase mechanic. There's always something to get better at.