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I Think DBD As A Casual Game Is Dead

Pulsar
Pulsar Member Posts: 20,784

Not much to this.


I don't think the game can be played at an average casual level anymore. I don't think you can really come home from a long day at work and play a couple of games on either role without the game being more trouble than it's worth.


Whether it's problematic Killer designs that are unfun to play against (Legion and Twins), overtuned characters (Blight and Nurse), Skull Merchant or even just the Killer being outright better than you, the casual Survivor experience is bad.

Whether it's teams that force you to play tactically and try hard, people who abuse certain bugs, people who just like to be frustrating (Boil Over) or just plain good teams; the causal Killer experience isn't much better.



I think that should change for both roles. I don't think you should need to sink 6 hours into a play session whilst being hyper-aware and uber competitive in order to have a chance to have fun.

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Comments

  • Justa335i
    Justa335i Member Posts: 223

    The game has been so optimized at this point that its just how most people play.

    Unless there is a split mode between comp and quickplay, i dont see it ever changing.

  • biggybiggybiggens
    biggybiggybiggens Member Posts: 680
    edited August 2023

    Ya know Pulsar.. We disagree quite often, but you my friend have hit the nail directly on the head. DBD is certainly not a game you can just, as some devs have said in interviews of the past, "Jump in and have fun".. The new player experience is...I hate to say...abysmal.. New players are what the game should be shooting for and thriving off of. Overtime turning them into fans that come back not just because of another Chapter but day after day because of the fun experience they had. Yet everything just keeps getting more convoluted and degenerate.

    I'm not sure how a brand new person is suppose to stick with an experience where such dirty and imbalanced things can happen on each side. Not to mention the amount of time you have to put in just to be a decent Survivor and not get stomped repeatedly seems to be too considerable for most. Even as Killer, beating those brand new Survivors a few times, you suddenly get tossed into a REAL DEAL group of even just a few decent Survivors and get rag dolled like you're nothing which completely turns the POWER ROLE idea on its head especially for newer people who just want to be immersed..

    There are far too many strategies that Killers can use to make the new Survivor experience not pleasant even down to the way some of the Killers are designed at the very core of their power.. (Knight...Skull Merchant..and even Hag) Why can Killers tunnel off hook? Why can they even use their power right next to the hook? Leatherface has made many people I know actually stop playing due to that basement BS.. Seeing that through a new persons perspective would make more people understand those things don't make you want to come back especially if its your very first game..

    Some of the basic principles that went into making DBD just don't work for casual people nowadays. Even on the Killer side.. Why does Trapper have to spend the whole first part of the game picking up his power...when Pig starts with hers by default? Just to be different? Hmm. There are many confusing questions that we will never know the answer to, but hearing you say that makes me realize that no matter how much the fan base might disagree with one another. This side. That side. Whatever. I think we can all agree. Some things. No. MANY things in this game don't feel "fun". They feel cheap or even underhanded. I don't think that is what the devs want, but here we are.. And where do we go from here. I have no idea. I just hope the game gets better someway..somehow..


    Oh yeah..there are a few Killers that can't use their power next to hook are there not? O.o Twins can't and there might be a few more that I'm not thinking of.. That'd really put a damper on some degenerate strategies if Leatherface is next to the basement with a hooked Survivor and can't even click M2.. xD

  • Sharby
    Sharby Member Posts: 498

    I mean casuals are needed to sustain the meat grinder, if the casual aspect is dead it will start a decline that is faster than what's natural.


    Less casuals playing = more sweaty games = more sweaty people stop playing, to put it in simplified terms.

  • Sava18
    Sava18 Member Posts: 2,439

    No you should never be shooting for the new player experience in anything but an actual coop party game. DBD is not that and hasn't been since before I started playing. This game has a learning curve early on(especially for survivors) but if you go even a little out of your way to watch content and learn you can get up to a decent standard quick.

    When a multiplayer pvp game doesn't have some catering towards players who know what they are doing, it dies. Simply.

  • biggybiggybiggens
    biggybiggybiggens Member Posts: 680
    edited August 2023

    I beg to differ. I say if you had something in the DBD new Survivor experience as easy as Candy Crush that also progressed the game state toward the Survivors winning (something much easier than hitting Generator skill checks) I think the game would flourish even more. Due to it being simple AND addictive. What would they add to get this result you ask? Well that's what they are getting paid to figure out. An experience like PVP Candy Crush is what we are shooting for. DBD lacks that "something" that feels fun to do. Its obvious that Generators are not THAT THING for the newer people. Hell, they like hiding in corners more than doing Generators.

    Maybe just make a separate mode called "HIDE AND SEEK" and new people would be all about it. The average new player to a video game doesn't look up and watch as much as we might assume they do. A lot of the time, people hear about the game, so they grab it once its at a low price and try it out without watching anything at all, yet still knowing the gist of the experience. Unfortunately, DBD at its core requires that you have someone literally 1 on 1 guiding you if you want the best results, which really shouldn't be the case if we want to be as popular as Candy Crush..

    I'm not really saying DBD needs to be like Candy Crush.. I'm saying it needs SOMETHING in the experience that is even easier to do for new people than what is currently available to do and also has that addictive feel to it. Something you cannot put down if you wanted to.. I don't think learning how to do specific vaults, trying to get good skill checks (let alone greats), and having to figure out what perks, offerings, and killer powers even are is what is going to keep the new folks. The devs have to go in a different direction, while keeping the game true to its core. Like I said, how they figure that out is up to them.

  • burt0r
    burt0r Member Posts: 4,160

    So like any other pvp game without any working fork of ELO based matchmaking in casual queue?

    The ever increasing optimization of efficiency by the player is a natural process that comes to most humans. Back in the day it was comparing strategies during school yard talk and in gaming magazines but nowadays with the huge exchange of information via internet and even moreso by YouTube, optimizing the living crap out of games is frighteningly fast.

    DbDs biggest problem with this is that casual player get fee to the optimizing players due to the nearly non existent matchmaking that throws everything into a blender.

  • biggybiggybiggens
    biggybiggybiggens Member Posts: 680
    edited August 2023

    I mean the devs make every decision at the end of the day. They have to do their best to know when to IGNORE the community..and when to listen. I agree that de-pipping shouldn't exist. It is extremely demoralizing especially if you did quite a bit of work to get those pips only to have them instantly gone just because of a few unlucky mishaps or what not. Higher MMR Killers that go against lower MMR groups also have it rough, because if they finish the Survivors off too quickly...the Killer de-pips for that.... W....T....F..?! O.o Extreme efficiency in that scenario equals you get punished... Makes no sense..

  • Sava18
    Sava18 Member Posts: 2,439

    Yes, you definitely have a far different opinion than me. Getting in to survivor is hard in terms of dbd, but not compared to other games. You don't need someone to 1 on 1 coach you, just watch a few youtube videos and figure it out. Then learn by trial and error. Watch 1 otz video, play 10 killer games and then start playing survivor. People just don't want to learn.

  • Mockingjay_S451
    Mockingjay_S451 Member Posts: 393

    This. A lot of games feel like a punishment for your efforts.

  • MalekithHatesSnow
    MalekithHatesSnow Member Posts: 253

    Exactly this. People wanna rag on the devs so much and I agree sometimes the devs make questionable decisions but the community is terribad you're supposed to 3 hook everyone no camping no tunneling no meta killer ok you do that oh but you had the AUDACITY to actually win so you're gonna be called toxic etc etc but if you dont win? The survivors will wait out the entire egc just so you can watch them teabag this game's community is definitely half this game's problem and its partially the devs fault aswell for allowing and even encouraging this behaviour through streamers

  • Xernoton
    Xernoton Member Posts: 5,842

    You're not completely wrong. The game has become way more competitive than it used to. But it's not quite so bad that you can't sit back and enjoy the game anymore. There are a lot of casual players out there and we're not going anywhere.

    It would be nice though, if they introduced a different game mode for everyone, who doesn't feel like sweating in their games. Something chaotic, utterly unbalanced and completely ridiculous. Like for example a game mode where after every gen your perks switch randomly. Maybe even the killer switches.

  • SMitchell8
    SMitchell8 Member Posts: 3,302

    You can't play casually as killer. You have to work and sweat for wins, especially with B tier or below killers.

  • Ghoste
    Ghoste Member Posts: 2,135

    Not sure there's much you could realistically do to change it at this point. It's just a symptom of the game having been out for 7 years. The cat is out of the bag, y'know.

  • Airchtit
    Airchtit Member Posts: 13

    I have over 2k hours behind me and have been playing since before day 1.

    I used to love the game, in spite of the millions of bugs (some of which are still present...). I started as a killer to understand the mechanics and then switched to survivor as at the end of the day, I prefer to play with people than against.

    I just logged in again to check Nicolas cage out and the game is even worth than it was a couple of months ago.


    Bugs are bugs and balancing takes time, and I'm ok with that.

    My issues are with the people.

    I have played 3 games today. Not only do I play with total noobs, which is not super fun, but if the killer is half decent, they get crushed and give up, suicide or whatever toxic rage behaviour you can think of and I end up in 1v1 with 3 gens to go.

    Worst game I had today was 2 suicides and 1 bot.

    Bots are new to me and the only upside I could see is that they don't DC.


    I don't care about winning, I just want to see my mates try to do gens or good chases or nice coop actions, playing with torchlights and lockers/pallets. A good game to me is where survs manage a bit of chases, some doing gens in the meantime, some helping during the gen. Killer gets 1-4 kills that they had to fight for and we actually had a sweat.


    At high level, facecamp is not really an issue, tunnelling still is but can be fought against.

    A lot of this could be solved with a better matchmaking.

    I don't want to farm my way up from ash if I have been rank 1 for the last 3 years. It's just boring and kills the game for me. I don't have that kind of time anymore.

  • Chomperka
    Chomperka Member Posts: 188

    that's just not true, of course you can have troubles while playing against team, 99% of time i can win with tunneling and camping

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 2,253

    1 sentence summary: SBMM = ranked, Rank/Grade based matchmaking = casual, and the swap deleted the casual gameplay to focus on sweating.


    I think the largest problem is how we lost 'casual' mode when they implemented 'SBMM/MMR'. Now we only play in ranked mode. I could sit in Red Ranks as Killer before, and 2 hook tango (or hook each Survivor twice, then let them go for the 20k Survival BP at that time) without risk of changing my matchups. Sadly, now I am forced to kill any baby Surv I happen to run across because the matchmaking punishes both of us if I don't. The baby Surv gets higher MMR to a level they aren't ready for, and I would get punished with more baby Surv matches.

    Also when the matchmaking was influenced by rank, people tried to balance their gameplay (they didn't always, but I've had all too many Killers in post-game chat say I did X to pip/kill). If I gen before healing, I don't get Benevolent points. If I 1 hook kill 3 people, I don't get Devout or Chaser points, due to the lack of chases and hook actions. Camping penalizes Chaser, so you can't pip. If a Survivor hides, they can't get Evader points (I mean technically you can, but you get 1 point a second hiding compared to 1-250 points a second in chase, since you need 880 points for Iridescent, that's nearly 15 minutes of hiding in TR). Every common complaint is addressed by the Emblem system. Now it isn't perfect, as you can be 'chased' by Wraith and Sadako, but you don't get Chaser points, among other flaws. That just means the exceptions to the rule should be ironed out, not simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, when it is simplified down to the raw Kill/Escape, we lose all of that nuance, and get camping/tunneling/hiding/sweating across all too many matches.

  • Xendritch
    Xendritch Member Posts: 1,842

    This was always going to be the outcome. Both sides cannot win and chill at the same time. Add to that the constant BM by both sides and that creates a natural deterrent to trying to play nice for most people so you then create an arms race for both sides to optimize their play as much as possible.

    It has gotten to the point I am playing against SWFs using clock callouts and comp strats more and more often. Now this is perfectly okay with me as I'm competitive by nature and enjoy outsmarting good teams but for your average DBD player who only plays 2-3 games a day if that is even I imagine they feel they're in a war zone with a water gun.

    Ultimately I don't see this as a problem as I feel if you really wanna chill then there's plenty of really really good PvE games for those people to play. I'm not saying that to be disrespectful mind you, some of my favorite games are PvE (Metroid Prime, Okami, Persona 4) so it's a serious suggestion. Because PvP games are always going to be competitive by their nature and that's okay.

  • Sonzaishinai
    Sonzaishinai Member Posts: 7,976

    I think you are projecting a bit here

    Playing a couple of games after work to have fun is exactly how i play for years now.

    Are you sure it isn't you focussing so heavilly on the competitive side that you forgot what fun is?

    DbD is as competitive as you want it to be.

    If you need to sink 6 hyperfocussed hours to have fun doesn't that raise the question if you aren't trying to force something to be fun that just isn't to you anymore.

    I feel that this is a personal problem. For how meme-y "play civ" is. I think you probably would benifit off playing something else for a while

  • BlueHorkew
    BlueHorkew Member Posts: 1,081

    I wouldn't say every game is super competetive.

    But it is a shot in the dark if the few games you will have are going to be enjoyable.

    Sometimes i can get a few games that are cool, but then something happens that lowers my mood and i just have to close the game.

    I do feel like my patience to deal with those kinds of games is shorter, i am not sure if it is a me problem or the bad gaems are more common

  • Necrobot
    Necrobot Member Posts: 52

    Totally agree with what was said.

    The matchmaking need some serious changes as it seems it doesn't work properly.

    Most of the time, in my solo queue game experience, it's either stomp or be stomped on both side (like most of the time, it's 4 k at 5 or 4 gens for the killer, or he gets two hooks the entire game... and sometimes DC). I really don't care if i win or lose, i just want fair and tense matches. Or fun matches if it's possible. Those are so rare that i only play for the rift now. I really like the game but i don't want to sweat each time i log in. That"s why i don't play killer anymore. As a survivor, I want to use meme perks and still have a chance to not be out of the match in the first minutes. I want to see more different killers too. The lack of variety of the killer I face despite the roster is mind blowing.


    However, I don't think two separate queue will help, it will divide the playerbase and try hards from both sides will queue in the casual to stomp the non competitive killer or survivor.


    PS : sorry if my english is bad.

  • Neprašheart
    Neprašheart Member Posts: 439

    The game certainly feels more sweaty than what it has used to be in the past, but you're the problem by having such a mindset, if you ask me. Now, I don't mean to complain about your take or to call you out for it, but how do you expect yourself having fun, if you're already subconsciously having thoughts along the lines of „I have to sweat if I start to feel like I'm no longer winning“, or „If others sweat, so will I.“, because that's just you projecting your thoughts and forcing others to adapt to that, you know?

    Sure, you do barely see survivors running without items and using all sorts of perk varieties within your matches as a veteran, but that doesn't really mean anything. I do consider myself to be a casual-competitive player, leaning heavily towards the casual side because I do know what being competitive is, and how unfun that is when it comes to gaming.. Unless I'm already better than over ~80% of the entire playerbase to guarantee myself the dopamine boost and satisfaction from winning every single match.. With ease.. And, so I treat the game casually, while the younger audience with tons of energy left because they're not going outside (mostly applying to students and people without a job) still has tons of energy and can easily dominate me by playing better than me, because I'm past my prime gaming years already.

    You shouldn't be like that. You should have thoughts along the lines, like „Why shall I sweat? Go ahead, I'll play my own game!“, and even though this kind of attitude more or less guarantees you losing your matches, that's not really gonna be a problematic thing for you, until you get used to losing. You can't win without losing beforehand, but you do have to learn „how to lose“ to know how to learn from losing and not having it get to your ego.

    Be yourself, play your own game at your own pace. Don't care about what others think, but don't have the mindset of wanting to be the same as them.. Because that only results in you encountering such players more and more frequently due to having nearly the same attitude and playstyle as a result, and never ever making it any better for yourself. Do know your limits, and do know how to get into the MMR you do wanna be in.. With other casual players - That's not gonna happen until you start playing like them, though, and that means many times putting yourself at a disadvantage, because the result will be all the more satisfying and worth it.. Or, at least, shall.


    I'm still having fun playing the game.. But if I feel powerless as a killer, I just dedicate myself to that one chase or area to guard, and see what they can do about it. If I lose four generators per a single hook, that's fine by me.. I mean, I've caught a really difficult prey to catch, so I've won in my book despite losing by the game's mechanics. Silly me, but it works. I am satisfied, and it works in my favour.


    In order to proceed, you do have to start with yourself, see your own faults and acknowledge them. It doesn't matter how silly or absurd it sounds to you. It's not like we can peek into your mind and know your thoughts, so whether it's embarrassing from your own point of view or not is irrelevant, and it shouldn't matter because it's all in your own head. Nobody's gonna make fun out of you and your thoughts, you do have peace and all the time in the world that you dedicate to it to know what to do and how to enjoy videogames like back in the day.. Or so I'd say.

    If you do disagree with any of my takes, that's fine by me. I don't expect myself to know everyone the best, and I don't expect you to agree with everything I'm claiming just because .. Of whatever reason you can think of. I'm wrong about something, that's for sure, but I'm not wrong about everything.

  • Phantom_
    Phantom_ Member Posts: 1,354

    The only way casual mode would work is if you losing or winning didn't count towards anything other than getting bloodpoints.

    Because of the fact that now if you lose too many games in a row you get stuck in mmr-hell and get teammates that are all Blendettes or Dwights who hide in lockers. This forces you to try-hard and win, so that you get matched with people that are actually on your level as much as that's possible what with how sbmm works 😅

    Either that or the "winning" objectives of this game need to change as a whole.

  • rvzrvzrvz
    rvzrvzrvz Member Posts: 940

    I don't think it's true I was watching a 10k hours killer main on twitch yesterday this guy has 100+ wins 2 lose atm, another has a 500+ winstreak apparently, another guy is doing perkless winstreaks with all killers.. take godlike players in any other game and they don't win 100% of the time more like 60%. Even I reach iri 1 killer without trying and I'm stuck iri 4 as survivor

    I sympathize with players getting bullied by "sweat squads" but it doesn't happen very often most games are pretty chill as killer, for me solo Q is by far the main problem it's the most unbalanced thing i've ever played in any game, really miserable.

    Imo SWF shouldn't even exist, it should be solo or duo queue MAX and then balance the game around that, if you balance for killer against 4 man swf then it's miserable for everyone else, OP is right it has become a sweat fest

  • fussy
    fussy Member Posts: 1,638

    What did you expect from a game where skill is a very important part of the gameplay? People (player base) are getting better on both sides, I notice that too.

    Gens of 70 seconds were not even close to as fast as today's 90 sec gens. And that's why I've only been playing for chases lately, I'm tired of sweating every game.

    And it is absolutely normal that new players need to spend time and effort to be a good player and enjoy the game.

    Imagine you spent 10k hours and you go against a player with 100 hours and you have about the same chances of winning, simply because the game is hard balanced for casual players. Who wants to spend more than 200-300 hours in such a game if there is nothing to strive for and the skill does not matter? The meaning of PVP mode is in its competitiveness. And it's strange to me that many people try to pretend that this is not the case and this game is just about pressing buttons. M1 simulator vs W simulator. Nah it's not, and i glad for it.

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 9,420

    I don't think the game can be played at an average casual level anymore. I don't think you can really come home from a long day at work and play a couple of games on either role without the game being more trouble than it's worth.

    I can.

    I think this says more about your attitude than the state of the game.

    If you only gain satisfaction from winning, then you're not always going to enjoy yourself, and frankly you can't claim you're looking to play casually.

    My only issues are excessive lobby dodging and players who DC during loading because they didn't like the offerings. These mean it takes longer to get into a game than it does to play it.

  • Pulsar
    Pulsar Member Posts: 20,784


    There are many games where if you aren't on your A-game, you will NOT have fun.


    This goes for Killer and Survivor. Killer figures out you're not a crazy good looper, instantly decides they need you out of the match. Idfyou aren't on your A-game, you're gonna be out of that match in 2 minutes. If a Survivor team comes in and spawns split on 4 gens, you're gonna need to play extremely smart and sweat if you want that match to last.


    Getting stomped isn't fun. One-sided matches aren't fun. That's the casual mindset.

  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,343
    edited August 2023

    Mostly agree with op. - But I suppose there is no way back. DBD is fun for as long as both sides make a bunch of mistakes. Making mistakes is what makes the game fun. Playing suboptimally is what creates enough room for fun. The trajectory, however, is to optimise. And it seems that's not gonna stop anytime soon. ---- That being said, I do think there are still opportunities for both sides to bring fun into an otherwise unfun match. It's a mix of mindset and loadout. And it's imperative that you don't care the slightest bit about the objective.

    Post edited by Halloulle on
  • Ivanynakov
    Ivanynakov Member Posts: 235
    edited August 2023

    No. Developers raise the community. Developers choose boundaries. They choose what exactly the player is rewarded or punished for. You are blaming child instead of parents.

    For example. The longer you are in trial, the more BP you get. Also there is no real danger when you are at exit gates or standing on a hatch. So waiting for Killer to come and teabag him only rewards the survivors. Whos fault is that?

    EDIT: blaming person for what he/she didn't say because I read it wrong.

  • Akumakaji
    Akumakaji Member Posts: 5,459

    But Pulsar has a point. Because of the way the MMR system is designed and how the meta forced both sides over the last year to play as efficient as posible, OR ELSE, we optimised the fun out of this game in one year faster and more thoroughly then ever before. The MMR system was the beginning, adaptation to needed changed like 6.1 and regression nerfs the current conclusion. Without any systems in place to allow the losing side to catch up, the more efficient side will always win, and after losing a couple of times in a row, both sides chill players omight turn sweat lords. I know that I did.