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Do the devs really read these? Here's what I've found. (TLDR, No)

Manky
Manky Member Posts: 192
edited August 2023 in Feedback and Suggestions

I've just scrolled through 13 pages, 650 posts, all in the month of August. How many of these posts had a response from a dev? 5. How many of those 5 comments from the devs said that change was planned? 1. How many of them literally didn't even address the question? 2. How many of them had responses to the replies? 0. The developer comments are just dropped and never looked at again. So, when a dev gives a response and someone responds to that with a valid counterargument, the devs wont read that counterargument. If they do, then they don't want you to know that they did. (EDIT, while writing this a 6th reply happened! Insane right. This one was a good response too, ty Mandy <3)

I know the devs are busy people, but this place is where the playerbase goes to suggest changes. We are the playerbase, it's us who play the game, pay for the game, invite others to the game, we keep the game going. We are the people with hundreds of thousands of hours combined, we experience the issues, surely our feedback is vital for development? It's at least worth giving us the time of day. I know a lot of posts here are just people bitching and moaning about some niche thing that lost them a 4K or something, but in a lot of cases the ideas here might not be good, but they address a major problem with the game. Is it really too much to ask that we get a little feedback on our feedback? Right now the only developer feedback is clearing things up for people, actual issues are never addressed.

Credit to Mandy, being literally the only dev who replied to any post here this month. The only voice behind that brick wall we're all talking to. Granted, the responses weren't the most useful, but it's better than nothing. I'm hopeful in thinking that devs do read these and use the ideas, but how would we ever know? Would it really be so hard to say stuff like "This idea won't work, here's why, but this issue is noted and we will find another solution." or "We have something planned in a future update to address this issue." or even "This is an intended feature and this is it's intended use. If this feature is being abused then it will be changed/removed."

It's very frustrating to find glaring issues in a game and know that there's nothing you can do to help fix it. This feedback could be helping both the playerbase and the devs, but in reality all it does is waste the player's time. Hopefully I've not just wasted mine.

Comments

  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 9,569

    You do know reading feedback and commenting on feedback are two different things.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,296

    The community managers cannot waste time argue back and forth with every random on here, they would be doing that forever. So I don't see why you would expect them to. At best we may get a clarification of the general consensus of the development team at times and we can argue with that, but bHVR does not have time to tell you all their concerns and bring you into their development process. There is no way they can do that for us thoroughly, best we got is chatter here and on social media and Questionarie every like 3months or something.

    I don't know how Mandy and other community managers collects our chatter here, but I assume it all goes into a document and is then reported as the chatter of the week or month. Which the developers likely read and have meetings about.

    But you also have to keep in mind that developers at bHVR is working at another time scale that we play at, We may play today and get super mad at some BS in the game. But bHVR already has a solution for that and its on the list waiting for its time to be implemented, so they are viewing our comments with the knowledge of our gaming future too.

    TLDR; You are making an assumption that responding = reading, but they cant respond to everything.

    I imagine Mandy would say the same, How close am I Mandy?

    You will never be told that you helped the Devs, only in vague generalities. So puck up Survivor, cause the only way we can help is keep providing nudges, so someone at the meeting will consider those concerns.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    Well yeah, of course. But do they read it? the vast majority of these suggestions are ignored both through lack of reply and lack of action. What I'm saying here is that some feedback on our feedback would be appreciated so we know whether or not we're wasting our time.

  • Crowman
    Crowman Member Posts: 9,569

    The devs told us it takes a year to develop a chapter from start to finish. They told us they are working on an anti facecamping system for this year something that's been constantly complained about on the forums.

    It's very clear the devs do read the feedback, but many things aren't simply fixes and it's going to take time to implement.

    Plus you're also making an assumption that all feedback is good. Sometimes people complain about things that aren't actual problems. The devs simply have to pick and choose what things to act on and then spent time developing it. They aren't going to throw out a fix for everything little piece of feedback the following week.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,296

    I you want to know what the Community Managers post, you can just check their profiles they are here on the forums and you can see their responses. But you wont find like that holy grail of solution to all the issues like what seems to be hoped for here.

  • Nos37
    Nos37 Member Posts: 4,142

    Something along the lines of don't feed the seagulls.

    The humans are in the cars; they see the seagulls. Not every human is going to feed a seagull; especially if it means getting swarmed by more.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    You're seriously saying that 6 replies out of 650 posts is okay? They're community managers, yet they seem absent in the community. If they do collect our chatter, brilliant. Would it be so hard to tell us that we've been heard? My examples of what they could say might be considered too much work, but would saying something as simple as "noted" be too hard? I'm not saying reply to everything - as I said a lot of posts here are just butthurt complaints over something trivial and unimportant, and those posts can be ignored. The posts that have actual substance to them should not. I'm not asking for a medal for helping the game, I'm asking for some feedback. The amount of knowledge you can gain from a conversation is infinitely higher than that of just reading a post.

    I'll give you a small example of where I feel the devs simply don't look. A very small QoL change has been requested for years now - move the Tome UI in the post-match summary so that you can actually read the post game chat. If moving that UI is a challenge then I'm very concerned about the skills of the developers. Since this game is actually pretty damn good, I'm gonna say they don't lack the skill. What does that leave? They don't care. They don't care that this small easy fix would make a lot of people happier. Either that, or they simply haven't read the posts about this.

    As for their different timescale, as I said, if they see a post about an issue they already have plans for, it really wouldn't take much time to just say "Yeah we have a fix planned, this will be resolved in a future update." I timed myself writing that quote, it took me 8 seconds.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    Really...? Us, the people who fund the game, are seagulls who should be ignored? Getting swarmed by seagulls is annoying, getting swarmed by suggestions is informative. Sure, it's work, but it's work they're paid to do. Not everyone is gonna feed the seagulls, but the people who are paid by the seagulls should.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    You're gonna tell me that you aren't gonna read through all the dev responses from this month, and then tell me - someone who has - that I'm lying about them? Come on, surely you see how stupid that is lmao. The replies this month have been few and far between, and in most of them the replies weren't all that helpful. 2/6 of them we're good responses, 2 of them addressed something in the comments, not addressing the actual issue posted. This is a fact, not an opinion. You can disagree with me on whether or not the devs should reply more, but considering this part is plainly obvious to anyone who looks - like me - it's not really something you can discredit.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    It takes a year to complete a chapter, yes. Considering a chapter is a much bigger deal than most suggestions, I'd say that it is quicker to do most of the suggestions here than make a chapter. That being said, I know there is an order of priority. This means that from a suggestion being made, you could be waiting a year or more to see any change in that area. In that time, we just gotta sit here dick in hand and wonder if that idea is in the pipeline. That is the issue here, I'm not asking for devs to respond to posts and then immediately get to work, I'm asking for feedback. Idk how many times I have to clarify that I'm asking for feedback, not for immediate action on suggestions.

    Plus you're also making an assumption that I assumed all feedback is good. As I stated clearly in my post, I'm very aware that a lot of posts here are trivial bullshit that doesn't matter, they're just butthurt players who want the game on easy mode etc. Those posts are not what I'm talking about, I'm only requesting feedback on the posts that have actual substance.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,296

    That would be many many many 8 seconds and those would rack up over the years, The used to have a "bHVR READ" tag on posts but people who didnt get it would object and say they were not heard. This is that all over again, it would drain so many resources and all for making sure everyone can feel like they have been heard. Its honestly a waste.

    Sure everyone would like to hear more from the Developers, but to make them waste resources for this is detrimental.

    Even if they gave feedback, people would still feel their ideas dint get feedback and even tho you think some ideas are "trivial and unimportant" others wont, so there would be conflict over who gets the feedback.

    The only logical and smart solution is to keep feedback minimal and fair to everyone, so best you see are clarifications or answers to questions. The rest is the Community managers acting like a Shadow in here, but we know they listen cause things in the past have changed and bHVR would doom themselves if they didn't take our feedback into consideration. Sorry but that is the best sense of communication you can look forward to here, because if it was different chaos and conflict would be all over.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192

    I apologise for the confusion here, the posts I went through were all in the Feedback and Suggestions, while Peanits has been replying - those replies were only in General Discussions. On one hand, I'm grateful that there is activity over on that part of the forum - but this part is where suggestions and feedback go, and this part is where there has been radio silence. I hope you see where I'm coming from now.

  • Rizzo
    Rizzo Member, Administrator, Mod Posts: 17,933

    As someone already explained, even if a post doesn't receive a comment from the Developers, it doesn't mean it gets ignored.

    Moreover the forums are not the only platform where the community members share their ideas or their issues: there are socials, there's Steam and the feedback needs to be collected from all of these platforms, so of course the time to reply to posts is very limited.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 5,296
    edited August 2023

    And there it IS. I was on point, if perhaps not so well spoken. Hello Rizzo and Goodbye.

  • AhoyWolf
    AhoyWolf Member Posts: 4,396

    Does the BHVR Read button no longer work? I recall if not commenting on a post, developers would sometimes press the developer read button to make the creator know that they've read something.

  • Rizzo
    Rizzo Member, Administrator, Mod Posts: 17,933

    Not sure if it's been deactivated when the forum was changed or if it's just not used anymore.

  • Manky
    Manky Member Posts: 192


    I understand this, it's clear that this happens, but it's not my point. I do apologise as I'm pretty awful at articulating my thoughts. My point is that until these changes are made, we're in the dark. Take Skull Merchant for example, until recently all I had to go off of was that her power seemed designed to hold a 3 gen and nothing else. That made me think it was intentional, until (I believe) Mandy commented somewhere saying that it was not the intent of her power and change was planned. Now I can play against a Skull Merchant and know that this awful experience is temporary and the devs are planning on changing this, I just have to wait. I can find fun in those games again simply by thinking "Enjoy it while it lasts, jackass." Whereas before I read that post, I would play against Skull Merchant and just feel awful, I know that I'm either gonna die trying to break that 3 gen, or the game timer is gonna run out and I lose by default - and I have no idea if this will ever change. Just knowing that the devs have heard us and are working on something makes so much difference. I'm not asking to be let in on all the deepest darkest secrets, I just want to know if something is happening.

    As for other socials, I do understand that but at the same time, would the forums with a space specifically allocated for Suggestions and Feedback not be like... the main place for it? After all, this is what comes up when you google "DBD suggestions." I personally don't use Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or whatever it's called these days. I personally find that those platforms are too addictive and unhealthy for me. No offence to anyone who uses them, each to their own, but I know I'm not alone when I say that most of these social medias are brain rot lmao. Obviously that part is a me problem, but again, this does seem like the official place for suggestions and feedback and I'd hope this place would get a decent amount of attention.

    As for you, thanks for replying xD

  • Rizzo
    Rizzo Member, Administrator, Mod Posts: 17,933

    Regarding the first paragraph, again it's a matter of time and if an information can be shared or not, I'm sure Mandy and the CM team would love to spend the time giving good news to the community and commenting on every thread, however it is not feasible and sometimes waiting until all the changes are approved and announcing them via a Developer Update is the better way to do it.

    About the forums being the main outlet for feedback, we have to keep in mind that accessing and participating to the forums requires effort and not everyone wants to spend time creating and account and posting here, when socials and even Steam are way more accessible from that point of view, and you receive news and information by just clicking a follow button or by simply having the game (all the news on Steam is accessible through the Activity page and just requires to have the game).

    In conclusion, yes you are most likely to find people more passionate about the game on the forums than on Twitter, however that does not mean the feedback posted on other platforms is less important.