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Is Dead by Daylight party game?
I am asking your experience. Which roles you are playing and how they are feeling to you?
For me, unless i play SWF this game feels like i am in hell and i need to survive against all of fiends.
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If I was a new player, this current meta would stop me from playing with-in an hour.
Current state of the game is pretty miserable. Party game? If you're doing customs with friends hell yeah its fun.
But solo'Q? Hell
Queueing up with/against a SWF? Fun/Hell
Game as killer? EZ mode atm.
Also, I'd really like to queue up with you lol.
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Dead By Daylight is definitely not a party game, but I'm not sure if that's exactly what's being asked in this thread.
Current experience isn't what would dictate whether a game is a party game or not. But, to answer about my experience, it's been pretty alright. I play killer and solo survivor, and while there are frustrations - I've been matched with players vastly more experienced than me on killer, and solo survivor can be annoying for the same reasons solo play is annoying in any team game - I still very much enjoy my time with the game and it is overall improving.
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Yes and no. DBD is a competitive game because that is what most players seem to wish for. But at the same time there is also a group of players that do not want this game to be quite as competitive.
I consider myself somewhere in the middle. I want the game to be 'fair' but still random enough to allow for stupid and funny plays, that sometimes just might work.
I think the game is currently in a quite good spot. You can go into a match and just have fun fooling around but you can also sweat your ass off to that sweet, sweet victory. This is one of the reasons I started maining Hillbilly. He is fun more than anything else (at least in theory). I always run off meta builds and try to make up for it by simply playing better. For me that works well enough.
As a survivor, my favorite build always Bond + Open Handed in it. It's such an underrated combination of perks. All the information you could ever need and a lot of ways to capitalise from that.
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Party game is one of those terms the DBD community loves to frequently get wrong. Traditionally, a party game is just that, a type of game played at a party, usually for the entertainment of children. In so far as videogames go, a party game is one focused around mini-games. Fall Guys is a party game, Mario Party is a party game, etc.
Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, a different, clearly defined, genre altogether.
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I think it was supposed to be but current gaming culture dictates everything must be competitive so it slowly went in that direction except comp DBD is a joke and not that many people are interested in it.
I have no idea what DBD is supposed to be at this point and I think the reason it's lasted so long despite that nobody can agree what it actually is it's a good game to stream that's almost more fun to watch than play and it's easy to keep a community around a game like that.
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As Survivor: it feels like everyone's just switching their brains off and treating it as an extremely casual game while I am trying to get a fair win/lose ratio and therefore want to get out of low MMR, which is impossible and therefore incredibly frustrating if my teammates just playing merely to have fun without bothering to think until inevitable death and you need to escape to go up in MMR.
First game of today was a perfect example of this. Game against slugging Nurse with Infection/Knockout/Deerstalker, so quite obvious from her perks what she was up to, and my teammates still perfectly fed her playstyle. Two injured mates were dancing around the slugged survivor and even when chased they stuck around and did not run off so it was impossible for them to pick up the slug without the them or the picked up survivor going down again. I was the only one healthy and it would have made perfect sense if I would have made the pick up but that would have required the other two to leave the area, ideally taking Nurse with them, otherwise just doing gens. I'm not going there when there are two injured who are one-shot down and try something stupid just the moment I'm about to get a safe pick-up and then Infectious hits and she gets the four slugs without hooking she's playing for, plus someone has to do gens or no-one gets out. Alternately, healing each other and then trying would have been a great idea. No strategy, no plan, no adaptive play depending on killer build/playstyle. Horrible.
As Killer: I just treat it as a casual game and don't care much about winning or losing. If the survivors aren't really interested in a serious match I don't play very serious either.
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I consider it a party game in the sense that competitive DBD is the worst possible version of DBD that you can play. This game simply isn't all that fun when both sides are playing sweaty and bringing only the strongest possible items, perks and play styles to the trial. I think the balance and fun of the game quickly dissolves when players aim to play "optimally".
I will admit to being a somewhat competitive person and I do usually play to win. But I try not to sweat too hard for it, because I don't think that's a fun experience for anyone.
It's kind of weird that (for the Survivor side at least) I would queue to play a game I'm almost certain to lose every time. So I've tried to find other ways to have fun playing this game, usually by running silly themed builds when I begin to feel a bit disheartened. Because in Solo Q I'm only escaping around 20% of the time at the moment, if that. I'm honestly not that bothered about losing MMR anymore, because the MMR system seems to do almost nothing for Solo Q Survivors anyway.
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It's whatever you want it to be. For me it's a survival game where I am trying to kill or survive, but it's not overly competitive for me. It's not going to upset me whether I win or lose. However, I can see why some consider it competitive and others consider it a party game. For me, it can be in the middle.
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Because MMR exists, no, it is not a party game.
If it was a party game, MMR would not exist and it would just match you with whoever. Do you think games like mario kart/mario party use MMR to match you into games? Or do you think they just drop you in with the first 11/3 other people they find?
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This.
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I dont think dbd was ever a real party game. It was janky and weir but not a party game.
Dbd is what you want it to be I feel like. If you want it to be a party game, you play with friends in a custom game.
If you want it to be more competetive, you use strong perks and try to play optimally.
In the last several years, it tends to become more and more competetive. So if you ask me, it's more of a competetive game right now. Both in gameplay and reception.
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Parties usually imply some form of merriment amongst the gathering. Unfortunately for many, the most enjoyable party vibing in regard to DBD has most likely been limited to (or may be best experienced within) the close knit camaraderie of KYF.
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It doesn't have local co-op
Therefore its not a party game
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It doesn't feel like any party game I've ever played.
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Party game? No.
Casual game? Yes.
An Olympic Sport? For some people, sadly also yes.
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I believe it is a party game to it's core, but it also has potential as a competitive game.
What I mean by that though, is the base game doesn't support comp very well from what I can tell, but if they did do game modes like the 5v5 it possibly could be.
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For me to say it's a party game it would need more RNG elements and unpredictability affecting gameplay and that wouldn't make DBD what it is.
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It's an imbalanced casual game that far too many people take way too seriously. You have a lot of people who play the game for chill fun, and then you have those who play like their lives hang on their win rate.
That is, because imo, its imbalance allows people who try really hard to feel like they are better gamers; it's easy to find and exploit the imbalanced mechanics (hard tunneling/SWFing, for example). I suspect many of these insecure people are very mid at actual comp/balanced/skill based games.
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If you mean party as in a game you play with friends on the weekend to cut loose then yes it can be considered that and even the devs have labeled it that before, but as in a literal party game then no its nothing like a Mario party type game.
I honestly don't enjoy this game like I used to but I still play from time to time just feels kinda stale and none of my friends play anymore so there's rarely a reason to hop on unless I want to play a few rounds of killer.
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I believe that is for everyone to decide for themselves when they're playing but I would take into account that if you do consider it a party game and are screwing around some people may not like that if you're solo queue.
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very simple.
Can I give a second controller to someone sitting next to me to play alongside me?
Do I need to pay attention for more than 2-3 minutes at a time?
if all answers are no. it's not a party game.
So no. dbd is not a party game. just a game you can play casually if you want.
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I prefer the term casual game tbh
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You know that one game can be associated with different genres, right? These aren't mutually exclusive.
Take any CoD game for example. They all are FPS games, but they are also associated with the genres: multiplayer, competitive, coop, shooter, action, solo player... you get the idea.
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If playing KYF/Customs with friends and goofing off it can work as a party game, and hell of a good one with the right people. In solo queue, SWF, and killer most of us are queueing up for casual play because we're all here to have fun (even if some players may take it a little too seriously).
DBD in SWF is a really good social game, it's helped create plenty of bonds of mine because in the end even if we lose a lot we have a damn good time chit-chatting about life or cracking jokes while surviving or dying to the slasher.
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Party games are collections of mini-games wrapped in a central theme; Fall Guys is a game show, Mario Party is a board game, for example. You do know that an asymmetrical multiplayer game doesn't share genres with a kart racer or a fighting game, right? You do know certain genres can be mutually exclusive, right?
You do realise that an asymmetrical multiplayer game isn't a party game because it meets none of the requirements to be a party game, right? You do realise party game and asymmetrical multiplayer game aren't nebulous terms without a clearly defined meaning, right? Does Dead By Daylight contain a collection of mini-games wrapped in a central theme? No? Then it's not a party game.
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Party games: "Games that are played at social gatherings."
This can apply to every mutliplayer game ever.
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Party games, again, traditionally, are games played at parties. Party games, the videogame genre, are collections of mini-game with a centralised theme. By your own very brief definition of a party game, DBD still isn't a party game. And again, party game (the genre of videogame), is not a nebulous term without a clear definition. Even traditional party games are essentially a collection of mini-games wrapped in a central theme (an actual party). Why you're trying to redefine established terms, I don't know, but this is a very silly hill to die on.
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I often load the game up to solo'Q after I've had a hard night at work and a good smoke. Nothing the entity can throw at me (Tunneling, etc) can be worse than what i've gone through already.
If I just wake up, I never Solo'q til much later.
All this means, to me, there is no party to be had. Its a party game if you load up 5 friends in a custom and cycle. Thats the only party element. Even throwing snowballs in an EVENT draws ire and crap talking. 'I tunneled you because you threw snowballs at me." Really? What a lame party.
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I don't know where this restrictive definition of party game came from. Back in the day, games like Micro Machines 2 for the Sega Mega Drive would have fitted the definition of a party game, because 8 players could play together on one console (which was a rare experience at the time). So would GoldenEye 007 for the N64. Neither are Mario Party style games.
I dunno, maybe I'm just clueless and old but I'd say any multiplayer game with random elements and a greater emphasis on fun and chaos could be considered a party game. I think Smash Bros and Mario Kart fit the bill in that respect. Maybe casual game is a better definition, but I tend to think of casual games as having broader appeal and being a bit more relaxed / chill and DBD is definitely not that!
Of course, you can bring a hyper competitive mindset to the game if you want to, just like you can to any multiplayer game. But as I said, I don't think the game was really designed to be played with an e-sports mentality and your opponents probably won't enjoy their experience if that's how you want to play.
Most of the changes that Behaviour make to the game seem to be aimed at making the game more fun for players, as opposed to more competitive (hence why camping and tunnelling is somewhat discouraged and the strongest meta perks are often nerfed).
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Getting caught up in the weeds of the definition of party game is where these discussions tend to go. DbD obviously is not a short game with a variety of mini-games so when people say DbD is a party game, they obviously mean something else.
I'll agree with @Xernoton
I want the game to be 'fair' but still random enough to allow for stupid and funny plays, that sometimes just might work.I don't want anything too broken, but I don't need it to be perfectly fair. That some maps favor the killer or survivor is fine, I'll take variety over repetition. The very nature of the game is towards casual play, the survivors have no idea who the killer is going to be and are just making guesses on what perks to bring.
I think the Devs should focus on 'fun' over 'balance', though as mentioned above any thing too broken impacts fun. I think the best argument that killers had against Dead Hard before the last nerf wasn't that it was unbalanced, but that it wasn't fun running behind a survivor trying to bait out a DH. That's why I'd like them to look at leaving the survivors to bleed out for four minutes, 3 genning, tunneling, and 4 mega toolbox gen rush. Whether some of those are balanced or not aren't as important as they just aren't a very fun game.
Overall, I think the game is in a pretty good place, though I might be biased because I'm coming off a good string of games. Just had one where a survivor used Boon: Exponential against a Huntress on Dead Dawg. Three times we were able to pick ourselves back up. We all died, but it was the type of interesting and unique experience of randomness that if I play for another 1000 hours I probably won't encounter any game like that combination again.
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No, it's not a party game. I believe the intention was for it to be one at the start, but over time it's turned into what it is today. The closest thing it is now is a ranked pvp game without the ranking support/features.
Yes, you can play it with a "party" of friends, but that doesn't make it a party game. You can go on a murderous rampage irl with your friends, too, but I assure you no one (except maybe Legion) would consider that a party game.
The issue is that the game doesn't know what it wants to be, and BHVR is not providing any options or features to the game to help sort it out (or provide the players with options on how they want to play).
As near as I can tell the game was supposed to be a cash grab and likely be shut down after a year, but wound up being popular. That's why it has little of the things you would expect a game like this to have. Not just from the start, but over seven years later. It wasn't setup properly, wasn't maintained properly, and they kept throwing DLCs and cosmetics at it expecting the cash cow to run dry at any time. Realistically, with how limited the game is and how spaghettified the code is, I wouldn't recommend holding your breath for BHVR to do anything massively different with the game than they already have.
Without rebuilding it from the ground up with an updated engine, structured and expandable/upgradeable code, reliable servers, and an actual plan, I'm kinda concerned about them considering game modes like 5v5 and 8v2. Although I'd love to have that, Nemesis can't even have more than two zombies up because the trial would crash. Seven seems to be the hard cap for number of players/bots in a trial before things go haywire.
Most every event old previously-fixed bugs pop up and new ones appear. I keep wondering at what new DLC release is the game going to collapse in upon itself. 👻
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As survivor - Absolute party game. Job is to make the match as miserable for the killer as possible. Relaxing, a laugh, no pressure so it doesn't matter if you die, providing you give the killer the runaround for a bit.
Killer - Not a party game. Anger/frustration simulator.
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I play both roles, I'm a Bloodpoint Main, I go where the incentive is.
This is in no way a party game, it is just too intense and I love it.
As Survivor, there is nothing like opening the exit gates when the killer could come at any second. It gets my adrenaline rushing.
Everything down to the music and environments are very horror themed. I always love hearing that music on 1st hook, it's so suspenseful and never gets old.
Will they save me in time?
The situations you find yourself in are intense, even if you don't take the game seriously.
I think Mario Party and games advertised as such are party games. Not this game, in my opinion.
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it would have to be fun to be considered a party game, right?
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