Is using Equalizers Cheating? Hens vs Ayrun debate

Thank you for the correction.
I do not use nor am I familiar with third party programs, especially when it comes to its use in the game.

Fortunately my lack of understanding regarding its exact features doesn't skew the definition nor how it fits said definition, so the core point stands.

As with things like crosshairs, monitors where you modify the brightness and contrast to effectively nullify darkness effects, or using accessibility features you don't need to give yourself a greater advantage... these are broadly speaking things I would consider at least unsporting if not cheating, but they can't really be guarded against or enforced.

I'm a purist when it comes to games, and to me using 3rd party software, hardware or accessibility features to bypass balacing factors in the game goes against the spirit of the game and is something I would frown upon.

When it comes to Equalisers, like all the examples above… no one can stop you... But you're kinda lame for doing it.

Why can't BHVR just ban players for using any 3rd party program and / or changing ingame files so EVERYONE is on the same playing field?

"Using 3rd party software or other tools to gain any kind of unfair advantage that wasn’t intended by the game, except if they have been whitelisted by us."

If a killer uses a equalizer to remove the chase music and to make survivor steps and breathing easier to hear, I don't see any problems with it. Every other instance I'd say is cheating

The visual heartbeat is only a benefit to the survivor role, and does nothing to address audio issues for killers (nor other audio issues for survivors at that.) If it did things like give visual representations for footsteps (from all sources,) as well as grunts/heavy breathing/GF's cloak/etc, then you would have a point (and I would love to see the setting be expanded upon for more auditory information for both sides.)

There is a lot of information that someone (with a condition like, say, APD) can find near impossible to properly identify in the game's audio balancing, especially in a timely manner.

There are monitors that brighten shadows so you can see better where you normally couldn't.

Equalizers boost or damper sound within frequency ranges so you can hear better where you normally couldn't.

but again, I believe it can be done with external sound hardware too? making it no different from gaming gear

cheating, not bannable, and the best way to fix this problem is to stop using sounds for balancing

• You may be a famous content creator, but you may have the wrong opinions. This to me is cheating. It's the same thing as monitor filters that increase the killer's red spot. Obviously the game remains unchanged, but you have a good advantage

I'm not sure what the point of this response is, as the intention is largely irrelevant.

The user is still using a third party program (condition 1), to derive an advantage (condition 2), that the average player cannot access (condition 3). Their opponents are very likely unaware you have this advantage (condition 4a), and the developers have not whitelisted this program as far as I know (condition 4b).

It's very easy for people to justify things in their mind because they think they're some special exception, but they really aren't. As long as the conditions are met, which they are by general and DBD-specific definitions, its use is still cheating.

Now, does that mean you will be punished, or people will think less of you?
Maybe, I don't know.

The developers have a long stance on just wanting players to have fun and being quite understanding about individual's needs, so I doubt anyone will be punished if I had to guess. The opinions of others should not matter to, but if they do, it will likely be a mixed bag of those sympathetic to one's mental health issues; whereas others will be upset that they are still cheating. If I really had to guess again, especially for those suffering from mental health issues, I bet those who need to use the volume controller to help maintain themselves would even be encouraged to do so.

I also feel the need to clarify that I'm not condemning the use of these programs. As stated, I do not think the developers care and I would bet, if pushed into a corner, they would even encourage its use, especially if you mention it helps with your mental health issues. I'm sure they just want you and others to have fun. As such, me worrying about what is right and wrong to do in this game would be a nonsensical and subjective train of thought that would eventually exhaust me.

I am simply answering the question stated in the thread, which asks whether or not the use of Equalizer is cheating - and the answer is yes, by definition, it is. The only issue after that is whether users like you can accept and be okay with that, or deny and justify it because you believe your situation somehow makes you an exception to that definition. Either way, that's not an argument I can (nor should) be involved in.

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In case your curious what advantage I'm talking about, specifically lowering the scream volume is still a beneficial luxury that the average player does not have and can affect game play by reducing your own personal recoil and allowing an easier time for the user to stay in the game (which you fully admit to using it for).

Direct cheating to me would be messing around with game files for advantage, but ultimately it's up to the devs to determine what goes or not. Now things like equalizers and filters etc. cannot be really detected let alone controlled by them, nor comms for that matter. How could they enforce anything along these lines?

Visuals and especially sounds are so important to DBD gameplay, and the devs have spent countless hours & resources to get the game where they want it to look and sound. Players going around all that purposely just feels wrong, and to those who cannot mess around with these things very very unfair. To someone on Switch reading for example about "this at 60 frames and that at 120 frames" it can feel downright criminal.

Sadly issues like this widen the disparity between the game experience across the platforms, which is already disproportionately large for DBD. But again, unenforceable.

Exactly. That is most definitely cheating. But it's not something BHVR has any control over.

they actually could not crack down on those programms.

since the program itself does not touch the game or its files but just the audio/video that the game produces there is no wayfor bhvr to even know you use a program. only if they would track every single program that runs on your pc while you play dbd they could do that and i dont know i that would be legal but im pretty sure most gamers would not tollerate that. and lets not forget you can get the same effect with hardware and what will bhvr do then? put a worker in your room while you play ^^

This is actually where debates get super fun and occasionally raunchy, but I'm going to do my best to limit how much I type (but no promises).

So now we're actually leaving the argument of what constitutes cheating, and entering the argument of what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' to do withinin the context of cheating. The actual answer of what is 'right' and 'wrong' depends on the person, their perspectives, and their personal standards. As such, the debate becomes an eternal back-and-forth between two or more individuals with different perspectives/standards and rarely ever comes to a tidy conclusion.

But first, to respond to you directly: yes, the use of an external resource to cover up a disadvantage is a form of cheating by definition. To understand why that is, we have to understand why cheating is defined the way it is in the first place.

The reason for that is because competition, at its essence, is an activity between two or more individuals in an attempt to discover who is superior at that activity. This includes capitalizing on one's own strengths and covering for one's weaknesses, while simultaneously trying to exploit the other's weaknesses and avoid their strengths. The reason why competition is so exciting is because everyone is born with different strengths and weaknesses (some might be stronger, faster, calmer, more tactical, strategic, reactive, discerning, etc.). And it is the utilization of those various attributes to see which is superior that makes competition so fun.

However when someone starts using external resources to cover up their flaws or enhance their strengths, the integrity and purpose of the competition becomes challenged and even diminished. This is particularly true when the opponent has no knowledge of the use of those external tools; because they will (as they should) try to exploit those flaws, but then inadvertently place themselves in a losing position because of that.

This is why cheating has 4 parts to its definition:
1. The 'cheat' in question has to be an external tool (third party program in this case)
2. The 'cheat' in question has to give the user some form of advantage (diminishes the significance of one's natural strengths and weaknesses, which competitions are used to gauge)
3. The 'cheat' in question is not readily available to all competitors (so the average competitor cannot utilize it, creating an uneven competitive landscape)
4a. The 'cheat' in question is not known and consented to by opponents (which leads to poor decisions based on incomplete information at no fault of the competitor)
4b. The 'cheat' in question is not sanctioned by the competition's governing board (this is to respective the competition organizer's wishes, since they are the host)

Now there is somewhat an exception to this, and that is when the competitive activity itself is specifically about utilizing whatever you can to maximize your rate of success at any cost. Survival is the oldest example of this, where every person, and heck every animal, does its best to do what it can to survive with only their conscience to limit them. A more modern gaming example of these competitions would be battle royales like PUBG where, even if not necessarily fair for someone with a gun to kill someone unarmed, the whole purpose of the game is to place yourself in those advantages situations however you can.

Even in the PUBG example however, because it is still a video game, the advantages you can try to take are still limited to what's available in the game itself. Third party programs, like here, are still cheating. The main I was aiming to get across however, was that there are definitely competitions out there where the individuals are encouraged to use whatever they can to succeed. Funny enough though, even in those situations where everything goes, these conditions defining what is cheating still applies. The reason they don't get violated though is because of rule 4a, where, in these types of competitions, everyone should be aware that there are essentially are no limits, and therefore the competitors are expected to expect the unexpected (that's fun to say).

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I went into a bit of a tangent in the last two paragraphs there, but they're relevant and fun so I opted to keep them.

Going back to the original topic:

So yes, using an external resource to mitigate one's weakness is a form of cheating because part of a competition is utilizing the opponent's weaknesses to come out on top. By removing those weaknesses, you provide yourself with an artificial advantage that violates the integrity of the sport since it's no longer an active gauge on how well you do as an individual. It also misleads opponents into making poor decisions they otherwise would not have made.

A great example of this is the use of shaders or even basic brightness adjustments as a killer. Competitive integrity is harmed by using these, since part of the many attributes that constitute a person's skill-set is their attentiveness to details as well as their ability to discern those details in the first place. By lowering the significance of these skills on gameplay, it becomes harder to correctly judge who is the superior killer in this instance, because we immediately give favour to those who excel in certain aspects of the game over others (like chasing instead of finding).

It's not only the killer players who excel at detail attentiveness and discernment that suffer from these competitive violations either, as the average survivor plays believing that what they see on the screen is how their opponent perceives things. Little do they know, hiding in what - should - be a dark corner of the map, is actually suicidal for them and leads to them making a critical error through no fault of their own. It's not just simply not fair to either party in this scenario, and that is what makes it cheating.

A similar line of reasoning exists for audio, but I went with shaders since visual benefits are easier to discuss and understand in my opinion.

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But circling back to the beginning, does that mean it is 'right' or 'wrong' to cheat by using external resources like shaders, brightness adjustments, EQ, or even discord communications to derive an advantage?

I cannot say.

It is understandable that people get frustrated by the use of these cheats since it does de-emphasize the importance of certain individual skills in the game. It is also equally frustrating when an opponent has these advantages and you are not aware of them, leading you to commit to an action that's only a mistake because you did not know your opponent was using them.

But on the other hand, this is both a business and a game, so inclusivity and comfort is just as important. After all, why support this game if it's not profitable, and why play it if it is not fun? The developers understand this, and that's why I will be surprised if they do anything less than encourage all but the most blatant and overbearing types of cheating. Though, because both stances for and against cheating have valid points, they're more likely to stay silent so as not to alienate either their competitive nor casual audiences (which I'd say has been their approach for awhile now).

So while I will argue to the death that the use of EQ, reshade, and whatever else is cheating by both the general and DBD-specific definition (until whitelisted anyway) since it violates the integrity of competition; I will not argue for or against its use, especially if it helps people with their mental health issues.

(that was a fun write up)

I know, and I don't like it to be that way, so removing it is fair

Thanks!

I put quite a bit of thought into posts like this, so the acknowledgement is appreciated and I'm happy someone else enjoys breakdowns like this too.

You don't like the rules of the games so putting them aside artificially is fair?

Do you always cheat when you don't like the rules of a game?

Very hard topic but for an ACTUAL reason no. If a hard of hearing person is using an equalizer I wouldn't consider it cheating. But then if the average joe comes along with no hearing problems and decides to play spirit and magically know where every single person is in the game despite not running and even crouching to lower breathing sounds and getting rid of chase music…. I would consider that cheating.

First question, yes, when people are playing in MY games, I like to have MY rules, simple as. If I'm playing as killer, which is the driving force behind the game (without killers, survivors wouldn't be able to do anything aside from gens, totems and chests), I believe that I should have a bigger say in the rules that are in place in MY lobbies.

Also, the second question is quite inflammatory, we haven't come to a conclusion yet if this technology is cheating or not, at least until the devs say something on the matter. I honestly see equalizers as the next logical step, we have had filters for YEARS, MAP SPECIFIC FILTERS and stretched resolution before that. What difference does it make if I mute some annoying sounds like chase music? We have arguably been doing and accepting worse things over the years, are we just going to throw all of that away because of sounds, of all things? I don't think so

difficult to say without knowing exactly what those programs can or can't do. - If it's something that can also be achieved by calibrating your headphones in a specific way then no; it's not cheating. If it actually isolates specific frequencies and alters them similar to how some audio-software does it, then yes, it is. But I kinda doubt there's software that can do that realtime and without weird sound glitches.

It's almost like there's that debate in various sports; how over-engineered should shoes or bicycles or whatnot allowed to be? The one on a 6 kg carbon bike definitely has an advantage over the one on a 20kg steel bike - but that still doesn't mean the one carbon bike is cheating.