After being bled out by my third TTV Dracula in an afternoon, I had a revelation. (Long)

There I was. Perhaps being humped, perhaps his steps were merely a coincidence. I heard the telltale "CLUNG" of my fourth minute of Yun-Jin Lee, famed record producer, being bled to death. I was the first to die on my team. Even though Chaos Shuffle is the "funny silly" mode, and it was a lobby full of cakes and streamers, this was about a 15,000 point game for me. So it goes.

The killer was live to a handful of viewers. He didn't have malice in his words. He wasn't a sociopath. I rewound the VOD.

The first down of the game was him taking out a No Mither Renato. Haha, No Mither in Chaos Shuffle. I had WGLF, so I was aware I could rush the slug if Dracula made that choice, for whatever reason, and it seemed Dracula had Infectious Fright and heard a Steve, so he did! I ran to Renato to get him up, I was successful! Now I'm in chase, I don't last long. I don't really play survivor, really only for challenges. Steve gets a flashlight save when I go down! Good stuff.

At that point, the same song begins. "Oh. I should have guessed this is a SWF. Even in a fun mode like Chaos Shuffle, these SWFs ruin everything. Okay, I'm gonna have to play dirty. I'll tunnel someone out if I can, maybe slug since I have infectious. I think Yun-Jin has WGLF so I'll get her back down." Down after down, the rant continues about SWFs ruining the game. We clearly brought BNPs (we did not,) styptics (we did not,) and we wouldn't let him have a single hook because we were on comms (the other steam player and I were solo, can't speak for the console players.) He then continued that every game was like this, every game today, every game in "what's supposed to be a mode for fun."

I went back in the VOD. It was. Every game was people swarming hooks and downs. BNPs, syringes. He was wrong about us; but we suffered for it. He wasn't wrong about his experience, but taking that out on us certainly sucked.

Then I thought broadly.

As I said, I don't really play survivor. I'm at about 5,000 hours, I'd say… 4000? 4200? Are killer. I only play survivor for tome challenges and if I have a friend on that wants to play, and as the game has… grown, we'll say, they've wanted to play less. I don't even dislike survivor, but survivor games are so out of my hands. If the killer has a bad day or is just a jerk, I'm gonna get tunneled through DS or OTR if I run them and the game won't be fun. Plus, you know, I like running "fun" perks. Killer? At least I have agency. If I get stomped? They just wanted it more than me. They took me to Eyrie with the most efficient stuff. Fine.

But it's the same story for that side, too. I've always been a "fair" killer. Maybe even a "fun" one. No, I don't want to tunnel you. No, I don't want to slug. I like stupid perks. My current build on most everyone is Brutal, Fire Up, Bamboozle, and whatever else I feel like (soon to be Forever Entwined) because I like how it feels. No, it's not good. But it feels good. I'm under no delusion of winning, but I'm also just not bad at this game, so I win pretty often and I'm against good survivors, so my lobbies are generally full of iridescent addons, map offerings, and anti-tunnel perks being used aggressively.

And if they're not, sometimes, they go like my Dracula TTV friend from earlier. Even with the stupid build I have on. You go to a stream, you go to a postgame lobby. I was tunneling (for being in their zipcode.) Why did I slug them? (I took the health state of another survivor and they were on the ground for 10 seconds) They brought a loadout that even comp players would call ridiculous (because they wanted to win/because they had miserable games earlier.) You hear instant complaints just about your killer choice; you hear them calling out perks you don't have; you hear them calling you sweaty as you just kick a gen and walk away.

Because that's what they're used to.

It doesn't matter if you're a Wholesome 9000, moonwalking Myers with no perks, no addons, nodding at pallets, it's your first game on DBD playing Freddy because you grew up watching Nightmare on Elm Street, or a 4 slowdown Blight who shrieks at the idea of a shower. Many players will see you the same. Likewise, it doesn't matter if you have Finesse, OTR, DS, your choice of exhaustion, and a syringe or if you bought Nic Cage because you recognize him as the greatest actor of all time and you've never played the game before. Many players will see you as the same.

It's okay to want to win every game. Games with MMR, even invisible MMR with no actual reward, consequence, or value like this one give people the drive to want to win every game to, uh… tell people that they know the value of their invisible number is very high. I know every chase and build before it starts, and the once a week I see someone just start playing a guitar in the middle of a chase truly makes me happy.

I just hope more people can start treating each other like we're people playing a game together instead of like we're playing a game against bloodsworn enemies.