Please revert the DC penalty decay mechanic

Respectfully, I have to disagree.

Dead by Daylight is… at its core… a multiplayer game. That naturally means that every match we play is a shared experience. And with that shared experience comes a certain level of responsibility towards our fellow players, something that is often underestimated or simply ignored.

In the past, DC penalties would automatically decay over time. This led to a pattern where some players would essentially treat a daily DC as a "free pass":

• "I haven’t DC’d yet today, and this match isn’t fun, so I’ll just quit."
• "It’s getting late, I’ll be off soon anyway – no point sticking this one out."
  The system was exploitable, and people took advantage of that. That’s not what a penalty is supposed to be… something that resets just by waiting.

Now, under the new system, the penalty only decays through actual participation. Yes, it’s a bit stricter. But it also makes quitting less convenient… and that’s precisely the point. You’re no longer rewarded for stepping away after a rage-DC. You need to play and complete matches. That seems like a fair baseline expectation in a shared gaming environment.

I understand the frustration… especially in edge cases, like being held hostage or facing blatant cheaters. I’ve been there myself. But even then, I personally choose to record, report, and move on. I rarely encounter DC penalties, because when I truly don’t enjoy a match, I finish it and then simply close the game. It’s okay to take a break.

If someone finds themselves frequently in matches they don’t want to finish… maybe it’s worth reflecting on whether the game is still delivering what they’re looking for. In that case, perhaps it's not the penalty system that needs reevaluation – but the relationship with the game itself.

And as a final note: if someone’s unhappy with the direction the game is heading, continuing to pour hundreds into cosmetics while simultaneously demanding reform probably sends a mixed message. Just food for thought.

Honestly, I feel like some parts of this community have grown extremely thin-skinned over the years. The moment consequences are introduced for behavior that actively harms others, it's seen as "too harsh."

If the DC penalty would be removed entirely, let's be real → maybe 1 in 10 matches would actually finish with five real players. Any slightly "undesirable" match condition (wrong killer, wrong map, early down, fast gen, etc.) would be reason enough to leave.

The current system might not be perfect, but it adds a minimum layer of accountability in a shared multiplayer experience. And by the way: the crow/AFK system was just adjusted in the most recent patch… longer timers, softer accumulation, full resets after interaction.

So maybe the real issue isn't how unforgiving the penalty is... but how little tolerance some players have when things don’t go their way.

You’re 💯 right. This is exactly why they changed it, as they should.