Why do you keep playing Dead by Daylight if you're unhappy with it?

yeh me and my friends have picked up For Honor (a game made by a team who seems to not even care about balance so much it makes me appreciate BHVR actually trying) and I'm hoping to play through rain world with them too. Always diversify games.

I'll play it for about an hour but I haven't spent a dime since Castlevania.

Honestly its just funny seeing how bad each patch can be for me, like a good portion of the PTB for this patch was absolutely terrible and glitchy so watching it somehow be worse and still glitchy is honestly really funny and no other game that I play does that

I think it’s because there’s nothing else like it. If I was frustrated with Valorant, there’s plenty of other games that play just like it. If I was frustrated with Call of Duty or Destiny, again, there’s other games like it. DBDs closest games aren’t anything like it, and they usually don’t survive. There is no game I can say that Nicolas Cage is getting chased by Matthew Lillard in a Springtrap costume… while Lara Croft borrows a flashbang from Leon Kennedy, but ends up fumbling the save because she was body blocked by a screaming Steve Harrington. There simply nothing like it.

I agree with some others here as well that addiction, and a sunken cost fallacy also apply. But I also think the fact that there simply is no alternative to this game, is a big reason why people just can’t let go no matter how poor the quality of life can be.

we play it because there’s no other good asymmetrical horror game that’s good out currently. We’re all waiting for the return of F13.

Personally, whilst there are flaws with the game, I'm not obsessed with winning enough to care that deeply. Yes, I want to escape every trial, or get a 3/4k but I'm not that bothered if it doesn't happen. I only get a bit frustrated if I get tunnelled by a Nurse/Blight/etc because I'm likely to be killed out the trial within a few minutes. I think the core gameplay is fun in general. If you're obsessed with winning, then I think most games multiplayer games won't be fun for you. In most games with an MMR ranking system, you'll be expected to win/lose about 50% of your games unless you're one of the best/worst players in the world.

It's a unique game. The experience of playing survivor is unlike any other game I've ever played.

It's also the only game I've ever found watching other people play to be actually entertaining so content creators really keep me invested.

I also have no problem walking away when the game gets broken by a patch or I'm just kind of burned out. So I don't hate play, if I think something has been messed up in the game enough I just play something else until they improve the game.

I don't like asymmetrical horror games. I've played better in the genre for sure, but none of them make an impact because even when the game is great, the genre isn't very fulfilling. I don't typically have fun playing DBD at all like I did once upon a time. The game has always been designed either intentionally or unintentionally to be one of the most frustrating gaming experiences out there. And sure the devs are better around us than they have been historically and I do acknowledge that, but years of being talked down to and ignored and treated adversarially has left a dark cloud over the community that may always be there. I never feel like I'm being told the truth and so much of what happens has to be inferred from a one-sided perspective.

So why do I stay? I'm not really sure. It's a simple enough game loop, regardless of how good it is or not. I'm still tied to characters like David that I know don't exist anywhere else. There's always that hope that the game will be better too, which I personally believe is levied against us, but is still there all the same. I guess it helps too that I have a pretty positive outlook on life and am not an unhappy person, so I have the room to dedicate something like DBD which I believe is a genuinely unhealthy experience for many. I don't think it's the worst thing ever to have an outlet for rage and negativity.

I play it, because every other asymmetrical game that lets me play the villain has died. For my part, I love playing the bad guy, and the challenge of being the lone role going up against a team. I used to buy or play the other ones for the same reason, starting with Evolve, and yet, all of them had the same problems:

1. Too much power/tools given to the team role, making it more of a bully simulator for anyone playing the "power role", rather than a Powerful entity vs. a team that is forced to work together to win.
2. Lack of character/player expression/agency. Basically, the power role became reduced to a few standard ways of play, all noted and counter ready, so no matter how you played them, there was no expression of individuality, no way to throw the team off with something they wouldn't expect, and the same went for them, resulting in "Meta's" that if too powerful, made it entirely one sided.
3. Catering to the majority vs. the role that gave them purpose. I can't stress enough how many times in all of the Asymmetrical horror games the team role received buffs, while the power roll either remained stagnant or got nerfed. The team role has more players, and caving into their demands becomes slippery slope, that until recently, DbD has done a good job at avoiding.
4. Dumbing down the gameplay experience. Evolve was the worst offender on this… It was a game of hide and seek, wherein the monster hid and built strength while the team of hunters tried to stop it from maxing out. Once they introduced arena mode, which put them all in a small, closed off area, but left the monster still having to build up the 3 evolution phases, and nowhere to hide… it got stupid. Faster paced, yes, but ultimately REALLY stupid, and incredibly stressful for the monster, especially with how Over tuned the hunters became.
5. Purely competitive play. Nothing casual, just Survival of the fittest. If you were one of the best of the power role, it became a total chore to keep playing, because every team you went up against were either training for tournaments or already tournament level players. While this may be a praise worthy compliment towards your skill in the power role… I saw it as a testament to your masochism. It stopped being fun Long ago, and now that you've dug the hole this deep, there is no way out other than throwing every match until it gets casual and fun again.
6. Spider is introduced. You may think I'm silly for mentioning this, but so far… 2 Asymmetrical horror games have fallen very shortly after introducing a spider character! Evolve introduced the Gorgon, and died 3 months later. The last Year introduced the Fiend (big ass spider), and died in less than a month! I see a pattern here, and as much as a spider-themed killer sounds great on paper, I pray that DbD doesn't fall for the same temptation… it's too risky!

Overall, I play it because, despite where its going atm, and how worried I am that it'll follow suit with the others that made these mistakes, it's still done a "pretty good job so far" at avoiding them, and remained fun (for the most part) for either role played. Here's hoping that DbD continues to throw each side a curve ball, and doesn't completely favor one side over the other. Right now it seems heavily leaning towards survivor, and is becoming outright frustrating, if not painful for the killer role, but next patch may prove otherwise… we'll just have to wait and see.

I’ve been playing almost every day since 2018. This time feels different. While I enjoy the game a lot, it feels actually bad lately. Like, I can handle a toxic SWF, bad teammates, tons of bugs and assorted things that just don’t work. But now…. In the past week I’ve gotten matches with blatant cheaters and nothing was done with my reports, a nasty gram in my inbox for being AFK when my controller died, and a suspicious activity warning when everyone got hooked at once, the game auto-ended and go next prevention decided I had died too quickly.

It feels like after thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars spent, the game isn’t against a killer or 4 survivors, it’s BHVR against me, a dedicated player, making me feel like I’m doing something wrong by having normal things go wrong during gameplay.