http://dbd.game/killswitch
I uninstalled DBD
I started playing DBD in March of 2025 I believe, and have sunk almost 900 hours into the game, now every time I play it, all I feel is anxious, tired, and completely over it at the same time. I really enjoyed it for a while, but lately it's just been exhausting. Wins don't feel rewarding anymore, and when I do want to win, I have to resort to tunnelling and slugging really hard, otherwise 9/10 times, the survivors absolutely destroy me.
I don't like playing this way. I just want to be able to relax and have fun when I play the game. However, when I decide I want to relax and play fair, I end up losing miserably almost every single time. It feels like playing anything other than high mobility killers now is just an instant loss, which really sucks since I love to play The Artist, yet she's so so weak in the current meta.
On top of all this I was really excited for the new Trickster update, but as a killer main who dares to play anything other than Nurse or Blight; the new map is completely insufferable. It really sets the tone for what kind of game BHVR envisions DBD to become, and I don't agree with it one bit.
I was originally going to stick around until the Grimoire chapter came out as the prototype the devs released for the new killer seemed pretty interesting, but this game has been eating away at my mental health and I just can't for now.
Maybe I'll come back at some point, but for now, I'm staying far away from this game. I just hate the direction this game is going in. Bigger maps, more cosmetics, more licenses… It just seems like the devs care more about making a buck than they do making a legitimately fun for all, balanced, functioning game and addressing the plethora of bugs and problems that continue to plague this game, and I can't support that anymore right now.
I know I'm not really anyone important to this community, and I doubt anyone is going to care that I've stopped playing this game, but I figured I'd come here and share why anyways.
Comments
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I care, I completely understand how you feel. I feel the same.
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Games are meant to be fun, if you're not having fun the sensible solution is to stop playing, you have made the right call.
Drop back and tell those of us still trapped what the outside world is like sometime. 😁
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will do lol. I work everyday in the sun so I’ll let ya know, but yea my poll and post kinda explains how I feel and what should be brought back lol
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I would suggest not quitting forever, but doing regular breaks. Its the best way to enjoy this game. I always give a 3 weeks ~ 1month+ break between updates and events so i don't get burnt out from the game. It was the best way i've found to enjoy the game.
I would suggest playing survivor with friends on Bloodmoon (you can find them in DBD discord or regional discords with DBD players) so you can at least enjoy the event and the BP bonus it gives.
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I've felt for awhile that 1k to 3k hours is when people either burn out or keep going. The novelty has worn off by then and the stress takes over, and your MMR has gone up on top, making it more of a struggle. The thing that helped for me (and still does) is changing roles. If one role is aggravating me or getting monotonous, I switch. Playing with other people is also one of the games better experiences. It really lightens things up, especially if you're all just playing for laughs.
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No game is worth your mental health suffering. Stepping away is a good call
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If you want to enjoy DbD, you need to stop worrying for other players. They don't care about your fun either.
Tunneling and slugging is a major part of the game. The better the players you face, the more it is nessacary to ensure a huge amount of pressure.
And for one thing, DbD is not a game to "chill". The game is really exhausting in the long run if you know what I mean.
I've struggled a lot with burn out from DbD in the past. But once I accecpted that a lot of these unpleasant strategies (goes for both sides) are a major part of the game, only played when I was in good condition (not tired or exhausted etc.) and stopped taking anything too serious, I really found my way back to DbD.-9 -
honestly I would recommend to anyone to uninstall/quit dbd and I would actively advise people not to pick up this game if they wanted to play killer. The devs flat out refuse to listen to any killer feedback and insist on only catering to survivors. The game is in a horrible spot for killer and isn't fun anymore and it's all because of the devs poor balancing choices, like if anyone wanted to start a petition to get the balance team replaced I would sign it so fast. At this point I still like the concept of the game but I absolutely despise the devs that make it.
Post edited by FoxGhoul on-11 -
-Fog vial nefs (they just got restored to usable)
- Anti tunneling and slugging scrapped
- Pallet density drama
- anti camp radius nerf
-Buffs to slowdown and new slowdown to counter pre running
- Medkit nerfs, (purple ad on is still worse then a brown ad on)
But no, the Devs apparently don't listen to the killer side even if action prove otherwise11 -
- You were right to uninstall the game if it doesn't give you pleasure/fun. I've been playing since 2020 (so 6 years now), and I think 90% of "modern" players (like you) couldn't stand a single game back then. If you approach the game lightheartedly and with the pure spirit of fun, especially without expecting to always win (which should be normal, but not in this game where players inexplicably expect to always win), DBD is simply perfect. I think the blame for this collective negativity lies largely with content creators, who have an overly competitive and polemical mindset.
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By all means, do so if you feel like it.
DbD is a toxic cesspit of a game. If the game infuriates or exhausts you, dropping it for however long you wish is the good thing to do.
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Nothing wrong with taking a break, even coming from the survivor aisle of things.
I get like that too at times, I kinda just go back to single player games (Crusader Kings 3 has been my comfort game - even though I haven't touched it in weeks) but taking a break from a game that's increasingly became more competitive as time progressed (we cannot go back in time to where survivors and killers don't know what they are doing anymore).
I just learned to accept it, even if it sounds counterintuitive to some. I might get tunneled, I might get farmed off of hook - but I just look at it from a perspective of doing my best in the trial to ensure my teammates get out.
If anything, taking a break when obvious burnout is showing is a healthy choice and even if I am on the other side of the aisle, I wish you the best and hope to see you in the fog if you come back for future updates.
All the best, @KytLuna ❤️
Edit: also, you are important. You might not be a popular forum poster on here, well known, or whatever metric you determine as important but you are. Don't put yourself down like that, your mental health matters - just like for any burnt out survivor too.
Artist struggles on the new map due to the fact that she can't really trap on the map itself. (she is great on outdoor, but struggles indoor - in my opinion). I only played her once and gave up on her because I loaded in on The Game, so if it makes you feel any better - you can feel good that you lasted longer than I have as Artist. 🤗
Artist is a very skill intense killer in my opinion and just know that it's not you, it's the map (which is normal for all killers)
Like I told my ex-friend who plays Kaneki and Wesker, those killers are not good on the new map due to the clutter and having to deal with the indoor portions (the streets is god awful for survivor) but you know, I did recommend him to play Skull Merchant (his old main) - technically I said any Trap killer and he chose Skull Merchant... and you know, I mean he was dominating - so, once you reach the conclusion that some killers are great here and not so great there, you won't see it as a skill issue on your end.
Post edited by CautionaryMary on2 -
this game has been eating away at my mental health and I just can't for now
Sorry to hear this. Taking a break is a healthy choice and you can always choose to come back at a later time. No game is worth your mental health.
It just seems like the devs care more about making a buck
I definitely agree with this, and I think there's another issue that largely gets overlooked about this game: there is no actual design philosophy of DbD.
What I mean there is that the devs don't appear to have any cohesive direction that guides the game design internally.
BHVR never seems to ask the question "how do we want our game to be played" and balance or design around that. BHVR appears to ask "how do our players want to continue paying us for this game we have".
Something like path of exile (grinding gear games) puts a ton of effort into game design. They have such a clear idea of how they want their game to look that they put out "development manifestos" which are huge, lengthy explanations of most every detail of a game mechanic or system to explain why they did it the way they did, and why they steered clear of doing it any another way. And while I don't always agree with their choice, I at least can understand where they are coming from and see that they have thought through every detail and nuance.
BHVR does not do this. There is, from the outside, zero direction for the game - aside from "do what makes money". That's the only thing that makes sense with what we see regularly here.
Because what happens when you have a consistent game direction and design is that the community isn't creating it for you. The loudest voices can't just scream and shut down months of development work because you should be able to address those concerns with "this is how we want you to play the game, so it's fun and fair, and these changes support that desire and design".
I don't believe BHVR has ever done this. They don't know how people "should" be playing the game, because the design is apparently "do whatever makes money". They have no answer to "what does the ideal match of DbD play out like". DbD is more of a creative sandbox for "do whatever you want as long as you're buying things". And you can see this in other games they've done (specifically death garden and meet your maker) where they do the exact same thing, just haven't lucked into a fun gameplay loop.
They cater hard to community outcry because they have no idea what the game should be, but they know what people will continue to pay for.
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Trust me, it's for the best to take a break from time to time. Kinda with any game, but especially with this game.
If it's permanent break, even better for you.
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"Because what happens when you have a consistent game direction and design is that the community isn't creating it for you. The loudest voices can't just scream and shut down months of development"
Once upon a time they did just have a goal, implement it, and too damn bad if you hated it.The notorious update 6.1 is a good example, the SBMM change as well. I think the last couple of years though it has been just as you said - the community is making the decisions for them. Couple of reasons I think. First, they probably didn't expect this game to last this long so they think if it's not broken, don't fix it. And second, I think new player retention is probably very low, so their focus is on keeping the long time players happy so they stick around, keep buying, and keep the game trudging along.
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The game is killer sided in every measurable metric. Exactly how much do you want your hand held?
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As a solo Q player, I myself had to take a very long break not long ago. It was a couple months, which may not sound like much but I used to play every day. I’m just now leaning back into the game, and while there’s still plenty of things that could be improved, I am able to enjoy it again.
You’re making the right choice stepping away if it’s affecting your mental health. FOMO is real, but it’s also toxic. Don’t let it push you into filling your valuable time with something that no longer serves you.
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The notorious update 6.1 is a good example
I actually believe that the 6.1 patch was when BHVR stopped doing this, coincidentally.
Because prior to 6.1, the community mindset was "gens weren't worth kicking", and the game was pushed toward killers constantly being in chase. So much so that even the 3s animation was considered a waste of time. Not to say that things like camping and tunneling didn't exist, but it was at least lesser.
And all of the meta perks at the time had chase as a core component: ruin, undying, tinkerer, lethal, BBQ, and I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two. These all pushed killers in the direction of "leave hook alone and go push survivors off gens", which I personally think was far more fun (for everyone), much healthier gameplay, and inherently slowed the game because juggling survivors kept them off gens.
All of that disappeared in 6.1, and BHVR "listened" to the community and just nerfed the meta to shake things up. Lopped of the top of the most used perks and just tossed random changes in to fill in the gaps.
I sincerely doubt that anyone actually designed the gen kick and 3 gen metas. Or if they did, they should be fired. Because simply asking the base level question of "what should gameplay look like" would give you the answer: probably not fighting for complete control over the objective at the expense of player interaction.
And the fact that it took a year to fix it also indicates that they had nothing to look to for "how should the game look", because the answer should've been "anything except that". If they had an idea of how gameplay should look, it wouldn't take a year to realign with that game direction.
Genuinely, I think that patch (largely) was the start of the community dictating have direction to BHVR. BHVR did make changes, but it definitely was not a good change for the game, at least not gameplay wise. It might've been profitable, apparently.
And, that's not to say everything was bad in that patch: removing DH for distance, Conspicuous actions, and base kit BT were desperately needed and healthy changes. But the community to this day still thinks of the game as controlling gens first, instead of player interaction, and I think that was absolutely for the worse.
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What I mean there is that the devs don't appear to have any cohesive direction that guides the game design internally.BHVR never seems to ask the question "how do we want our game to be played" and balance or design around that. BHVR appears to ask "how do our players want to continue paying us for this game we have".That does seem to be the state we're in.
Devs should have a philosophy for the game that is then tempered by the reality of what the player base is looking for on how it gets implemented. But the philosophy seems to be way too far at the back now (or just amounts to - cram every license and outfit into a game, any game).
I sincerely doubt that anyone actually designed the gen kick and 3 gen metas.It's interesting to think about.
Every game company probably has moments were they did something and got a totally different result than they anticipated.
But I'd love to compare how frequently BHVR has encountered 'oh, that's not how we expected that to go at all' compared to other companies.
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6.1 was a good update that the game needed. we went from so many staple MUST HAVE perks or you're TROLLING basically to "4 good comfy perks". it's just unfortunate we had some duds like the calm spirit nerfs, nerfing iron will the wrong way, and creating eruption overbrine. I felt so liberated not needing to be shackled by meta anymore. people may say there's still a meta but there's 0 perk you have to run on survivor anymore.
and while so many meta perks got the axe, I feel so many crap perks got boosted but people just forgot them because again, people only fixate on meta. 6.1 gave us a proper functioning NOLB which made me very excited.
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