Killer anxiety let's talk about it

I think this is a pretty good layout of the killer arguments, so let me explain why the opposite is true for people who find survivors anxious.

Note, this is not to deny that some people find the above anxious. However, its not a universal 'factual' feeling as has kind of come up in the thread, but something that applies to some people, not all. Just as what I'm about to say applies to some people, not all.

Killer: I think what sets killers and survivors apart in this is that a killer has nobody else to blame but themself.

Alternative: Two things here

1: You have no one to let down but yourself. Personally, I care far, far more about what happens when I'm in a team than playing individually. No one likes losing in either scenario, but if I make a bad play as survivor it bothers me far more than if I do as killer as I have not just let down myself, but three others.

2: Having to only worry about yourself takes out a lot of unknowns. Even if I'm doing a gen and someone else is in chase, I'm wondering - are they fine, should I be setting up for a save, bodyblock, stay on the gen, etc.

To try and not sound too critical of the killers in the thread as I'm trying to be fair minded - but the ease at which some blame the other survivors instead of themselves surprises me. I tend to focus on what I could have done better, as killer that's usually pretty clear, but survivor leaves you with lots of question marks (thus causing more stress).

Killer: When you lose as a killer, you're bad at the game, you're a loser and you obviously should uninstall. 

Alternative: Wins are rare, thus that feeling of almost getting it adds the stress. Again perspective, if I win four games as killer and lose one, I focus on the four I won, not the one I lost (I understand others are different). But when wins are rare and a game is going well it really ups the tension 'am I/we actually going to escape this time?'.

Edit to add: a related idea is that as survivor I never feel safe. Until we're all literally in the exit gate there's always the possibility of the match being turned. On the other hand, as killer I very rarely feel out of it until the gates are open. Some killers seem to stress when a few gens pop quickly, for me I don't worry about it as I feel like I have plenty of time and the area they have to attack is narrowing.

Killer: This is amplified by the fact that you as a killer have a lot of control over the match. 

Alternative: Kind of dealt with this above. The control is a relief. From the start of the match there are a lot less unknowns to worry about, I see the gens, picked the killer, and can make a general plan really quickly. While constantly doing something as killer, I'm deciding what to do (edit to add: much like a horror movie, where you build tension via quietness, those moments of 'am I safe? am I doing the right thing? what's going on? are far more stressful than the killer who never has the need to stew). As survivor though there are a lot of factors outside of my control, what the killer decides to do or the play of the other survivors.

Killer: You're stressing about a strategy, become stressed because your strategy didn't work out and because your strategy didn't work out, you are further away from winning the game, which also stresses you out.

Alternative: Kind of like the winning point. As killer I set up the strategy, but survivors have to do the work and beat it. Far more stressful as survivor to be doing that in the moment. If as killer my strategy is bad, I can see where I went wrong and take as much time to readjust as I need and/or the fact it wins far more outweighs.

Once your brain associates playing killer with that level of stress, you get killer anxiety.

That's true, but same for survivor.

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On a final personal note, I should add my take on this changed as I got older. When I was young I found playing on teams (soccer, basketball) fun and relaxing, but sought out individual sports (running, wrestling) because of how much more stressful/rewarding they felt. Now, being quite a bit older, I'm the opposite, if its just me I don't worry so much about it, but feel a much stronger sense of not letting the team down.

1: You have no one to let down but yourself. Personally, I care far, far more about what happens when I'm in a team than playing individually. No one likes losing in either scenario, but if I make a bad play as survivor it bothers me far more than if I do as killer as I have not just let down myself, but three others.

I think most players care first and foremost about their own experience. There is nothing wrong with that but other players will be lower on their list of priorities. People rage quitting the game has been pretty common for years. That goes against caring about anyone other than yourself, which again is fine, if you don't go out of your way to make the game less fun for everyone else.

Most survivor players do an objective and don't think about all the other possibilities. Because they don't have enough information to even begin playing on that meta level. Competitive teams definitely do at least as much micro managing as the killer but these are extreme cases and don't apply to your average survivor. For a solo player it is unrealistic to even acquire all the information needed for that, so it's out of your control and something you can accept a bit easier.

You can see that someone is in chase, and you get to see what your team mates are doing. That's enough to have an idea of whether or not it is "safe" for you to sit on a gen or go for a rescue. Gens become a sort of down time for survivors because it means you do an objective without having to stress about it. There isn't too much you can do wrong when repairing a gen and you get a warning whenever the killer gets closer via their terror radius.

I'd argue you don't have anything like that as a killer. Even when you end a chase and go to hook a survivor, you're constantly thinking about how you need to be somewhere else or whether or not you can afford the time to pick a hook that might be more advantagious.

Alternative: Kind of dealt with this above. The control is a relief. From the start of the match there are a lot less unknowns to worry about, I see the gens, picked the killer, and can make a general plan really quickly. While constantly doing something as killer, I'm deciding what to do (edit to add: much like a horror movie, where you build tension via quietness, those moments of 'am I safe? am I doing the right thing? what's going on? are far more stressful than the killer who never has the need to stew). As survivor though there are a lot of factors outside of my control, what the killer decides to do or the play of the other survivors.

I'm not sure that knowing about your impact on the match will aleviate some of the stress you feel. Mostly because it is very rare that you start off chill and decide to play more serious later on. A rough start can kind of ruin your game (no matter the side you play), so most killers try to play as best as they can from the very beginning. When you see that that's not enough, you won't immediately think that you just need to do one or two things differently but that there is nothing you, with your skills and the information you have, can do better right this second. You just feel powerless even though you should be the one in control.

Alternative: Kind of like the winning point. As killer I set up the strategy, but survivors have to do the work and beat it. Far more stressful as survivor to be doing that in the moment. If as killer my strategy is bad, I can see where I went wrong and take as much time to readjust as I need and/or the fact it wins far more outweighs.

As a survivor, you mostly react to the killer. So there is less stressing involved about what the other side might or might not do. You do less predictions outside of chase and even in chase, there are a bunch of check spots around many loops that make a tile far safer, if you know how to use them.

When playing killer, you constantly try and play around hypotheticals. You could predict that someone is going for a save, a gen can still be defended, or 2 survivors are somewhere healing and you try account for that mostly by going there to stop that. If you are wrong, the survivors don't have to compensate. They just behave differently than you expected, which means you waste time. The risk is entirely on you. The survivors don't even know you make that prediction until it either pays off or it doesn't.

I'm not arguing that there is no stress involved when playing survivor but I don't think it's as much as playing killer, which makes killer anxiety a more prevalent phenomenon.

@FerrousFacade covered a lot of this quite well, but I'll add on a few notes. I'm going to start by commenting about something you said at the end.

I'm not arguing that there is no stress involved when playing survivor but I don't think it's as much as playing killer, which makes killer anxiety a more prevalent phenomenon.

It's not a competition and would be impossible to determine anyway without a mass survey of the player base.

I find the topic fascinating in the sense that people have completely different takes on it and are very convinced that their feeling must be universal.

Having been in the topic a lot, my point is relatively simple. Some people find A stressful, but not B. Some people find B stressful, but not A. We can talk about why we feel that way or not, but there is no 'factual' nature to the claim and both groups seem to be pretty large.

Anyway, onto the rest of the post.

I think most players care first and foremost about their own experience.

Eh, I don't know. Obviously players care about their own experience, but I see survivors frequently sacrifice themselves for their teammates, sometimes even giving up escapes on the possibility of getting someone else out.

People rage quitting the game has been pretty common for years.

But rage quitting isn't a really good indication of how people actually feel, its literally an act of rage over a momentary anger over something. They're so upset that without thinking through the consequences they quit the game.

Most survivor players do an objective and don't think about all the other possibilities. Because they don't have enough information to even begin playing on that meta level. 

I don't think that's true at all. Again, I think the lack of information is what makes it more stressful. The survivor has to debate possible courses of action without knowing the full picture (in this sense I think a 4 person SWF is less stressful, comp is a different topic being they actually have money on the line which adds its own stress factors).

There isn't too much you can do wrong when repairing a gen and you get a warning whenever the killer gets closer via their terror radius.

1: Takes out stealth killers and perks that hide the killer.

2: Uncertainty of where they are coming even with the TR. If survivors Shift-W every time they hear the TR they are going to lose lots of gen progress. Not to mention stressful situations like 'do I have enough time to finish the gen before he gets here' or 'should I hide? which way do I lead him?'

I'd argue you don't have anything like that as a killer. Even when you end a chase and go to hook a survivor, you're constantly thinking about how you need to be somewhere else or whether or not you can afford the time to pick a hook that might be more advantagious.

I'd argue the killer has this exactly with full knowledge.

I'm in a chase, I down a survivor and pick them up. At this point I should already know what hook I'm taking them too. I likely also have a pretty good idea on where I'm going next (maybe the gen I chased them off of, maybe back to the 3 gen, maybe I spotted someone working on a gen). There's no need to be 'constantly thinking' in the same way as the survivor, you have all the information you need (edit to add: to clarify, I don't inherently associate being 'busy' with being 'stressed' when the busy isn't actually taxing decisions).

I don't get why having more information is more stressful. The killer has it, where is the struggle coming from on making the decision? Survivors meanwhile have to debate their decisions on incomplete information and worry they are making the wrong decision on the wrong information.

I'm not sure that knowing about your impact on the match will aleviate some of the stress you feel. Mostly because it is very rare that you start off chill and decide to play more serious later on. A rough start can kind of ruin your game (no matter the side you play), so most killers try to play as best as they can from the very beginning. When you see that that's not enough, you won't immediately think that you just need to do one or two things differently but that there is nothing you, with your skills and the information you have, can do better right this second. You just feel powerless even though you should be the one in control.

I'm not certain I know what you mean in this paragraph, I think I dealt with it above, if I haven't let me know.

As a survivor, you mostly react to the killer. So there is less stressing involved about what the other side might or might not do. You do less predictions outside of chase and even in chase, there are a bunch of check spots around many loops that make a tile far safer, if you know how to use them.

Mostly react to the killer - I think this is an oversimplification. As killer if I see survivors doubling up a gen, I'm obviously going to push them off. I'm reacting to what they do. If survivors shift-W early I'm just reacting to what they do. Both sides actions can be dictated on what the other side does, I don't think that's really unique.

Chase - not really, the burden seems much more on survivor to not screw up the chase. Survivors have to worry about how to loop, but also keep track of where there teammates are so they don't lead the killer to them, when to risk leaving a loop, as well as any powers the killer might have that make them have to loop differently.

Check spots - I don't think narrowing it down to just the 'if know how' players is a good idea, but let's approach it for a moment (presume both sides know what they are doing). I as killer get to shack and the survivor seems to know how to perfectly run shack. I have a pretty simple decision to make based on the point in the game - is it worth my time to chase them until the window blocks/pallet gets used? If the killer pursues the survivor still has to execute running the loop perfectly, while the killer just has to follow and burn out the time and/or the survivor make a mistake.

When playing killer, you constantly try and play around hypotheticals.

I don't know if the issue here is that some players just have an easier time predicting what one side is going to do. I find this far easier as killer. What gens the survivors are working on, the overall progress of the game, when it makes sense to go back for the hook - what's the next thing for the killer to do usually seems pretty obvious (especially if tunneling is okay, then the right decision is generally 'just tunnel out a survivor'). Of course there's times where I as a killer guess wrong, or that I guess right but just get outplayed, but seems far more frequent that I see survivors make the wrong decisions via confusion (because being four players instead of 1 is a disadvantage and adds more possibilities for mistakes and errors).

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To sum it up there seems to be two issues

1: Do teammates cause more stress? Does the player worry about them or does the player just shift blame to them?

2: The level of information. Does the level of information as killer cause you to stress, or does it lead to easy (edit: clear is probably a better word here) decision making? Does the incomplete information as survivor let the survivor stop worrying and just focus on what's in front of them, or does it make them think constantly about what might be happening and what they might need to do while debating multiple scenarios at the same time.

If you want to win and not just play then no, you need to be paying attention. The HUD tells me what people are doing but not where, I still need to keep track of where pallets have likely been used, where gens have/have not been completed, where my teammates are. I don't mind slapping on perks for things (as I said I run bond specifically to assist with all of this) but once you start slapping on more you are diminishing your options in other areas of the game, its a tradeoff.

You immediately jump to blaming teammates that are running off the same limited information you are and may not be able to keep track of all this as readily as I do. Given how bad matchmaking is I'm not going to blame a teammate that may not be in a match they should be in and its always possible they just got unlucky. I'm not saying dumb mistakes never happen, I have seen a p100 player use their medkit to self heal right before plague infection broke them, but they are not as common as they are made out to be. Too many people jump directly to shifting the blame onto their teammates as an excuse for why they might not do as well on survivor, its ultimately another way to reduce stress you feel when playing the role.

Have you abandoned any matches? Because the stat page ignores those matches which artificially inflates your escape rate. How many are hatch escapes? I don't see how survivor has gotten easier in any way, the only basekit buff was the endurance increase and that mostly might add an extra escape in endgame, nothing else has changed other than additional strong killers being added to the game. We got more pallets but that ignores that most are weak and included nerfs to most main buildings, the stronger killers can play around them and the weaker killers are in the same weaker state they were before. Abandon was added in the past year though and seems a far more likely culprit for your stat boost.

Here are my killer stats from the last 30 days, almost all of this is in the event mode (my Jason build is all aura read not hex). Anytime you abandon on killer it treats the survivor as escaping so these are lower than they should be. There are far better killers than me on this forum and I have seen some of their stats with 80%+ kill rates on basically every killer and those that call a killer trash because their kill rate with them is a mere 70%. Both sides have outliers. Killer anxiety isn't a universal experience, its just another thing content creators are currently pushing because it gets views and the vast majority of them are killer mains. I am not trying to downplay that people do feel stressed when picking the role, just that it isn't nearly universal, isn't unique to killer or even this game (queue anxiety), and isn't something the devs can "do" anything about.