A possible return of "The Dark Times"
I didn't get into this game until after The Pig came out, but I heard about the Dark Times of Dead by Daylight, and I've heard rumblings of there being a return of these dark times after the most recent changes to the game.
It concerns me, since I love this game, but I've noticed more survivors disconnecting, and discussions of there being new meta's that completely break the balance of the game. What do you guys think? Are the Dark Times upon us once again? If so, do you think it could be fixed before it could potentially destroy the game?
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There will always be dark times if people keep defending SWF because you can "improve 1!1!1!" going against them.
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@RockRage8962 Well, there are currently some very serious problems within Dead by Daylight. Whether or not it qualifies as a "Dark Time" will depend on your personal cosmology.
The main issue is: We don't know what player count and DLC units sold threshold Behavior has for Dead by Daylight. What we, as players, consider a "Dark Time" might actually still have DbD falling well within Behavior's numbers and revenue parameters. In other words, we view the game as declining, in potential danger, but on the financial end for Behavior, they could very well still be turning a profit that falls within where they want it to be. Revenue and profit requirements are never a fixed amount, but always a range of between X and Z.
Or, what we as players see could be accurate and Dead by Daylight isn't turning enough of a profit right now.
The problem is, since such information is never disclosed to a consumer base, we just don't know. So, we have to take what we perceive the situation to be, and decide to invest the play time and DLC money into the game, or not.
The danger lies in the fact that if enough players lose faith in the profitability and continued financial support of a game from a Studio, and go to another game or withhold their purchases because they no longer feel that the game has a long-term future, then the demise of a game could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It has happened before with games.
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Good analysis.
That's why proper communication and transparency is crucial.
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@Cymer Just keep in mind that financial transparency is not always legally viable except in prescribed situations.
Let me explain. For a privately owned company like Behavior, the decision is entirely their own. But for a publicly traded company, like say Activision-Blizzard, it isn't. That's why their quarterly financial reports will talk about individual games, while also providing an overview of the company's financials as a whole.
The reason being, disclosing the information in the wrong segments, so to speak, can get you into a ton of hot water with the SEC for violations.
For smaller companies that are privately owned like Behavior, one probably wouldn't want to publicly disclose the information because that also makes it accessible to their competitors. And depending on the size and resources of a competitor, Behavior might have a lot less resources to go against them in the same market and maneuver their own position. So, you really don't want them knowing if you or your game are suffering financially. And you can't just release the information when you're doing well, because then any future silences would be the same as stating that you're in financial trouble.
So, while we as consumers might feel transparency is crucial, from a company standpoint it could be suicidal, even if doing well, because it gives your competitors information you wouldn't want them to possess.
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Of course, the "Dark Times" COULD return. But it's not hard to prevent that from happening. It depends on the devs' decisions how to handle certain problems, and how fast they are going to take care of it.
I really love DbD, I want the best for this game.
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Well, when I referred to the Dark Times, I was referring to the time when hooks could be saboe'd permanently, We'll Make It stacked for ALL healing actions (Self Care included), Pallet Loops were essentially infinites, Unrelenting and Save the Best for Last were the main killer meta when Unrelenting counted for all attack cooldowns, missed and successful, etc.
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I'd say "Dark Times" is a combination of a significant drop in the player base and a state of the game where it is unfun to play. (Of course, these things are related.)
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This thread reads like bad fan fiction. "dark times" indeed.
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dark times is back i can assure you when he comes to balance , matchmaking , bugs and devs that remains silent on all these issues. I mean since they have reworked DS how much time that has taken to the devs to buff it , one week or two.
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Nice to see that many of you agree. I was in two matches straight that had two survivors crash before the session loaded in. It's apparent that things are grim for the game right now, and unless the devs can quickly fix it, I fear it will hurt the game majorly.
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This whole idea of "dark times" that TydeTyme has started makes me cringe 😶
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@T0xicTyler Oh Christ, is that where it came from? I never heard of it before a couple of recent threads because I don't follow or watch Tyde's stream or video content. Don't really care for him.
Yikes.
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Regardless of where it came from, the game is in a really bad state. I'm pretty sure most of you can agree on that.
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what if the Dark Times was some sort of extremely cryptic teaser for a medieval chapter 😮
on a more serious note, I only care for the Infinite Loading & Disconnecting bug. That is truly hampering the player experience. Beyond that, i shrug.
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No, there's no dark times. People who say that don't understand what it was like back in July 2017-April 2018. It was absolute hell for killers. I used to main survivor and it was never easier.
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Well the first dark times was hell for sure, that one is worst not for killers only but the major community. i mean there is alot of point that have to be changed/fixed because the hurt the community the player count is falling for a reason.
Legion , matchmaking (queues and rank disparity) , balance ( double pallet , rush gen , broken perks , killers not viable at rank 1) , bugs ( can't be healed , wiggle issue , texture issues that cause framerate drops) , crash ( infinite load screen , random crash during loading) , QoL ( low sensibility on controller since in 60FPS on console , still not enough settings). with that the devs being silent no stream , no post on forum and email redirecting on forums to report it.
if that's not a dark time then what is it. People disconnect almost every game i play in with legion being insta DC.
@Peanits talk with us devs don't remain silent.
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@xllxENIGMAxllx that image is completely beautiful
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Yes it was.
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It makes me deeply cringe lol. Everyone is adopting this term to describe the current situation but honestly the biggest problem this game has at the moment is networking/matchmaking. Balance-wise this game is in the best place it's been and anyone who has been around for a while can attest to that.
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Dark times you say?
No...Jun. 2016...those were Dark Times for killers. The map was full of infinite loops for window juking survivors.
I don't see how the game could be reduced back to those levels.
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Balance wise, yes. The game is at the best is has ever been. However, when these issues started cropping up, the player base began to falter, with the only thing stopping it being the free to play weekend. Maybe it wouldn't be a return of the dark times from 2016, but a dark time non-the-less.
Looks like the devs finally responded to the situation and have been aware of the issues plaguing the game since the new matchmaking was tested out. Hopefully the player base starts to rise again when the fixes are implemented by the next mic-chapter patch.
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currently the game is the furthest away from the "Dark Times" as it has ever been, which is good.
sure, there are problems, but overall it has greatly improved.
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Did you mean 2016-17? July '17 was when the Huntress came out, which was when the game began to improve dramatically from the huge rollercoaster of a mess it had for its first year. Those were the end of the dark times, really.
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@Science_Guy strange, that's back when Ochido was at his greatest. And I thought the game was at a bad time back then, considering how everyone was uncatchable.
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You think this is Dark Times? You're funny dude,
Dark Times was so bad back then, even i didn't want anything to do with DBD,
Running Animations were so cringe
Two pallets on either side of a jungle gym
even a pallet at an L and T wall
All 3 windows being open in the garage on wretched shop.
The bus loop never closing
Cow tree being an absolute limbo
Not to mention the infamous Pallet Vacuum.
And you call this Dark Times? That's funny man.
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Well, regardless, it's quite apparent that no such thing is upon the game again, since the devs already addressed that they are investigating the networking and crashing issues, so this thread can finally die if people find it easy to scoff at. I just want this game to thrive, and if it has constant networking and crashing issues, it won't survive, just like any online multiplayer game.
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