Can we have a serious discussion about the most urgent issue, the DCs?

It is what it is though, with servers close to being here I highly doubt they wpuld suddenly do something about it right now with the current system.

Excessively dc'ing should lead to time-outs and ultimatively to bans. There is no getting around it.

@twistedmonkey It's several months until dedicated servers will go live. I fear that the situation will worsen even more. I'm not sure if doing anything about this issue can wait that long. If things go bad, there might be a permanent damage to the community.

Of course punishment is needed if its an intended quit / rage quit.

But I don't think all of this "rage quits" are intended - there is a seroius bug no one knows about and noone cares about (at least it seams so) which randomly disconnects people.

I would say more then 50% of current "rage quits" are because of this bug. I get very often disconnected on the hook or during a chase which might look as a rage quit but isn't.

see:

How about publicly shaming them on this forum? That way we'll also know who to avoid playing with.

When DCing is as bad as it currently is, banning does absolutely nothing to end the intentional DCing, but it does very quickly lead to the collapse of the game. The Salt Mines curbs DCing in its tracks. People who don’t DC get to play with others who don’t DC, or only DC due to hardware/software issues that fall below the threshold. Those that exceed the DC threshold are forced to play amongst each other, until they are able to prove that they can behave properly, or have fixed their hardware issue(s).

BHVR knows the numbers. How many of the players that leave the game received any ban, or were about to receive a ban?

Scrubs aside I feel just adding a symbol next to the persons name that refresh’s every time they dc that last 24 hours is the fix. As a killer main I understand how important what killer u are as a secret matters. But they could just show your name with a symbol if it applys. Let the people decide if they wanna play with a person who dips out on others or not.if it’s a connection issue after 24 hours it would go away so no harm no foul. Works in final fantasy 11 anyway =p

I already commented this in another post that argued punishing DC'ers is not the answer, because the players were DC'ing out of frustrations created by the games mechanics, and bugs which need to be fixed first. Here's my thoughts on that mentality:

While some bugs are causing DC's, in comparison to the amount of players DC'ing at their whim, the bug related DC's are in the minority. We're not just talking about people who give it their best, get frustrated after trying enough times against opponents that are broken or op, or game mechanics that allow play-styles like camping, tunneling or gen rushing, and then DC. We're talking about players DC'ing for the most inane reasons like: the choice of map, who the killer is, what items are brought in, getting spotted/attacked first, losing Hex: Ruin in the first 20 seconds, missing a skill-check, getting out-played on the first loop, wanting to save an item, realizing its an SWF group, etc. They quit literally for any reason they want because they know they aren't going to get punished for doing so, and this toxic behavior is not just ruining the game for others playing in a match once in a while, it's killing the game experience as a whole for everyone.

These players aren't even trying to play the game as its intended as the moment it goes even slightly bad for them, or they perceive it as unfavorable even in the smallest way, they DC. What's worse, is because there are no penalties, and they don't lose anything for DC'ing, they have developed a careless mentality about it as if it's not doing any harm, but really, if you play 10 matches, and disconnect for 9 of them, how many other peoples experiences did you just ruin? Are you even playing the game at that point? Some of them even have the gall to get offended at the mention of penalizing their behavior, and defend their "Right to DC" whenever they want despite how much harm it's causing. They're not ignorant of their behavior and the damage being done either, they're just infuriatingly convinced of their entitlement to win every match, despite the fact that this is a competitive multiplayer game, which doesn't entitle them to anything other than to play with and against other people.

The very nature of a multiplayer game is that there will be good matches as well as bad, and a good player accepts these possibilities and plays the game for the challenge and excitement of the variation in difficulty, because its fun, more rewarding when they win, and a learning experience when they lose that helps them develop skills to become a better player. Our DC'ers are opting out of every match they find unfavorable, blaming the game for not being "fun", and repeating to DC until they find a match that is "Fun" because their opponent is easy for them to win against. In other words what our DC'ers are doing is none other than setting themselves up for an easy win every match they actually play, while screwing over everyone else in matches they find unfavorable because they don't appreciate a challenge. This behavior goes completely against the spirit of the multiplayer experience, good sportsmanship in general, and is unacceptable. There is NOTHING more toxic than a player rigging the game in their favor, especially when doing so hurts the experience for others, and quite honestly, I see no difference in our DC'ers behavior and that of someone who cheats/hacks the game... except hackers get punished when caught.

Other competitive multiplayer games don't put up with this toxic and unsportsmanlike behavior, and have systems to penalize players for it, because they know that if you give toxic players an inch... they walk all over you, start making ridiculous demands, and relentlessly harass anyone who raises counter opinions concerning their behavior. These other MP games don't let this level of toxicity rise in their player-base, and some are extremely strict about it, dishing out a 24hr ban for 1 DC that escalates to a week if another happens in 72 hours after their initial offense. I'm not saying that DbD needs to be that strict, but the belief that punishment for this behavior isn't the right way to go is naive at best, and the developers of this game know that, but aren't acting on it until they get the dedicated servers and disciplinary committee established.

Because of their inaction on the DC'ing problem however, its grown to, well, "Epidemic" levels, and people are so sick of it they are either threatening to uninstall and stop playing on these forums, or have already done so, and who can blame them? It's impossible to have any fun or enjoyment in this multiplayer game, when the majority of games are ruined by toxic brats with delusions of entitlement DC'ing for the most pathetically petty reasons. This crap needs to stop, but while the community can complain all they want about it, the only real thing that will stop it, and has been proven to stop it in other MP games, is action from the devs to penalize the toxic players who are, through their actions, killing the game.

@peanits Dedicated servers can make catching D/cers easier sure. But that wont be the ace for your straight flush. You need other cards to make that hand sir.

There are real, solid, answers on the forums for this problem. That go beyond bans. Since Bans are a bandaid.