So apparently looping is an exploit now?

Survivors can be totally blamed for its existence. They lobbied the devs for it and resisted every single time it had a whiff of nerf incoming. They are not neutral bystanders who can't be blamed for using whatever the game gives them to win, they had a hand in the game being steered in that direction. 

Looping is not an exploit in most cases. Though I did have a game last night where the entity blocker never came up on the fractured cow shed window, making that an infinite. In that case I would consider than an exploit.

It was rather annoying.

It is, at least if we go by the definition of exploit that simply means to use something well and effectively for an advantage. Sorta like "exploiting the land for agriculture", it's not some inherently dirty word. It just so happens that the definition that specifically refers to (ab)using something for an explicitly unfair advantage is the one most adopted within gaming communities over the years.

If anything a "benign exploit" within gaming often goes falls under something else - emergent gameplay. While there's actions that fall right into the "unfair advantage" side of things like the Legion blades bug, Wake Up bug and others, there's also a lot of things in the game that are more comparable to stuff like rocket jumping or all the weird advanced movement mechanics in Super Smash Bros: Melee - things that started out as unintended quirks but were adopted, and in the case of rocket jumping HEAVILY adopted even by later titles in the genre and similar/inspired genres.

Considering a lot of people that consider looping an unfair exploit cite the hitbox differences as the root cause, wouldn't that be fairly simple to fix if the devs considered it explicitly undesirable behavior? The fact it's still a thing makes it seem more like it has been embraced as emergent gameplay if you ask me, just like moonwalking to hide the red stain is and dribbling old DS used to be.

@Thaznar

I never stated i was a dev nor did I asume or know the devs stated it an "exploit" or not. All I did was stating the fact that looping is, by definition of exploits, an exploit

"In video games, an exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system, rates, hit boxes, speed or level design etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers." Incase you or others didnt read my provided link, this is the first sentence of the article.

Now please tell me that looping isnt extending the chase duration by taking advantage of (synonym for "to exploit" btw) the difference in collision sizes around objects.

I am aware wikipedia isnt the most credible of sources to use but the article provided atleast includes the controversy of exploits being good or bad, the reasaon we're even discussing this.

"And while killers can still get looping survivors because theyre faster and have bloodlust, Bloodlust was given to killers because chases were taking too long, probably the reason being looping"

Im not actually too fond of continuing this discussion because it's obvious looping will not be adressed, either because its not an "exploit" or survivormain agenda

Infinites are exploits, like Balanced Landing on the Strode house. That's it.

Again using your definition you create a situation where anything can be defined as an exploit.

Ridiculous, it's like if someone was complaining about tunneling...oh wait...

I’m not sure if it’s an exploit, but I find looping really boring for both sides. It’s not exactly scary or engaging to just run around a rock a few times to avoid the killer, but it works. I almost feel like I’m sabotaging my team by not looping because I’m not being as time efficient as I could be. It’s not how I want to play, but I feel like I have to.

And as killer, I feel like I either need to play anti-looping killers (Nurse/Spirit) or have a more difficult and boring game.

I hope looping is looked at in the near future. It’s overall not a very interesting or fun way to play.

I'm going to be that person and point out that, per the definition you quoted in this exact comment, something cannot be considered an exploit unless it falls outside of the game designers' intentions. Given that the devs themselves have confirmed that they do not consider looping an exploit, it cannot be considered one under your definition.

@Fibijean

Read @SovererignKing 's history lesson in this thread. As far I remember, the devs a) didnt really understand what looping is by the time they talked about it on stream, and b) they were thinking about undping the collision changes but survivors lobbied together SUDDENLY wanted to be chased the whole game (obviously because looping made it a lot easier).

@Atrushan88

If chases get shorter, survivors cannot dumbly "just do gens without a care necause someone else can loop the killer for all that time" causing the main reason for "way too short" trials to be lessened.

But in case it wasnt obvious by the attitude in this thread, looping itself will never be removed because the devs caved in 2 years ago and turned it into the apaarent main feature for survivors.

The whole survivor strategy/mentality of "stalling" the killer instead of juking them to give enough safety for genrush and those "way too quick" trials even some survivors despise all hinge on looping.

Oh for OP: it has not been "suddenly" been considered an exploit "now", it started the day it was created.

Looping is the easy way for survivors to survive, not the only one. Except it takes more work to evade a chase than just loopdaloop. Killers getting more tools (read:aura perks) to find survivors was the devs response to survivors finding chases more "fun" than other stuff. So the devs gave killers those "tools" to initiate more "fun" chases.

Its if as other survivors were the source of survivor troubles.

Imagine this: looping makes survivors so safe/confident that they dont see a need to heal.

There are supposedly somemythical survivors who can evade chases even when injured, but they cannot be real, afterall survivors can only loop.

A big part in the game breaking pallet-looping we have today, is played by the completely unnecessary pallet omegabuffs introduced in the dreaded patch 1.1.1.: both the time-window and the range for a pallet-stun were made absurdly generous -to the point that killers can be stunned through walls and around corners.

First of all, yes some people use words "wrong". This is especially true for younger or less experienced people who are trying to be part of the conversation but don't fully understand the concepts behind the words being used - and to some extent, we all do it in one way or another and at one time or another.

Technically, they are correct. Let's have a deeper look.

So first of all, let's establish what "Exploit" means in a video game.

Broadly speaking, an Exploit is using something in the game in a way that was not originally intended by the developers in order to gain an advantage.

This includes items, hit boxes and level design as well.

So technically, yes, looping is an exploit because it is taking advantage of level design in a way that the developers didn't originally anticipate (early gameplay footage of the devs playing DBD clearly shows no looping).

Now, obviously, those of us who have been in the Fog for a while know that "looping" (or "efficient movement during a chase") is part of the core gameplay. Even though the devs themselves didn't think of it originally, it's something that has become prevalent enough to be core, something that the players "canonized" and we as a community have learned not only to expect and accept as part of the gameplay, but have largely moved away from seeing it as an exploit or as griefing or bad-mannered gameplay.

In general, perceiving looping (by itself) as toxic behaviour or mean-spirited gameplay is something that is associated with newer players who don't quite understand the game yet.

I don't even really think of it as "looping" anymore, I think in terms of pathing and efficient movement.

The only thing that I think I, as well as others who have played DBD for a long time, still think of as "toxic" or at least not entirely wholesome gameplay is looping a particular feature that is very, very strong and thus very, very unfair to most Killers. We're talking specifically about things like the God Window at Ironworks, Torment Creek or Suffacation Pit.

Even then, though, most experienced players have learned to deal with the window (Trapper) or just avoid that window for most of the match.