Playing SWF really is like playing a completely different game
I'm sure you've all read this a thousand times before, but I just got done with a 10-hour sesh with my buddy (he only has about 200 hours or so in), and I just wanted to share a few thoughts.
I've got a few thousand hours of solo queue under my belt, and playing with a partner is just damn FUN. I know many of us have come to see SWF as a boogeyman of sorts, but I've had more fun playing tonight than I have in the last 1000 hours of solo queue combined. DBD is an absolute blast when you have someone to not only cooperate with but also to meme and troll with.
Anyway I want to keep this post brief, but I feel tonight's sesh opened my eyes to what this game can be at its best. We won some and we lost some, but every match had some quality gameplay or moments, and those moments simply could not have happened without SWF.
Comments
You're right, I miss being on comms and making fun of each others' largebrained plays. Even getting tunnelled or facecamped can be fun when you have some commentary on it.
Right! Even our bad games were super enjoyable. Things that would've tilted me or made me want to give up on my own were instead just hilarious. What an absolute relief it is to play with a friend.
The problem is not that swf exist, it should. The problem is that the game is not balanced around the advantage you get from it.
The difference is NOT that huge. 2018 stats showed that 4 man SWF has less than 10% higher chance of surviving compared to solos.
Some people don't even make use of the advantage, they just talk, and not about the game. Some get confused by comms more than it helps ( grab -"What? I thought u are chased" -"oh yeah, he left 10 seconds ago. I think he has tinkerer" | or try to describe where ruin is on shelter woods "near a tree and a rock")
The percentage of SWF capitalizing on comms that much to turn a loss into a win is probably the same like the percentage of red ranks being actually good at the game 😎
Every com allows you to know if you are in danger on your gen or not. It allows the guy being chased to lead the killer away from all the gens being worked at. It let the others know if a safe unhook is easy or if the killer is camping, and with comms, seldom 3 ppl rush to the rescue.
This advantages may not be big on themself, but they add up. Also, i belive 10% is a lot. My actual suvival rate as solo survivor is around 75% (i kept stats for some time). But when i played swf, it was way higher, since i seldom died. And thats true even though we had 3 players that were mediocre at best, and one good looper.
I know SWF is a problem mechanically, but it truly has become the lifeblood of this game. I have no doubt now that DBD would have died long ago without this mode. And while that might seem obvious, it's a perspective I thought some might not have thought about. As unbalanced as it is, SWF is a necessary evil.