A surprising turn of events.

Respawn

So I have been avoiding killer gameplay for about a month since I play on console and there is issues, today since I had two Hag rituals to complete I figured what the heck right? I'm rank 5 since I haven't been playing my first game - survivors made poor choices, so I rewarded the last survivor with hatch - Second game - Load in -before I go further (My standard build is, Monitor, Ruin, Dark Devotion, and Franklin's) So as I see so far theres two survivors with flashlights, cool I run Franklins on hag to remove flashlights so they cant remove my traps, as the timer counts down to trial two of the survivors which of course are TTV names switch at the last second to also have flashlights, no worrys I have Franklin's - At this rank you know what to expect the FL saves are bound, Discussed at the bonfire for a sure way to survive the next killer who waits just outside of view. So to make this not to drawn out , we spawned in Dead Dog - Y'know the western map. Great for killers right? Well they managed to complete one gen successfully since they wanted to spend so much time trying to save with FL, as well as pick em back up so close to where I had just hooked someone, either way. 3 were sacrificed and one was given hatch, who also was a TTV player, so me being the nice dude I am I decided to go on and say GG WP to the one I gave hatch. Thats where I was surprised, The person who shall remain nameless thought it would be great to trash talk me - Tell me im a poor killer because I used Monitor & Abuse and Franklin's, I kept my cool, told em how funny they were GG WP and moved on. This brings to light the bullying that takes place in this community - I was just trying to be friendly and show support. No I didnt have to subject myself to that kind of treatment by viewing the stream, But I did figure since I gave em the hatch that they wouldnt have had so much salt. but hey it is what it is, Thank you for coming to my DED talk.

BlazePyron2

honestly the chat filter is so disappointing cause it was much more fun getting swore at than the new toxic trashtalk survivors are coming up with.

This is something a reddit post about the psychology of the toxicity of this game talked about, where in the postgame chat survivors who were killed will try and play down the killer's ability and rationalize some other reason the killer got the kill other than their skill. Even tho the survivor died, they're still trying to deny the killer the feeling of victory and make themselves feel as if the loss was out of their control.

Honestly I think postgame chat should be disabled and everyone, even console players, can select between stock phrases like "well played" or "so close!" or even a "So disappointing" as an outlet for survivor frustrations. I think both killers and survivors have long lost the privilege to say whatever they want.

Pulsar

@BlazePyron2 said:

honestly the chat filter is so disappointing cause it was much more fun getting swore at than the new toxic trashtalk survivors are coming up with.

This is something a reddit post about the psychology of the toxicity of this game talked about, where in the postgame chat survivors who were killed will try and play down the killer's ability and rationalize some other reason the killer got the kill other than their skill. Even tho the survivor died, they're still trying to deny the killer the feeling of victory and make themselves feel as if the loss was out of their control.

Honestly I think postgame chat should be disabled and everyone, even console players, can select between stock phrases like "well played" or "so close!" or even a "So disappointing" as an outlet for survivor frustrations. I think both killers and survivors have long lost the privilege to say whatever they want.

This is the post you were talking about. My links are being weird so, I'll just copypaste it.

Dead by Daylight is a unique game. It stands in the company of other asymmetric games, but it has unique aspects that other games don't that affect our psychology as we play. I wanted to explain these concepts and have some advice for how to counter them.

Concept 1: Humiliation DbD's gameplay is centered on humiliating your adversary. I would argue that every aspect of the gameplay is an act of humiliation, not competition, like you see in other games. The reward-based outcomes combined with asymmetric gameplay makes DbD uniquely painful to emotionally process both your losses AND wins. Let's look at the various aspects of gameplay:

Killer Humiliates

1. Frustrates a survivor's ability to contribute to their team (social humiliation)
2. Frustrates a survivor's ability to level up and earn points (reward-denial humiliation)
3. Frustrates a survivor's ability to appear competent in front of their survivor peers (mild self-esteem humiliation)

Survivor Humiliates

1. Frustrates a killer's ability to appear competitive and threatening in the game environment (social)
2. Frustrates a killer's ability to level up and earn points (reward-denial humiliation)
3. Humiliates the killer in post-game chat, something that while survivors aren't immune to, but have group social support resources to easily heal from (severe self-esteem humiliation)

Concept 2: Rollercoaster of Emotional Injury If a killer wins, but doesn't win "right" (camping, some glitch, lag, etc) they are deprived of their celebration by the survivors (survivor decides whether killers can celebrate, another humiliation). If a survivor wins, but everyone doesn't survive, the sacrificed survivor is deprived of joining in the celebration (the killer can take this opportunity to humiliate them). Through all of this, both player sides undergo extreme stress.

Killer Stress

Killers experience states of stress throughout the game: trying to find survivors, being evaded by survivors, losing track of survivors, and protecting hooks from survivor saves. Killers, at no point, have any moment of emotional peace or sense of "safety" from these states. The emotional injury ALWAYS ramps up in post-game end chat, and at the gate, where killers are ritualistically humiliated by twerking/circling/various taunts.

Survivor Stress

Survivors experience states of stress, too, with waves of calm: hiding, peacefully working on gens with their peers, being in the terror radius, evading, and being on the hook. Successful evasion and successful hides are followed by positive feelings of calm, while being chased is stressful, and being caught, hooked, and killed is a very substantial, large loss. A hooked survivor has disappointed their team, lost a huge amount of point potential, and been humiliated by the killer. Watch streamer facial expressions change when they realize they cannot be rescued and are dead, after a long match. There is pain in their face.

Conclusion and Mental Health Self-Heal Advice

• Some people might argue that a lot of these issues are common in multiplayer games, but I would argue that they are not found ALL together, with so few resources to heal with.
• Collectively, I think DbD's gameplay experiences have a huge potential to disrupt a player's personal life and their overall mood state.

Here are some tips that will help you stay healthy while playing:

Mental Health Self-care Advice

1. In-game, try to focus on the strategies you're using, rather than on the outcomes of those strategies. Streamers are experts at doing this. They attribute every loss to the failure of the strategy, not to themselves. Those that don’t can be seen raging and screaming regularly in their streams.
2. Rationalize more of the game. For killers, this involves predicting survivor movement, and recognizing that some survivors are better than others, and will be harder or even impossible to catch. For survivors, this means evaluating your killers’ and your teammates relative skills and recognizing that they all have different skill-levels and different gameplay styles. Sometime they just aren't competent enough to risk help.
3. Accept the things you can’t control. Some killers camp every single game. Some survivors never go for saves. Some survivors loop every object. You can’t control that, or change them, so accept it as a certainty. Try not to read into why they do things - accept them for what they are – like an Evil Dwight. There are evil survivors that just want to loop: accept them as evil loopers and rationalize their gameplay style as an effective one, and rationalize over a new strategy. If the strategy fails, the strategy fails, not you.
4. Use the “close chat” button. If you insist on reading the chat, come up with a standard nonsensical response to taunts and abuse. It can't be sensical, because then it can result in a painful counter-response. Be silly, and be disconnected from the outcomes of the game. As killer, I make growl sounds or just spam HAHAHAHAHA. Asian cultures do the same thing to diffuse social tension (laughing). As survivor, you need to rely on speaking to your teammates, like remarking on how much fun you had playing together. That helps them too!

This post is from a psychologist named dbdanayltics on Reddit and while it has been a few years, the basis of these claims rings true.

Respawn

@Pulsar said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/2351001#Comment_2351001

This is the post you were talking about. My links are being weird so, I'll just copypaste it.

Dead by Daylight is a unique game. It stands in the company of other asymmetric games, but it has unique aspects that other games don't that affect our psychology as we play. I wanted to explain these concepts and have some advice for how to counter them.

Concept 1: Humiliation DbD's gameplay is centered on humiliating your adversary. I would argue that every aspect of the gameplay is an act of humiliation, not competition, like you see in other games. The reward-based outcomes combined with asymmetric gameplay makes DbD uniquely painful to emotionally process both your losses AND wins. Let's look at the various aspects of gameplay:

Killer Humiliates

1. Frustrates a survivor's ability to contribute to their team (social humiliation)
2. Frustrates a survivor's ability to level up and earn points (reward-denial humiliation)
3. Frustrates a survivor's ability to appear competent in front of their survivor peers (mild self-esteem humiliation)

Survivor Humiliates

1. Frustrates a killer's ability to appear competitive and threatening in the game environment (social)
2. Frustrates a killer's ability to level up and earn points (reward-denial humiliation)
3. Humiliates the killer in post-game chat, something that while survivors aren't immune to, but have group social support resources to easily heal from (severe self-esteem humiliation)

Concept 2: Rollercoaster of Emotional Injury If a killer wins, but doesn't win "right" (camping, some glitch, lag, etc) they are deprived of their celebration by the survivors (survivor decides whether killers can celebrate, another humiliation). If a survivor wins, but everyone doesn't survive, the sacrificed survivor is deprived of joining in the celebration (the killer can take this opportunity to humiliate them). Through all of this, both player sides undergo extreme stress.

Killer Stress

Killers experience states of stress throughout the game: trying to find survivors, being evaded by survivors, losing track of survivors, and protecting hooks from survivor saves. Killers, at no point, have any moment of emotional peace or sense of "safety" from these states. The emotional injury ALWAYS ramps up in post-game end chat, and at the gate, where killers are ritualistically humiliated by twerking/circling/various taunts.

Survivor Stress

Survivors experience states of stress, too, with waves of calm: hiding, peacefully working on gens with their peers, being in the terror radius, evading, and being on the hook. Successful evasion and successful hides are followed by positive feelings of calm, while being chased is stressful, and being caught, hooked, and killed is a very substantial, large loss. A hooked survivor has disappointed their team, lost a huge amount of point potential, and been humiliated by the killer. Watch streamer facial expressions change when they realize they cannot be rescued and are dead, after a long match. There is pain in their face.

Conclusion and Mental Health Self-Heal Advice

• Some people might argue that a lot of these issues are common in multiplayer games, but I would argue that they are not found ALL together, with so few resources to heal with.
• Collectively, I think DbD's gameplay experiences have a huge potential to disrupt a player's personal life and their overall mood state.

Here are some tips that will help you stay healthy while playing:

Mental Health Self-care Advice

1. In-game, try to focus on the strategies you're using, rather than on the outcomes of those strategies. Streamers are experts at doing this. They attribute every loss to the failure of the strategy, not to themselves. Those that don’t can be seen raging and screaming regularly in their streams.
2. Rationalize more of the game. For killers, this involves predicting survivor movement, and recognizing that some survivors are better than others, and will be harder or even impossible to catch. For survivors, this means evaluating your killers’ and your teammates relative skills and recognizing that they all have different skill-levels and different gameplay styles. Sometime they just aren't competent enough to risk help.
3. Accept the things you can’t control. Some killers camp every single game. Some survivors never go for saves. Some survivors loop every object. You can’t control that, or change them, so accept it as a certainty. Try not to read into why they do things - accept them for what they are – like an Evil Dwight. There are evil survivors that just want to loop: accept them as evil loopers and rationalize their gameplay style as an effective one, and rationalize over a new strategy. If the strategy fails, the strategy fails, not you.
4. Use the “close chat” button. If you insist on reading the chat, come up with a standard nonsensical response to taunts and abuse. It can't be sensical, because then it can result in a painful counter-response. Be silly, and be disconnected from the outcomes of the game. As killer, I make growl sounds or just spam HAHAHAHAHA. Asian cultures do the same thing to diffuse social tension (laughing). As survivor, you need to rely on speaking to your teammates, like remarking on how much fun you had playing together. That helps them too!

This post is from a psychologist named dbdanayltics on Reddit and while it has been a few years, the basis of these claims rings true.

Thanks a bunch! I had no idea someone went this in depth already - Fascinating

Pulsar

@Respawn said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/2351018#Comment_2351018

Thanks a bunch! I had no idea someone went this in depth already - Fascinating

No problem, it is quite interesting

ThiccBudhha

Part of being a good sportsman is being a good sport to those entitled brats that were never raised properly as well. It is important to keep the game fun for the normal survivors out there, as obviously not all of them are clowns. At least to me.

Don't get me wrong, if I have a challenge that forces me to play optimally, I will. Otherwise I don't mind playing a "fair" killer and sometimes the karma pays you back. I am really bad at Ghostface and this team destroyed me, the last guy wanted to give me a consolation kill. It was really nice and would have helped me forget that match if the next one wasn't on the same map (Haddonfield) with a 4 man toxic squad. So now I remember getting destroyed back to back. Lol.

The irony was I stood a chance against the toxic ones BECAUSE they were playing disrespectful. The good team that was nice and gave me free hits at the gate EVISCERATED me.