[Discussion] Urge to win
Hello everyone,
i would like to know and hear some other opinions about something that is in my mind for a few days now.
Why is in dbd this absolutly urge or need to win matches? I am just curious what others have to say about it.
I, personally, started dbd a bit over 2 months ago. at first i was like only learning what each killer can do while i was playing survivor only. then i tried playing killer and oh boy it was very frustrating at the beginning. i felt stress. the stress to win. the urge to win. I dont wanna be teabagged at the gates. dont wanna be called names after a match for being bad. i certainly think many players faced similar things. i complained a bit also in this forum here like many others do.
i wanted to win for 3 things. making many bloodpoints, reach iri1 for the first time (although it means literally notthing besides 1m bp) and dont get spit on at the gates or in post game chat.
one user in this forum here pm'ed me with the info to turn names and everything else you can off in the game and "pretend to play vs bots". sounds funny but it helped a lot, especially at the beginning where you usually lose more often due to lack of experience.
now, 2 months after the start i reached iri1 with both surv and killer, i got enough bp to get every perk i want... and about the fear of being called noob after a match (or the "fear" of losing itself)... my wife saw that i was frustrated about a video game that she had to remind me that it is only a game. there is nothing you can possibly pursuit because every month everything will be reset to zero (ash5).... you will most likely never again play with these players and you will never actually see them. my wife was just right about everything.
and with that FOR ME the urge to win was gone. i still try to win (or lets say to play my best), but not with stress. i dont get mad if i eat a flashlight safe out of nowhere. i dont get mad if i lose with 4 escapes. it is just gone.
my key to that was my wife. she reminded me that this is only a game.
Do i like to win matches? yes.
Do i need to win matches? no.
and from the various posts in this forum i know there a re a lot of players out there that feel the same or similar way... that they NEED to win.
And i would like to hear why that is :)
Comments
But dbd isnt a comp game no matter how much u want it to be. It will never be fortnite. It will never be apex legends. The comp scene for dbd will never see traction because this game is literally rng dependent regardless if you have restrictions on perks.
I just like winning.
I enjoy trying my best and testing my skill against other players.
I was thinking about psychological issues. If we take notice of usual topics and complaints that involves emotions, they are:
We can exclude last one, because it's simply cheap, unfun and spoil the game experience. What about other three? I think people are anxious of losing to not receive taunts. "If I lose, they will t-bag be and write 'ez'". I see pretty often (almost every second day) some stacked up Blight with alchemist-compound- eruption-brine-overcharge that completely destroys solos and heavily abuse them, slapping on hook, slugging, nodding, bleeding out. Like he is not playing a game, but on full revenge mode. Like these four survivors pissed in his lunch and stole his hamster. Why? It's a game, as your wife fairly noticed. So I think it is mostly of low self-esteem: avoid to be emotionally tilted, and that is only by winning no matter the cost.
Personally I have no urge to win, I let last one or two survivors go VERY often, and also can give free kill to new killer. I'm more after current book challenge or achievement, especially love tricky ones (that need to do something crazy in one match).
But when I encounter some questionable-maturity individual, that camp/tunnel/grief, I easily say this in EGC. "You get what you've paid for" - the quote that carried me through my whole life.
Ah I love the usual fallacy of competitive=eSports.
To use one of the example from @Simfeliz you choose to ignore, even Monopoly a board game is a "competitive" game since you COMPETE with other players over the dominance of the board (streets) and the money in play.
DBD isn't a party game like Mario party, guitar hero and other games where you exclusively play with AND against each other.
The killer is NEVER part of the party. They are ALWAYS the opponent/enemy/adversary.
And unlike for example a dungeon master in Dnd, they aren't there to provide excitement for the party but to achieve their own agenda aka killing/eliminating the party.
It's never PvE but always PvP.
@Topic the "urge to win" is something instinctive to all humans or even lifeforms. From the battle for food to the distribution of resources like mating in the animal kingdom, the winner survives and "gets the girl" (just as easy examples).
Telling people to not try to win is telling them to go against their instincts.
Sure, in our civilized world it is no longer necessary to the same degree but we can see it still all around. People with the drive to succeed or WIN will always end up ahead of the people taking it slow to "have fun".
The desire to win isn't something bad, stressing out over having to win all the time, that's something unhealthy.
But in respect to DBD i did the experiment and from what I saw not trying to win won't get the other side to pull their punches, so why bother.
Interesting post, really. i mean its a bit harsh to compare "need for food" with "need for win" but i get your point.
i know its within every human that we would like to win, to be the best. but then again it is a game and from what ive read in this very forum there are many players that usually have fun in dbd IF they win. the premise of a game should be entertainment. and i would just like to know why some players in dbd go for something like "fun is winning". and yes i also know that it is hard to write about it if you belong to the ones that play sweaty for every match because they need to win... but maybe there are some more people who would like to share their experience and/or emotions on this :)
i dont have the incessant desire to win. i play as a killer primarily and sometimes as a survivor for challenges or to mix things up and learn new ways to avoid a killer, but honestly i've never felt pressured into winning.
it's a matter of perspective. a matter of personal values. a matter of psychological disposition.
there are many papers written on the topic of individual player desires, needs, and wants in relation to: video game addiction, escapism, anger management, gun violence, and so on.
what is typically found in these papers is that video games are a medium of sorts to expose the inner workings of ones mind and that how a person uses a game is as distinct as the person themselves. however, many papers have tried to categorize it in 3-7 definitions depending on the research topic or goals.
these can be summed up as:
social standing
mental development
escapism
pressure
financial gain
creative expression.
how these various categories are chosen has been determined to be related to the mental disposition of the player and the intended game design and player interactions.
you as the player are experiencing stimulations that can incorrectly be handled by the mind as "fight or flight" responses and can cause traumatic response signals to develop in the brain. likewise as a killer you are at risk of developing psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies if unable to distinguish the game environment from reality.
so make sure you really understand that you're not actually trying to kill the players themselves, but that your goal is to - in that moment - experience the game. if you were a killer like bubba in the texas chainsaw massacre you'd be furious that your guests escaped, but then you have to come back to reality and move on to the next match.
this is one of the things i hate about social games. the social element with real humans on the opposite end can cause those who have trouble interacting in a metaphysical state to incorrectly relate actions as real and harmful. this can be seen by those who get upset at the idea of something rather than the physical manifestations of something. for example: t-bagging at the gate. or those videos where the tiktok person throws a projectile at the viewer and the viewer might flinch.
this is an indication of an inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.
anyway - i'm happy for you that your wife was able to ground you. that's an important part of development that many individuals are not lucky enough to experience. the fact that you were curious enough to bring such a personal question onto the forums says a lot about your desire for a healthy experience with the game. good for you and i hope my long essay was informative.
Well my take on it is that in prehistoric times the "need to win" was equal to the "need for food" when all was survival of the fittest/strongest/wealthiest/most attractive one.
Only by winning in the competition/comparison with others could you survive. The alpha always had the freedom of choice.
It's a basic instinct for us to still think like that. Even in education the one with full marks is the most respected one, at least by the teachers (mobbing and similar negative feedback aside).
And while i myself understand the underlying fundamentals, i have stopped trying to be the best/winner because it is unrealistic.
I dunno.
I'm hyper competitive by nature, I have an extremely difficult time enjoying things when I can't compete and/or win.
For me, winning is expected in DBD. I've sunk enough time in that I expect to win most of my matches comfortably. I'm really having fun if I'm getting pushback from the Survivors.
Wow you should pick better examples for shooters if you wanna argue competetiveness only without rng. Random shrinking zone, random weapons....
Now back on topic:
Playing to win is normal, and if you dont want to play to win, dont expect others to have mercy on you.
As for the DBD community i feel the problem here is the "chill crowd" telking everyone to chill too, loudly, often and mostly to killers. When was the last time someone expected a survivor to kist stop trying to escape, be it gate or hatch.
"You did 1.25 gens and 2 chases, stop doing more, frigging tryhard survivors. Always trying to escape" (obviously /s)
thanks for your reply. i really enjoyed your very scientific answer. at least i read it like that. maybe you can pm me some source links on that topic?
the funny thing for me was that i never experienced this kind of stress in any other game (and i am a gamer since.... no joke: maniac mansion on Commodore64 ... yes i am old :D ). somehow the game pressured me or i pressured myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted an answer an it was gone.... whatever do it again.
thank you for your very scientific answer on that, really appreciated.
the funny thing for me was that i never experienced this kind of stress in any other game (and i am a gamer since.... no joke: maniac mansion on Commodore64 ... yes i am old :D ). somehow the game pressured me or i pressured myself
im nearing 30, but you've likely got me beat by 20 years. age doesn't really matter in this regard. it's more about experience. it's possible that you've never experienced anything like dbd before. or at least not like the community. our lives are short and with bills to pay it's hard to imagine the average consumer having the income and time required to experience every game in every format since the late 70's. that'd be its own kind of research at that point.
it's also possible that your personal values and outlook on situations have changed over time or in relation to your environment. we do tend to adapt after all.
whatever the case - it's completely normal.
The competition makes the game fun. It's boring to beat players who don't have a chance. The most fun thing in this game is beating an evenly matched opponent. I wish matchmaking was more competitive.
I don't feel the urge to win but I feel the urge to try my best every match... sometimes it works and other times it doesn't
Personally, I don't have an issue with not winning but with feeling that I don't have a chance. Don't get me wrong, I want to win, but as frustrating as losing is, I can easily move on to the next match.
My problem is those times I get face camped, tunneled or slugged to death. My blood boils when I start a game with Bond and Open Handed only to see every single player hiding in a different corner while I'm on my death hook looping the killer for dear life and not a single generator has popped yet.
I was so excited for the auto-pick up update they were planning to release, because I absolutely hate seeing the killer leave me on the floor for minutes while they go on an adventure to slug everyone. I once got slugged to almost death by a Ghost Face right in the end game and he teabagged me all the way to the last tick of my timer before picking me up and hooking me, only to say at the end game chat "gg sorry for slugging X D"
That is what's really frustrating to me. One thing is losing, but another thing entirely is being supressed and unable to play the game, with my only option being disconnecting from the game, losing all my points and getting locked out of queue.
It's hardly a wonder first minute d/cs are so frequent in this game.
I think the thing you are trying to describe is the hatred of losing and not necessarily the urge to win. Because for me wanting to win is simple, it's fun to focus on an objective.
Some people probably hate to lose because they feel like it's an attack on their self-worth. Especially considering how a lot of people think losing in this game on either role is the result of being less skilled than the opponent, an idea which makes no sense to me in an asymmetrical game.
As a result of the treatment of people that lose in this game they begin to fear losing. They start to play in ways that minimise the odds of defeat, some people even start cheating in a subtle way.
It's all just a result of the competitive nature of humans.
Personally i do not believe this game is fair, therefore, the results of matches cannot be as fair judgement as skill either.
That's how i think it should be anyway, as it inspired by horror movies.