Can we address the FOMO in Dead by Daylight already?
As much as I love Dead by Daylight, some friends and I have recently gotten into discussing some of the pain points that can keep us from playing the game. DBD's FOMO approach to events is a particularly large part of this. Ideally, there will be more players playing the game. That means more variety, more community, and a well rounded and enjoyable experience for more players. Events like limited time gamemodes, and holiday seasons with earnable skins go a long ways towards encouraging players to get back into the game and feel like they have something to gain from playing. However, something that we've noticed is that the reverse is also true.
If you play too much DBD, you can get burn out. If you get burnout while an event is going on with a banner or skin you might like and you don't earn it, you could simply never have the chance to obtain that item again in some cases. In other, people have had to wait multiple years before having a chance to purchase skins that they simply weren't online to collect for whatever reason, be it burn out, real life obligations, or just playing a different game at the time. (Looking at you Ice Trapper and Ice Billy, who not only took several years to come back to the shop, but also were only available together as a bundle that could only be purchased with real money).
I understand that having event rewards be limited is a way to encourage players to hop on and participate when the event is actually happening. And I understand that there is a sense of accomplishment or pride that comes from having special items that were only available for a limited time. But I would LOVE to see some integration to begin to merge all the little forgotten pieces back into a place where they can be obtained by players who want them. I'm not arguing that everything should be obtainable right away, there's a place for letting people who participate enjoy the rewards for a time. But eventually things should work their way back around into being obtainable by new players.
In some ways Behavior has already begun to do this. Many of the rift consmetics work their way into the shop after about a year or so, however, a more consistent effort is needed to ensure that this is really working. As far as I know, there are still cosmetics that have yet to be added into the store, despite being years old. Trinkets are worse, as there is only a weekly trinket pack in the store. However, this trinket pack is randomized each week, meaning you may not find the trinkets you want, and it can only be purchased with auric cells which cost real money. There's really no reason I can imagine that this has to be the case. It shouldn't be too hard to add a trinkets section to the store and to determine iridescent shard costs depending on the rarity of the trinket. (Ideally cheaper than a skin, given their small size). Even worse though are badges and banners. Despite being in the game for a while now, if you don't consistently play during events your pool of acquired badges and banners is likely to be small. Once again, I don't see any reason why (barring licensed content) this isn't rotated into the shop and made purchasable with shards. Even some sort of drip feed for badges and banners would be better than nothing. You could take the oldest ones and make them unlockable with certain weekly quests from the rift pass. If someone already has them its not like they get less, but it would add in some aveneue for players who didn't play during one of the rifts to get them.
In some regards, BHVR does a good job of making old content available, like with the Halloween, Christmas, and Blood Moon cosmetics that come back annually. But there is still a ton of content that doesn't get cycled around, and it'd really be nice to have SOME way to obtain this without spending real money in the case of trinkets, or even some way to obtain it AT ALL in the case of badges and banners. Please help players feel comfortable playing the game whenever, even if it's not during a special event, and lets also make it more welcoming for newer players who presumably want the chance to decorate their profile and characters like everyone else in the game who was playing before them.
Comments
Cosmetics Will return to shop eventually lol.
This is such a weird thing. Forcing yourself to play something.
If the cosmétic would never return. Id get it.
Dbd is One of the ONLY games out Theres that doesnt have actual fomo. Well outsise of pinhead and even than.... Everything returns eventually.
If dbd hurts because you cant wait 1-2 years for a skin to come back... Maybe Dodge most popular shooters. Those colab stuff never returns
ngl i never felt the need to get "vaulted" cosmetic or cosmetic in general, but i agree with the rotating shop or maybe even some black market that comes back every maybe 6 months and gives you personalized offers like others games do, namely LoL or Valorant. Still i dont think this is a big issue, just a minor qol. Events cosmetics are made to be exclusive, thats the whole point of having a limited event, exclusive content available for a certain time,if you are burnout during this time how is the game supposed to fix that? Overall i think the monetization and availability around cosmetics isnt predatory or particulary exploiting fomo
My biggest gripe is how the new Rift makes the FOMO worse with Daily Rituals being pretty necessary to get to the end of the rift.
You dont need to play everyday for those 3 months (rift time). I already finished my rift 2 weeks ago.
Fwiw you don't need to play every day. I'm at tier 80 and I've only played two days over the past week, and missed many days in the weeks before. The milestone quests (I do both killer and survivor) helped significantly. I've missed many many dailies.
FOMO in DBD feels less like an incentive and more like a second job… one that doesn't pay, but occasionally hands out a banner or a reskinned cosmetic.
And maybe that would be fine… if the core game consistently delivered. But in a title still lacking proper anti-cheat, basic accessibility features, or real long-term progression, it ends up feeling like a dessert trying to distract from an empty plate.
Yes, exclusive items and event rewards are exciting… when they're occasional. But when fear of missing out becomes the primary motivator, many players burn out and don't come back.
Imagine ice cream that you can only eat after finishing 12 bowls of lukewarm spinach… and if you skip a day, it's gone for years. Eventually, even the best flavors lose their appeal.
Selling cosmetics works best when the game itself earns long-term goodwill. Maybe it’s time to shift from short-term urgency to long-term quality.
I'm fine with FOMO, if the rewards don't cost actual money and have to be earned through gameplay. It's cool to have things like cosmetics, that you get for participating in events.
But when it's cosmetics that you have to open your wallet for, then I'm 100% against it. As then it's not a reward for participating, but a tactic to make you purchase something at a time where you might not have the disposable income to buy it, and pay your bills on time.
FOMO works through social pressure of needing the lastest thing. No one is judging you for not having the lastest charm.
The only thing that I would consider FOMO are the removed chapters. Any license can be pulled at any time and if you don't buy it while it's here you won't be able to again.
Seems like ppl who hop on even semi-regularly will have not only all the normal prizes, but also the deep rift stuff. You don't need to be a pro to do the "challenges" since most of them are basic gameplay that most beginners should be able to handle. We're not even halfway through the time limit, and even ppl who don't play everyday are in the deep rift section.
I still have quite afew milestones to do...
Every company on earth that is trying to sell you something uses FOMO to some extent. A more effective solution would be for people to take individual responsibility (I know, not a very popular opinion these days) and remove themselves from the temptation rather than demanding that every company on earth stop using a very common marketing tactic.
I genuinely don’t understand why people are so frustrated with the new Rift system or keep bringing up FOMO in Dead by Daylight. I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical at first 100 levels in 83 days sounds like a grind, but honestly, it goes by ridiculously fast.
Lately, it feels like everything is being labeled as FOMO. And I’m not trying to be harsh. I just don’t get it. Are people really getting upset over missing out on what’s probably their 1000 Feng cosmetic, which they might not even use and will likely return at some point?
Personally, I always liked seeing players with stuff I didn’t have. I’d think, “Wow, that looks awesome, too bad I missed it,” and then just moved on. It made those cosmetics feel special.
Just enjoy the game. If you’re constantly chasing everything, chances are you’ll always end up disappointed both in games and in real life.
ngl I actually think the daily system is an improvement over the old system.
Not only do they add progress to the rift, but you can also play any role you want and dailies are so easy you can almost always do all 3 in one game pretty much. I wouldn't say they are 100% required to finish the rift but they will certainly speed it up.
I mean think about it, if you play DBD at least a little bit a day, you'll always finish the dailies.
Video games offering seasonal or limited time rewards isn't new... DBD's current system is actually QUITE tame. You could probably hop on for 1 match every other day and still get all 100 tiers based off how it's designed. Even if you DO miss out on getting it for free via rift, the cosmetics tend to make their way to the store anyway so no one is really missing out on anything besides maybe some charms.
FOMO is always a thing and its not even a bad thing as its just cosmetics. Its like in real life. If you dont buy the new t-shirt this season you probably never get a chance to buy it ever again. But nobody cries about this. Same goes for rewards in real life. You never get a second chance to get e.g. a special price for participating in a dance comeptition. Nobody cries about that too. But in games its becoming a problem? Seriously?
The milestone quests are really just basic stuff that you complete as you play a game. Nothing to do with being bad, I guess the difference between you and I is simply that I do more in a match than you (and I'm not saying that as an insult, it would simply explain why I've completed more in less games than you have). We are only halfway through the Rift challenges (we are in week 6 and there are 12 weeks total) so if you're at tier 80 then you'll be finished with plenty of time to spare.
They will never stop this because FOMO works and the crazy thing is, this is an entirely optional pressure people choose to put on themselves.
Look, I like some cosmetics as much as the next guy but ultimately they don't make a game better and your experience wont change if you don't buy them. The money is better in your pocket in the long run.
The solution to FOMO is don't buy into FOMO
I too have been playing off and on for the past weeks, and I am at level 100 (infinite tiers).
As long as you do some of the event challenges (such as chaos shuffle and 2v8) you can easily get the pass to 100