The Pros and Cons of Crossplay: Dead by Daylight
By Xander Townsend | Misfit Media Editor
(Includes Graphic Content)
A lot of the people I play video games with on a daily basis come from the time in my life when my main game of choice was Dead by Daylight, also known as 'Dbd'. Granted, I didn't start playing the game until early 2020, well into the games lifespan, and well before crossplay was implemented. Over the past year or so, I have accumulated almost 800 hours playing and mainly socialise with people I had met through the game. I owe the game a lot, so why am I deciding to tell you why I think the game has run its course?
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric survival horror video game developed by Behaviour Interactive. It was released in 2016 on PC and a year later for consoles. It is mainly known for its one vs four multiplayer, where one plays as a killer tasked with killing the four other players/survivors who aim to escape. The game is full of different killers and survivors to play, with the characters unlocking different playstyles and perks.
Crossplay, also known as cross-platform/cross-compatible play, is a games ability to lobby together players from different video game hardware's (including PC, PlayStation, Xbox, etc.) to play with each other simultaneously. In short, players from either console platforms or PC can join the same lobby/match and play together.
Crossplay in Dead by Daylight was introduced in August of 2020. Originally I thought this would be a great thing, as wait times for Dbd matches were really starting to stretch to a tedious lengths and more players meant shorter wait times. That was true, but another result of crossplay came out of the woodwork. Console gamers can access most of the game features except for one, they cannot see the chat window and cannot communicate with other players after matches like those on PC. This caused some problems, the main being that console players were far more inclined to abuse killer mechanics and survivors weren't able to communicate the problem to them, the cycle of console tyranny continued.
Before crossplay, there was a level of understanding between killer and survivor players. Dead by Daylight is a great game but has many flaws, the unbalanced nature of some killers being the main problem that prevents the game from being fun to play. There is nothing worse than playing a game and no matter how impeccable your skills are, there is a mechanical restraint that doesn't allow for a potential solution. Games that implement these blocks quickly become very 'unfun' as you think the game is unjustifiable working against you. On PC, killers understood that it was cheap and unfair to abuse these mechanics and that it just reflected poorly on them showcasing their inability to utilise any skill. This universal understanding was created by the chat system and Twitch streaming, as every play you make was broadcasted to and criticised by the internet.
Console players couldn't care less. The complete disregard for other players' enjoyment and an innate lack of comprehension of the value of the game is beyond frustrating. Console players will focus one select player, making their game miserable just to confirm one kill. It very quickly makes the game completely unenjoyable and I've had to face the reality that none of my old Dbd enthusiasts will play the game anymore. Unfortunately Dead by Daylight will have to remain as an afterthought until the developers refine killer mechanics to eliminate these preventative play mechanics.