Emotional Investment in Darktide

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Something I’ve begun to notice over time is how differently people connect to the games they play. Some players develop a deep sense of attachment after only a few hundred hours, while others can spend thousands and still maintain a certain distance. Around 3,700 hours in Vermintide 2, 250 in Darktide. I enjoy them both, but I see them for what they are: video games, not extensions of my identity.

I think sometimes stepping back is healthy. Games are designed to take advantage of your psychological needs; they offer structure, mastery, and a sense of control that everyday life often lacks. They create belonging and validation through community, achievement, and recognition. Those can all be good things, but when they become substitutes for self-worth, the line between interest and dependency blurs. That’s when frustration replaces enjoyment and discussions can turn too combative to be productive.

In Vermintide 2, I’ve found most players grounded and relaxed about the game’s flaws and strengths alike. Darktide, and the forums surrounding it, often feel more volatile, quick to anger, quicker to assume the worst. I don’t think that comes from malice; it comes from caring too much in the wrong way. Passion without perspective tends to feed outrage, not improvement.

Some degree of criticism and complaint is necessary to get the ball rolling on issues, but responding out of anger or disappointment rather than clarity is probably making it more likely your grievances will be dismissed as venting more than feedback. I’ve fallen prey to this when I saw the state of the cash shop, and I wanted to vent, but I also want changes too.

I’m certain the developers at Fatshark care deeply about their work, but they also understand it’s still a game, not a cause to rally around. The healthiest communities reflect that balance: engaged, critical, but not hostile. Calls for civility shouldn’t be viewed a shield for anyone you disagree with. What I want is to make genuine dialogue possible. Without it, every disagreement becomes a test of loyalty instead of useful actionable feedback.

Maybe I joined Vermintide 2 at a calmer point in its life cycle, when players had settled into the game rather than fighting over what it should be, but I think every community benefits when people approach discussion with composure and reason. Games are meant to be enjoyed. Keeping perspective isn’t about pretending not to care, or becoming apathetic, because “it’s just a game bro”; I just have to remind myself not to let passion cloud judgement. This might fall on deaf ears, but I’ve started to see this issue more and more in gaming communities.

Ultimately, vote with your time and wallet. Take a break if you need it. Giving them your time and money isn’t worth it. I’ve seen a lot of players who say things like “I’m just staying out of pure stubbornness”. If you’re only hanging on out of habit, it might be time to step away and play another game.

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It’s the 40K curse. It just attracts people like that.

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There’s a certain, undeniable irony in taking paragraphs to tell people “it’s not that serious.” I don’t think this is the place to make any serious claims about how passion relates to identity.

Actionable feedback belongs on a Trello board. If they need to expand their beta tester program, they can.

There’s a time and a place to let people know how something makes you feel, and a general discussion forum is suitable for that.

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I don’t think anyone disagrees with that, you’re allowed to feel how you feel but you also have control over how you react to or project outward about those feelings.

Definitely a lot of people responding immaturely across reddit and these forums about a variety of topics in this game.

I think its a pretty measured and empathetic post getting at a pretty reasonable conclusion. I don’t think its that ironic tbh

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What’s immature, in the context of video game reception, in your view?

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I get where you’re coming from, but that wasn’t really the point I was making. I’m not saying “it’s not that serious”. Passion is great; it’s what keeps communities alive. Vermintide 2 has actually lost a lot of that.

I’m not saying “I don’t care”. I’m not trying to downplay the importance the game has to people, but the emotional burnout is on it’s way for those who do get too wrapped up in it, and I’ve seen it happen with other games.

When I post here, it’s also because I have time, and this is currently the game I’m playing and investing time in. I think a major reason why a lot of feedback gets ignored is because it’s translates to noise and venting.

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Wailing and gnashing your (the collective gamer your) teeth because a marketing promo got delayed a week is pretty immature. Calling for GW to fire Fatshark, declaring all interest in the new class dead, etc etc etc etc etc

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I didn’t want to say it like that, but yeah, people go overboard sometimes. This kind of doomer attitude is common on social media nowadays. It reminds me of the crying wojak, but that’d be in poor taste I think.

The potential irony of spending 45 minutes on this post was not lost on me. I’m aware I also get passionate, and I lost my cool about the cash shop. The point being, passion can be misplaced, and then I think it’s more likely that it’ll be dismissed as venting and noise. It can be cathartic to complain, the anger is palpable at times, but the way it’s expressed here often translates to me as a lack of understanding.

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Oh yes, remember stagger mechanic change drama, dodge nerf drama, paid careers being completely broken OP. Power mechanic doesn’t work for a month on release cause they released wrong build or something. BW beam staff ruining the game, no dedicated servers despite was promised. Should i rly keep going?

People are chill in V2 cause who’s left there, like 2-3k players who stick to V2 no matter what.

You are missing the point DT isn’t the first FS game for some of us. There was bullcrap in V1, in V2, in DT now. Same mistakes all over again. People support them with their money buying dlc’s and cosmeics, invest time, talking their friends to try Tide games, cause how gameplay is good.

I’m not even talking about announce delay, the reason people react so extreme is cause FS has a history of “next week”, “never was designed to be a COD game”, paired with being slow on content delivery, not communicating, releasing all their games full with bugs, crashes, server errors, performance issues. All their 3 games spent like 2 years in early access sort of. With DT they are abusing fomo and player retention mechanics now, charging for more money, but their attitude and QA is the same.

It’s just a cum-(haha)-alitive effect of FS own deccisions and history.

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I think part of the reason is that VT2 has simply been out for a long time, and there are fewer dedicated players left these days.
However, what feels more significant to me are Fatshark’s past handling of the game, the quality of their communication, and the state of game balance.
In particular, communication between the developers and the player base is extremely limited, and it’s completely unclear what’s happening behind the scenes.
It’s rare to receive any response to questions, and it often feels like speaking into the void.
With community managers changing frequently and game balance deteriorating with each update, these issues have steadily piled up over time.

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Out of context this delay is nothing to be upset about, and 99% of people are not.
People are frustrated with Fatshark, in particular their leadership.

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The healthiest communities reflect that balance: engaged, critical, but not hostile.

Passionate discussion is better than no discussion or indifference, I’ve played too many multiplayer/co-op games that died quickly (Starship Troopers FPS, Deceive INC, Payday 3, KF3 etc) to know that these kind of discussions indicate that game is actually alive and growing.

People fight for the things they believe in, otherwise they would just shrug things off and move on to another game.

I’ve engaged with hostile people in my work places before, and I’ve noticed that sometimes when people recognize you’re empathizing with them (despite them acting rude), they are more likely to change their attitude for the better.

In Vermintide 2, I’ve found most players grounded and relaxed about the game’s flaws and strengths alike.

Vermintide is a niche game with a small devoted playerbase, Darktide has a much broader appeal, and thus there are two different kinds of group who play DT. Most of the fights happen because people have different views on how the game should be.

Nobody cares about Vermintide outside of people who already play tide games. Darktide’s potential goes beyond that as the definitive action WH40k game and also the best L4D clone since L4D2, because of it’s good ranged gunplay which is better than most other co-op games which play way too arcade-y.

Even Deep Rock Galactic, a game with a better overall design than Darktide, has weaker gunplay than Darktide.

Some degree of criticism and complaint is necessary to get the ball rolling on issues, but responding out of anger or disappointment rather than clarity is probably making it more likely your grievances will be dismissed as venting more than feedback.

QA is a paid profession and devs should not expect everyone to be 100% constructive.

Forums exist for people to vent about the game’s issues in any way they deem necessary.

It’s also kinda hard being constructive with well thought-out posts when devs don’t even bother replying to the suggestion posts or balance discussions or even stating their intentions. It feels like no matter how good your feedback is, it’s all pointless because it will be lost to the void.

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This just sounds like a hyperbolic caricature of opinions you disagree with to me.

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People are passionate about DT because it’s great and we want it to succeed.

There is no tide game like it and if players keep leaving because of silly decisions made by FS then that will be devastating to many of us. Especially as those passionate players flag issues and possible outcomes in very good time but are often ignored.

At the end of the day FS isn’t making an arthouse movie for their own creative gratification. They are making a game for people like us (ie the paying customers who are sticking around through thick and thin). Perhaps they should listen to us.

RE the delay announcement - I don’t think anyone is anything more than deflated because we were genuinely excited to see a reveal. FS now have a meme-like rep for output and reliability though so things like this cause a lot of discussion and fun-jabbing. I have seen no one calling for FS to be “sacked” which would be rather daft if serious.

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I agree that this forum can be quite vitriolic sometimes, and people could do with a little more civility.

I think the most significant root cause is the lack of communication and slow update cycle from Fatshark. You can really feel the frustrated energy of the forums when it has been a long time since the last update. We all want this game to be good and to keep getting better, and the lack of communication from Fatshark causes people to argue about what the game should be, because there is no one to tell us what it will be.

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Nah man, I can read. Go to reddit and look at any of the numerous topics on the delay. (My examples are paraphrased quotes I’ve literally seen)

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said it better than I could! :clap:

Basically this. We are left to stew for too long.

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It’s not that. Most people are just having fun with it.

It’s just the unbelievable incompetence which is displayed time and time again. It’s become a joke.

To OP. Check my profile if you like. I was here years ago with V2 and the sentiment was the same. Unbelievably tone deaf communications and a glacial pace of any fixes.

I quit V2 then because of what you say. It shouldn’t consume you. I am taking things way less serious this time around, but we can just talk about it on the forum.

After all, there’s nothing else Fatshark is doing which we can talk about. This is it.

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There are definitely games where I’ve seen the developers communicate more, and better, and maybe since I’ve taken a long break from the game, I missed a lot of drama. Even still, it’s not just this game, a lot of game communities seem like they get pretty heated, and at the end of the day, it’s just a game.

The lack of passion for Vermintide 2 is a little disappointing. It’s true not many left. I started playing a couple years back, and I’ve never seen a discussion rival the most controversial Darktide threads. The closest it came was the OP Moonfire bow, and that was when I initially joined the forums.

Is this a common thing with other games devs? I think maybe I’ve been involved in too few game discussion forums to even know. I’ve never been in a gaming community where the developers were able to frequently respond to / and engage with the community directly.

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I’ve been here long enough to say that yes, this is a huge chunk of the problem.

Strawhat kept comms up and people were usually chilled out. With her leaving and no real permanent replacement, people are going to be more easily frustrated, especially when this is supposed to be the first significant bit of news in a while.

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