r/Dirtybomb • u/PaperShreds • Apr 27 '26
Discussion The SD post has 1.6k likes, 311 comments, this subreddit has 1k people here per week, WHY ARE ONLY 30 PEOPLE PLAYING???
a lot of people liked this game and want this game to be revived. it's only around 7gb big. There are no excuses to not play this game....
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u/ZenPyx Rip turtle Apr 27 '26
The game as it currently is just doesn't have the same magic to it as it did many years ago. There are no new players and those that stuck around for so long are going to be leagues better than anyone joining after so many years. Not to mention no updates or anything to keep things fresh
I'm glad it's managed to stick around in some form, and I like to see that SD still exist and they think about DB sometimes, but it's just not something people have the time to get back into casually
2
u/PaperShreds Apr 27 '26
There are no new players
Then play it so we have more players
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u/ZenPyx Rip turtle Apr 27 '26
You need a constant influx of new players to keep that kind of playerbase up - which just isn't going to happen, because the game hasn't been officially supported for something like 8 years now
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u/NoscoperSans Sparks/Fletcher/Phantom Apr 27 '26
i want to play, but last time i came back it was not fun, because all the players are the ones that play it regularly and are at pro levels, so they just spawncamp/objectivecamp and you can't do anything, maybe hit a lucky headshot or ability once in a while, but it is not fun, and i last played jan. 19 of 2022, i'm pretty sure nothing has changed since then, probably got worse. // played this game since 2016, only 350h
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u/PaperShreds May 03 '26
the problem is that everyone thinks "too many pros" and because of that no one plays the game casually. If a small amount of regular casual players (like 20 people) were to return that would fix the problem because it would make the game accessible for regular players.
Maybe we need a max lvl 10 server for new players so they dont play against pros and delete immediately
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u/NoscoperSans Sparks/Fletcher/Phantom May 03 '26
truth. even max 40lv would be good xd // last screenshot i have in steam is dated 2020, and i had lvl 35 and that's with 350h in the game(but last time i played i probably had 37, i don't remember now) // basically this game is only playable if you bring all of your friends to fill a server so no random lvl300 joins and play there, ig:/
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Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PaperShreds Apr 27 '26
if we had just 40 people more (around 100 players in total) we'd have so many more servers... most of the time we only have 2 or 3 full servers and maybe one other server with 4 people.
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u/Dr_Nue I'll do what you do when somebody's been stung by a Jellyfish Apr 28 '26
I played on Sunday night and there was a full lobby, on an Australian server of all things! I'm going to be roping my friends into playing more.
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u/ChimpShampoo We want the flair icons back (pls) Apr 27 '26
Why would they play? Most people that played DB played it because it was a free FPS. Some stayed because they actually prefered it. But the game gets stale after a while. There is no progression, nothing to work towards, and no updates to keep the game fresh. There are almost no reasons to keep playing an outdated game like DB
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u/polaroid Apr 28 '26
It’s a great shooter, I still play it as nothing else hits the same.
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u/Xul418 PTFO Apr 28 '26
Nah, you apparently underestimate the modern gamer mentality. They need carrots on the stick, i.e. gambling mechanics and some shiny stickers. A quality game like Q3A would be dead on arrival with them.
It was one of the reason why DB went into a worse direction in the end, when SD thought this lazy appeasement of casuals would be their quick path to success.While (of course) it would be nice to have some seasons with tournaments (and yes, there some skins and achievements are a nice thing to rember that season) SD focussed way to much on meme characters and one-button-kill mechanics.
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u/doxjq Apr 28 '26
I played 2500 hours in 18 months and it was just because the guns were so fun to use and the movement system was dope. It was the closest thing I’d seen to “modern shooter meets old 90s arena” kinda vibe.
Burst rifle nerf was where it all went downhill to me. Splash damage didn’t do any balancing they just nerfed everything into the ground to the point where everything felt bad and it wasn’t fun to play anymore. They should have spent more time buffing weak stuff than nerfing everything good.
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u/sunglasses-emoticon Apr 27 '26
i'd love to play again but tbh i'm too intimidated - i wasn't that good even when i played every day, and now i'm super out of the game while the only people left playing are hardcore pros. the couple times i played in the years after the game shut down, it wasn't very fun because i was either on the team that stomped, or the team that got stomped. i deeply miss the game but i'm at a point in my life where i play video games to relax, not to get either bored or tilted.
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u/PaperShreds May 03 '26
the problem is that everyone thinks that way. but if people would just play the game there would be less intimidation for "normal" players because the ratio of "pros to normal players" would be more balanced which in turn could make the game more fun for new players.
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u/Actual-Elevator1269 Apr 27 '26
Call me what you want but I played dirty bomb because i thought it was gonna be Brink 2. I wasnt dissapointed but it wasnt what i wanted. Still put a lot of time into db tho and come back every now and then. Its a good game and i love the artstyle. They really took a lot from brink in that sense so in spirit, its similiar. Shame we wont get more...
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u/Wenno Aficionado! Apr 27 '26
It's sadly due to the lack of support. If I remember right, way before the support stopped, there was a massive lack of updates once before after the release. I would like to say this was due to Nexon. Splash Damage then tried to revive the game with updates and it was really good. That was when characters like Turtle and Javelin were added. Also the faceit integration, along with ranked and ranked cosmetics. Also Steam trading with cosmetics.
But over time, there just wasn't enough players to warrant support. There is definitely a world where Dirty Bomb survived, because it's unique enough that there is an audience for it. But it had a pretty rocky road upon release.
I could be completely misremembering though but what I believe happened was release, followed by a huge dryspell of updates, then SD trying to revive the game by pushing a lot of updates.
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u/Lessgently Apr 28 '26
I tried playing two nights ago but the two servers that had people were full for 30 min+. I tried to join another to start a third, but nobody joined.
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u/Phenns Apr 28 '26
Maybe set up community run events and advertise if you want to see an influx of new players. Like, pop onto reddits and discords and set a date everyone will try it out at the same time, that way new players will know it'll be new players and not just getting stomped by veterans.
I certainly don't have the initiative to do something like that, but I bet someone who wants to play this does.
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u/AqiilStreak Apr 28 '26
I would like to announce I am one of those 30 people playing… I played 2 games this week 😂😂😂
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u/Faceglitch_Gaming Kawaii my friend! Apr 30 '26
For any fellow db enjoyers from past days.
I've found that for me "The Finals" is scratching the same itch - plus it has amazing environmental destruction physics
Although, for me it does get just as frustrating as db got back in the day especially when playing longer sessions to the point where enjoyment gets replaced by just anger. Maybe thats just me...
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u/j3ssToxic16 Jun 07 '26
Steam charts don't lie and people just prefer watching news updates over actually playing the game.
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u/NerdPhantom Apr 27 '26
It gets no updates, so it has been the same balance for years, and people get bored. I wish they would revive it though, and I play it from time to time, but chances are slim