this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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gamingcirclejerk
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omg they made lemmy political
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I don't think I've never said on Lemmy (I know I have on /r/darksouls) this but Dark Souls is the first time a game had fundamentally changed me as a person.
If anyone wants there is so much written on the philosophy of the game as an allegory for overcoming adversity. Many have used it as a tool to explain the struggle of depression and even how to rise out of it.
Is it a perfect game? Definitely not. But it is an absolutely beautiful game and I think the world is a better place for it existing.
It's also worth noting in my experience the community surrounding it is one of the least toxic I've experienced.
Some of the stupidest, most heated, arguments I've been in on the Internet are around "should dark souls have an easy mode?"
On the one hand, you have people like you and me that hit the difficulty, struggled, succeeded, and felt changed for the better by it. I think it made me a little more chill about failing in games, and failing generally when the consequences are minor or illusionary.
Side note: the way it does illusionary setbacks is pretty elegant. Dying in the game feels bad, but you don't typically lose anything of note. Your most important things (healing, spells, equipment) recharge, and many things persist in ways that favor you (bosses don't respawn, but shortcuts stay open)
On the other hand, you have people that don't care about that at all. They bought a game to be entertained, and this stupid demon with the dogs is anything but entertaining. Maybe their whole life is adversity and they just want a power fantasy of triumph. Maybe they just can't get past the archers and don't want to deal with it. Or other arguments I can't articulate well because it's not my position. May be unintentionally making a straw man here.
I kind of get it. But I also kind of feel like some of the arguments are like "I watched Casablanca and it's a lot of boring talking" or "I tried to read finnigans wake and it's too weird". It would be unreasonable to be like "change these things to appeal to me".
The worst was an argument conflating accessibility (I should be able to use any controller I want, there should be subtitles) with difficulty (I should be able to set the boss health to anything I want).
Maybe It wouldn't really change much if there was a difficulty slider. I feel like it would lead to some people robbing themselves of an experience, but that's not really my business.
I think the adversity the game throws at players is very valuable to real life too. The amazing part about games is they can teach you things without you expressly thinking on it. You just find a way to cope, think ahead, or learn from unexpected situations or failures. It becomes a way of thinking that translates to other aspects of life outside of the game.
Sometimes there is nothing to do but confront a boss, sometimes you can make no mistake and still lose because something flew out of nowhere or is just beyond your skill. And you know what? Maybe it's just time to ask a friend, or even a stranger who has dealt with it before or just knows far more, and thats okay. Not everything can be done solo, especially when its a first time