Crawling Back into the Dark - Archived Article

Originally published June, 2014.

With the impending release of Dark Souls II swiftly approaching (At the time of writing this), the urge to return to the kingdom of Lodran has quickly overtaken me. As perhaps a desire to ready myself for another run of torturous learning and quick deaths, I’ve jumped back into everything Dark Souls. I’ve revisited some of the wiki sites to see recent changes from the patches and review some of the lore deeply embedded within the game.

I’ve also watched the recent playthrough of GiantBomb’s Patrick Klepek—someone who not only has never played any of the Souls games before, but who would have likely written off the series altogether if it wasn’t for his curiosity towards their masochistic nature. He became addicted and excited with every new subtlety he learned in the game. It was after his numerous failures at the claws of the Gargoyles along with his inevitable victory that he was finally able to get the same skin tingling obsession that the game is able to conjure. However, it wasn’t until after his conquering of Sen’s fortress he seemed to really grasp the addictive desire to face a challenge, learn from your mistakes, formulate a strategy, and execute it. Even if the execution isn’t flawless, the overwhelming flood of adrenaline and self-confidence that emerges from overcoming the challenges the game puts forth is what the game seems to be ultimately getting at in its design.

It may sound like I’m making Dark Souls out to be an addiction, but like many forms of entertainment, it somewhat is. Video games all have their own addictive tendencies, some more deliberate than others. The Souls games however, feel as though the intent is not to get people addicted, but to teach them. The addiction is entirely dependent on the internal experience that comes from playing the game. Much like why so many people like fighting games—arguably one of, if not the most complex game genre out there—Dark Souls and its predecessor,Demon’s Souls, pull from that desire to overcome adversity. They, like fighting games, are a challenge and require the player to not only learn the basic mechanics of the game, but to become so good, the basics are second nature. Not to mention, as I have described in previous reviews of the game, the euphoric sense of victory after finally defeating an enemy that was seemingly impossible is exactly what makes you want to keep going. It isn’t simply because you were able to enhance your character enough to win, you, the player, needed to be good enough to do it.

So it was just as satisfying to watch someone else experience it for the first time and truly get it, especially due to the fact that it seemed like such a daunting task to him at the start. Klepek eventually came to the same conclusion that so many other Dark Souls fans say: it’s not that difficult a game, it’s just punishing. The reason it doesn’t hold your hand or tell you all of its secrets and intricacies up front is because it wants you to learn them on your own and adapt to each new scenario. It doesn’t want to be impossible, otherwise no one would see all the work the developers put into the game. This sense of discovery along with the conquering of the game’s challenges, are all internal experiences.

So I couldn’t resist jumping back in. I immediately made several new characters to cover a variety of playstyles I wanted to try. The last time I had played Dark Souls, I fell into my usual routine of the Jack-of-all-trades type character where I was good enough to use everything, but not nearly as effective as I could be. I did that in part because my inner-completionist wanted to get all the achievements, as well as to give me a preview into the various classes to consider the next time around. However, the process of collecting everything eventually burned me out, along with some other nuisances, thus it has ended up being several years since I’ve touched the game.

At first, it was a bit rough making my way back into the game after a long hiatus, but my muscle memory quickly returned and I was easily parrying the simple enemies with the assistance of a Meshuggah playlist in the background to provide some erratic rhythm to the madness. I was traversing the Undead Burg once again, but in exciting and different ways that I never considered before due to my own stubborn methods. It felt great to come back. Yet, it didn’t take long for one of the main reasons why I stayed away for so long to rear its head once again.

Another player invaded my game, made quick work of me, and upon easily besting my character that was leaps and bounds below his/hers in gear and ability, proceeded to use one of the few emoting methods of the game to taunt me as my game refreshed and sent me back to the checkpoint. I’ve never been great at PvP in the Souls games; I’ve been able to have some fun matches in Demon’s Souls when I had the time to play it more and be considered “good” at it. Dark Souls was the same when everyone who was playing the game was around the same level and just as clueless about its secrets. I even had some phenomenal moments where I took out 3 players at once as the game continued to age and the master online players began to emerge. However, since the game has been out for years, the true masters of the game have been able to pour their hours into it to reach a level that I will never achieve, nor wish to achieve. This was already a minor issue when I last played the game before, but I was a little better at it then and I ran into more people who used the online gameplay as a friendly dueling service, instead of the trollfest it’s become.

The system certainly lends itself to trolling and obnoxious behavior, which I don’t really mind as much because trash-talking and taunting is all part of the experience of these games. I certainly wouldn’t want the developers to take it out. Nonetheless, the overwhelming amount of indecent behavior is disheartening. When Demon’s Souls first introduced the mechanics, it was surprisingly fun to be invaded by other players. The adrenaline rush still happens and I can feel my heart race each time another player jumps into my game to most likely ruin my chances at victory. It’s a challenge that I’m excited to accept, until the realization sweeps over me yet again that I have no chance of winning. When I had a chance, it was engaging and exciting. Now, I dread the moments when I see someone join, not only because they have a better equipped character than myself, but  because they have the skill acquired through countless hours of playing the game that I do not have. Sometimes they don’t and I make a foolish mistake, die, and am forced to be taunted by the player via a message with an unearned smug confidence, but even that somehow feels less irritating than losing to someone who is infinitely better, knows it, and flaunts it.

I realize that it sounds a bit trivial, even pathetic, to complain about such behavior as this is common with how people act on anything that is connected to the internet. I’m sure if there was some competitive mode in a puzzle game like Bejeweled, someone would find a way to draw a dick and insults out of the gems on screen. It likely affects me more simply because I don’t participate with online forums and games due to the fact that I already know how people behave. However, I still play fighting games online knowing that I’m nowhere near as good as the best players. Even if I get annihilated by the other player, I’m more than happy to record what they did to see how they won, analyze it, learn from it, or maybe use the lessons I’ve learned in the future. Why is it that losing at fighting games, even if the opponent is less than gracious in his/her victory, is so much more acceptable to me?

Part of this is because the playing field is a bit more level in fighting games: all the characters have their own stats and victory is determined more by the player’s effective use of each character’s abilities, as opposed to how well leveled or instead of how well buffed the character is. The other part is, despite the Fighting Game Community (FGC) having a negative reputation, I’ve found that more people are gracious winners there than Dark Souls because they want you to keep playing and get better. They want you to become a better opponent for them. Being immature and standoffish toward other players will do little more than drive away new or returning players, leaving only the dedicated few, the trolls, and the other players likely to just want to behave the same way in retaliation, thus repeating the cycle.

Regardless of their behavior, I struggle on with the game and try to enjoy the single-player experience as much as I can. It just is a little discouraging that one of the aspects of the game I enjoyed so much is now populated by the trolls who have trained and specialized themselves for the purpose of trolling, spreading their filth like the proverbial dung piles they keep throwing at each other.

It’s for these reasons that I’m excited to jump into Dark Souls II when it comes out, when everyone will be on an equal playing field once again. Sure, the trolls will likely be able to adapt quicker than the rest, but it won’t feel like the NY Yankees are kicking the crap out of some little-league team. It will feel closer to a final game in the minor leagues where everyone is still learning. Hopefully, when the game is over, the winning side can perform a courteous bow as opposed to the closest approximation of “tea-bagging”.