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Dark Souls II Used To Be Fun
10 years ago
General
I remember a time when the game actually was a balanced diet of PvP and PvE co-operative play, but more and more it seems like the game caters to the crowd of assholes who want nothing more than to ruin the experience it offers through a healthy dose of 'wreckin' yo shit'. Every patch it has had, and this also includes Dark Souls I, seems to try and 'balance' the mechanics for Invaders, but nothing ever seems to change for people like myself who'd rather help players on their way through the turmoil in the game and assist them in overcoming challenges that were otherwise seemingly 'impossible'.
I've clocked at least more than 500 hours in both games, and in neither one have I opted to be the guy that seeks to simply destroy the experience and atmosphere the game has to offer for others, often times through the sheer difference in the amount of hours clocked, where players have learned the exploits and easiest methods of defeating fellow players. And don't get me wrong, every now and then I actually enjoy a good PvP match, and in Dark Souls this is especially so. But I'm more of a co-operative play kind of guy and much more enjoy the concept of helping someone, who, like me at one point, has had to experience the constant defeat-after-defeat either due to AI that can cleave through your health in a matter of seconds or players who have discovered the quickest method of knocking you on your ass.
This is proven more-so by the fact that I can sit at a Bonfire with a summon sign placed on the ground, eagerly awaiting a fellow player who desperately needs assistance with a particular boss or area, only to discover (through a Wiki no less) that as I further progress through the game, assistance for others is -severely- limited whereas Invaders are given MORE opportunity to invade your world and kill you for nothing more than shits or giggles because they're tired of the story mechanics and rather re-hash their experience through a 'Call of Duty 2.0' PvP-esque style. I now have to spend my time wilting away hours farming the same boss over and over again just to attain the stats necessary to compete with individuals who have played the game enough to smash through just about any defense I can come up with, with nothing more than their bare fists and a loincloth.
For every summon I receive for co-operative, I am met with at least 5-6 invasions stepping 5 feet away from the 'safe zone' so to speak. This is also mired by the fact that even one of the 'Covenants', a guild of sorts in the game, offers some of the best spells and equipment through PvP play only, whereas with many other 'Covenants' you have to either complete a shit ton of co-operative play in order to get the sub-standard rewards which ultimately become entirely useless by the next playthrough, if you already know what you want and what you're looking for. I honestly wish that the development crew would start considering balancing this out because nothing frustrates me more than people who can chop through 2000+ HP in a matter of seconds (Usually due to a poor connection and far more know-how of the games mechanics) while stating in CapsLock on forums with messages of 'Git gud, noob'.
--
The game has so much to offer, and it's crazily fun to assist people in the already-lethal world of Dark Souls, without having to stop playing because I'm sitting at a Bonfire for several hours awaiting my next summon while some adrenaline junkie hammers my face in every half-a-minute. In addition to it all, the community has now been split into two because of the recent release of 'Scholar of the First Sin', a re-haul of Dark Souls II (Seriously?), which runs on DirectX 11 and is incompatible with the previous version which was released not that long ago.
Ultimately, I suppose this is nothing more than a tired rant of sorts, but I'm sick of the emphasis on player-versus-player and wish games would consider more the people like myself who enjoy helping others rather than frustrating them, and ultimately, 'rage quitting' the game because they feel its unfair.
Addendum: Some of my fondest memories of the game is of my fellow sunbros who took the time to actually show me that a boss/area wasn't such a horrifying threat if you took the time to learn the enemy's moves and had patience, who would take the burden off my shoulders to accomplish a goal that was a chore for them but an impossible task for someone like myself that wasted countless hours away trying to get through the first time.
Don't offer co-operative play and then penalize the player for it, while catering to the already over-crowded realm of PvP-ers who simply play the game to ruin the experience for others. It's not fun, it's not a challenge, it's just tiring.
I've clocked at least more than 500 hours in both games, and in neither one have I opted to be the guy that seeks to simply destroy the experience and atmosphere the game has to offer for others, often times through the sheer difference in the amount of hours clocked, where players have learned the exploits and easiest methods of defeating fellow players. And don't get me wrong, every now and then I actually enjoy a good PvP match, and in Dark Souls this is especially so. But I'm more of a co-operative play kind of guy and much more enjoy the concept of helping someone, who, like me at one point, has had to experience the constant defeat-after-defeat either due to AI that can cleave through your health in a matter of seconds or players who have discovered the quickest method of knocking you on your ass.
This is proven more-so by the fact that I can sit at a Bonfire with a summon sign placed on the ground, eagerly awaiting a fellow player who desperately needs assistance with a particular boss or area, only to discover (through a Wiki no less) that as I further progress through the game, assistance for others is -severely- limited whereas Invaders are given MORE opportunity to invade your world and kill you for nothing more than shits or giggles because they're tired of the story mechanics and rather re-hash their experience through a 'Call of Duty 2.0' PvP-esque style. I now have to spend my time wilting away hours farming the same boss over and over again just to attain the stats necessary to compete with individuals who have played the game enough to smash through just about any defense I can come up with, with nothing more than their bare fists and a loincloth.
For every summon I receive for co-operative, I am met with at least 5-6 invasions stepping 5 feet away from the 'safe zone' so to speak. This is also mired by the fact that even one of the 'Covenants', a guild of sorts in the game, offers some of the best spells and equipment through PvP play only, whereas with many other 'Covenants' you have to either complete a shit ton of co-operative play in order to get the sub-standard rewards which ultimately become entirely useless by the next playthrough, if you already know what you want and what you're looking for. I honestly wish that the development crew would start considering balancing this out because nothing frustrates me more than people who can chop through 2000+ HP in a matter of seconds (Usually due to a poor connection and far more know-how of the games mechanics) while stating in CapsLock on forums with messages of 'Git gud, noob'.
--
The game has so much to offer, and it's crazily fun to assist people in the already-lethal world of Dark Souls, without having to stop playing because I'm sitting at a Bonfire for several hours awaiting my next summon while some adrenaline junkie hammers my face in every half-a-minute. In addition to it all, the community has now been split into two because of the recent release of 'Scholar of the First Sin', a re-haul of Dark Souls II (Seriously?), which runs on DirectX 11 and is incompatible with the previous version which was released not that long ago.
Ultimately, I suppose this is nothing more than a tired rant of sorts, but I'm sick of the emphasis on player-versus-player and wish games would consider more the people like myself who enjoy helping others rather than frustrating them, and ultimately, 'rage quitting' the game because they feel its unfair.
Addendum: Some of my fondest memories of the game is of my fellow sunbros who took the time to actually show me that a boss/area wasn't such a horrifying threat if you took the time to learn the enemy's moves and had patience, who would take the burden off my shoulders to accomplish a goal that was a chore for them but an impossible task for someone like myself that wasted countless hours away trying to get through the first time.
Don't offer co-operative play and then penalize the player for it, while catering to the already over-crowded realm of PvP-ers who simply play the game to ruin the experience for others. It's not fun, it's not a challenge, it's just tiring.
you are going about the system wrong assuming that more souls = good. You are doing a lot of Co-Op that's boosting your SM with each boss you do. That you've been repeating. You are being matched with players who have overleveled toons rather than the streamlined PvP builds. This is doubly so in Scholar as it gives an item for you to Cap your SM at a limit to try minimize that.
Though, The fact you just called the Sun Sword a sub-standard reward shows you dun know what you're doin.
That thing is like, one of the Best PvP weapons for it's amazing moveset.
I mean, you clearly have a PvE mindset but PvP is like super duper different and i'd totally suggest making a new character for it to mess around and maybe you'd have fun with it.
TBH it's kind of a mix of "git gud" and just have multiple characters for different things you want to do to minimize SM issues. I mean, i could keep ranting about SM since it did kill the game for me, but I still enjoyed the game, just lacked the replay value DS1/DeS had.