Feel free to replace “friends” with “anyone you know in real life” or even online groups you trust or are close with.

“They”:

WOM marketing is highly effective as 88% of consumers trust friend recommendations over traditional media.

and my own personal experience; most games I have bought in the past 10 years have been off of recommendations from r/gamingsuggestions before Reddit went to crap and Lemmy came into existence; and even moreso when it is a personal friend recommending things to me.

Mods, feel free to nuke if this feels too close to advertising or better-suited for [email protected] (my own community); I mean it more as a discussion piece but I don’t run the place.

EDIT: The “not” in the title is optional; I’m asking about both successful and failed recommendations.

  • muxika@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Dark Souls

    It’s not for me, honestly. I want to feel freedom from a game, but Souls-like games make me feel trapped.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Some people are saying DS is free. I agree with them, but also there are issues.

      For example, early players who are struggling should go down into the catacombs, because they can unlock The Rite of Kindling, allowing you to get even more estus at a bonfire if you’re having a hard time. However, almost every guide will say not to do this, and I agree. It’s at the bottom of a giant pit with enemies that are more annoying than you’ll have faced before. If you get a divine weapon than it’s probably fine though, but getting back out will still not be trivial.

      Dark Souls is all about giving players options, and giving them the tools to deal with problems. The issue is you need to pay attention to the world and read. The problem with the example above is the necromancers revive enemies, unless they’re killed by a divine weapon. This isn’t obvious though, and it also isn’t obvious where you might find a divine weapon, or where to unlock the ability to upgrade a weapon down the divine path.

      There are just too few signposts to guide new players who are getting frustrated. There’s plenty for people enjoying their time, reading, and exploring. For the people who are slamming their head into a wall on a boss trying to brute force it, like most games would require you to do, there’s not enough to guide them out of this tactic.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        I’ve played many Soulslikes, and found pretty much all of them fun…EXCEPT for the ones by FromSoftware. All others branch out into a lot of exploration, they just don’t put 8 paths square at the beginning of the game and then slap you down for 5 of them.

    • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Interesting. How far in did you get? I think maybe if you looked up a getting started guide you might be able to assuage that trapped feeling, because Dark Souls and Elden Ring manage to feel like some of the most “free” games in my experience. But there’s definitely a crushing learning curve.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        If I looked up a getting started guide, I’d feel constrained by its arcane instructions. “Go this way, take the third door, but DON’T talk to that NPC yet…”

        Fun games are open to the player exploring, without massively disproportionate punishment for it.

        • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          I mean, dying in Dark Souls just isn’t very punishing at all. Idk, not every game is for every person, after all.

          • Katana314@lemmy.world
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            14 hours ago

            That is…ABSOLUTELY false.

            People frequently point to the idea that if you collect an item like a Soul of Lost X, or a weapon, and then die, you get to keep the item. But the game also has consumable items used to make tons of options easier within the world. Things that enhance your weapon temporarily, give an extra health boost, or give you souls. Players that use these without making much use of them, or even misuse them due to nebulously archaic descriptions, will have nothing given back to them later on, making a venture even harder than the first few go’s.

            Plus, you’re likely not to get as many level ups due to lost souls, meaning you’re going to get even more of a difficulty ramp than other players.

            I’m sorry - it’s just juvenile the way people who obsess over this game will defend every issue with “it’s not for every person” - especially when indie devs that have TWEAKED the formula, and FIXED the issues, end up making for very fun games. No one is playing them and complaining “Man, I wish I’d accidentally spent an hour going the wrong way at the start!”

            • Gabadabs@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              6 hours ago

              The games can certainly be punishing in key areas, and it’s better that newer entries and other soulslikes make an effort to make learning the games be more friendly. Death is punishing, sure. Losing consumables, fighting through the same enemies again, or even just having to run back to a boss - these are all sources of friction in this genre. Up front, I do wish these games had accessibility options, I do want more people to experience what they have to offer. But death really just isn’t as punishing as a lot of people make it out to be. Dark Souls isn’t that hard, in most cases. There’s certainly bullshit, and it takes time to learn enemy patterns, and dying can be bad feeling. I think that without the friction, if you could overcome every location and boss on the first or second try, these games would just kind of suck. So it’s a balance.

            • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world
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              12 hours ago

              Lol you called me juvenile because you personally don’t like one of the most objectively popular games of all time? Yeah… anyway, sorry. Skill issue. Get good.

    • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      That is kind of wild to me because Souls game are some of the most free-form action games I know. You can often tackle areas in an order of your choice, use a build of your choice, even kill NPCs if you so please.