At this point, everyone knows I'm hugely into books.
It's just so depressing how even book people are about nothing more than intentionally creating this self-perpetuating "community" of anxiety.
You can't go to any freaking book-related online space without people asking for permission to not finish a book. "Is it okay to DNF?????"
Same with doing shit to your own books. Do not write into them, do not open them too much or the spine will crack. Get a panic attack because two fucking photons touched the book and how it will be DAMAGED.
"I am having a panic attack because maybe I didn't get all the references in this book."
The same with every hobby. Cooking? You are not environmentally friendly enough, you are not authentic enough, this is wrong, that is wrong.
Hell, I am kiiinda thinking about a Switch, I looked at Animal Crossing and people are freaking the fuck out at others for not playing the game "right". Others are having depression because their islands are not aesthetic enough.
How did the internet turn everyone so fucking neurotic over the things we were supposed to do as FUN? And I am not even just talking about SJW things, but every community is about "doing it the right way" even though it doesn't matter and there doesn't exist a right way?
Dark souls at least is understandable. Its a game defined by its difficulty. Yet a bunch of people keep bitching and whining for the devs to make it easy or to add an easy mode. It needs its core community to gatekeep those people out.
I always pick on it because I don't like it. I hate the dodge-dodge-stab tedious game play loop, and it's fans will come out in droves to trash negative opinions.
Probably a more universal example is trying to go to any mainstream gaming forum and criticize a 1st party PS4 exclusive, because those are considered the absolute pinnacle of gaming and are infallible.
In Elden Ring, summons were the difficulty slider. If you want the Souls experience don’t use them. If you want to make it easier, use them. It works.
The problem with a real difficulty slider on a Souls game is that it wasn’t designed for that because the gameplay is too tight. Other games have you button mashing with animation cancels to have everything happen instantly. Souls games are the exact opposite. Every single button press is a commitment. If you made it easier you’d basically be upping your HP and lowering the enemies and it would feel janky and it’d still be pretty rough because when you’re attacked you often can’t move. If you can’t beat a boss as is you wouldn’t do much better if it died quicker.