Why I Can't Play Elden Ring

Hey everyone, hope you enjoy this one! Tried to add a little extra flair to King's usual style, so I hope it wasn't too jarring! 🥰

I had a very similar experience with Sekiro when it came out. I got an hour in, could tell there was something special there but knew that I was entirely not in the right place in my life to handle a game like it. I was pretty sure I was done with FromSoft games at that point tbh, but something shifted in me in the past year, and I finally got around to Sekiro and loved it, and then I was in a good place to get into Elden Ring. Always hard to skip such a Big Game, especially when you do this for your job, but sometimes putting a game to the side for awhile (or forever) is just what you need to do.

I get it. When your irl life is stressful and requires all your energy to maintain, its hard to play a game like Eden ring bc it's so stressful. It's not really a game you can sit back and relax to play. It requires your focus and attention and when you're exhausted at the end of the day, that's a lot to ask for bc you're already running on E. Young gamers won't feel this way but as u get older and more responsiblities burden you, it will get harder and harder to justify the anxiety something will give you even tho you used to enjoy it in the past.

I am the opposite. I was beginning to think I'd lost my love for gaming. Past few years I'd buy a game, go through the tutorial and the loop a few times then get bored. I thought maybe im getting too old. Elden ring is the first game that has kept me hooked and I'm 150 hrs in and still going strong.

Souls community is so toxic that people can't even talk how they feel about the game without the video being spam disliked. It's a really awful look for the game series.

As someone who’s also depressed and sad… this game had the opposite effect on me. It made me very happy and feel free. Other games make me feel held down and dominated. This game makes me feel free.

The conversation around “builds” is actually an interesting one. I find I enjoy the souls games more near the end, when I have my build tailored to how I want to play. The start of these souls games is so different from the end game. I never know what to do with my stats because I don’t know what weapons are available and it leads me down the path of worrying about my stat points constantly. It really pushes me towards googling builds that exist and following them so I don’t have to worry about that. Compared to the endgame where I know exactly what I need and feel godly doing it. I always understood people who have a hard start with any of these games and I think that has something to do with it.

As someone who has had some of the same problem, looking up a good grinding spot has actually helped a lot. I don't even do it all that much, but knowing that if I die and lose two hours of Runes I can replace them in 10 minutes tops lets me explore with a sense of whimsy that was sorely lacking otherwise

I used to love hard games, but as i have gotten old i find myself only playing games to relax, spending hours beating a hard boss is no longer rewarding to me, it just feels like i wasted those hours. Bloodborne is the last game i actually enjoyed playing for the challenge, since then i have gravitated towards easier games, i gave up on sekiro after four hours. I was going to skip elden ring entirely until i kept reading about how good the world building and exploration was, i wanted to experience the game but i did not want to spend hours upon hours getting wrecked, so i installed a easy mode mod for the pc version and i looked up the most busted weapons and broken builds, that combined with the summoning ashes has make elden ring a surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable experience.

I feel like I went through something similar mid-8th generation, before that I was a completionist (for most games at least) I valued the content squeeze and the satisfaction of capping off a game with some amount of finality (ie I reached 100% and am thus finished with the game and I don't need to go back). Then real life happened and I found I couldn't do that anymore, I fell into a deep depression figuring maybe I just didn't like videogames anymore until I tried embracing techniques I rejected before instead of valuing completion I instead tried to be in the present absorbing what is happening and not thinking about the game in totality, I stopped goal posting my own play and decided to play to see what happens (emergent gameplay was always there, I just lost sight of it past lame achievements and pointless percentiles).

"lack the willpower to exist in a harsh unforgiving world when my own life is similar" as someone going through a unprecedented amount of depression and anxiety I resonated with this statement so much. from the mentions of ff 14 savage raiding being just manageable because of the group to other points I hope things get better.

The fanboys get so emotional when literally anyone doesn't agree with them haha

I felt the same with Bloodborne, I had a combination of excitement for the game but just couldn't get into it because after a long day of hard work, it felt more like effort than entertainment. It wasn't a bad game, just not the best time to play it for the situation I was in.

So you're into one piece, that explains why you got no time for games. I'm sure chapter 1044 and it's implications probably got you fan-boying out. Love the videos.

"I lack the willpower to exist in a harsh, unforgiving world." ....... i get it.

I resonate with this on a spiritual level. I’ve played about 20 hours of Elden ring, and I’m about to beat Godrick. But after doing all that, life hit me and made me realize that I need to focus more on college and my future career. So I haven’t played the game in a few months. I plan to pick it up again once everything calms down and I graduate, but all this time apart from all games has left me a bit empty. I have no desire to keep playing anything. Even if I had a free day I doubt I would spend it gaming. But hopefully that’s just my brain seeking some sort of pattern in the chaos that is my life right now, and my desire will return when the dust settles.

I hear you... I've noticed that with age I started to gradually decrease the difficulty of the games I play, I might start on hard, hit a roadblock, put it on normal, die once to a boss, put it on easy. Specially with long games... there are so many masterpieces to play and sometimes life is stressful enough, I just want to keep moving. I want to play that one hour or two hours that I have and feel like I did something substantial and that got me closer to the next great game.

All these feelings I always felt with Dark Souls and had the exact opposite change with Elden Ring. I’ve been totally fine playing Elden Ring for a few hours every other day and slowly taking my time exploring the world and fighting enemies. Thanks to Elden Ring’s ability to walk away from a boss and explore another area I’ve stuck with it long past the point where I put Dark Souls down. But you do you man. None of us, and no game no matter how good, is entitled to your time.

It takes courage to be honest like this in a world where every one loves this game.

That what you feel is what i felt in EVERY single Fromsoftware game. Its the strengh that i needed to overcome the first hours of the game thats special to me. I got in blind (like in every game) I played 130 hours now and i dont know how long it goes. I hope that Elden Ring will be a healing experience for you in the future. Dont force it on you.