I was talking to my friend, A, about sepecial interests versus hyyperfixations because of my puzzlement over which is which. She was saying that it wasn’t that clear cut for many autistic people, specially those who are not cis boys. It’s a point I’ve read about before, how male hobbies were considered more acceptable as hyperfixations/special interests than female hobbies. This is true. Think about typical nerdy hobbies (board games, video games, etc.), and they are considered acceptable special interests. Fashion, makeup, clothing? Not so much.
Then, you have to split it up even more. Bear with me.
Let’s take video games. There are acceptable games for hardcore gamers and nonacceptable games. Casual games are, of course, not considered real games to the hardcore brogamers. If you can’t tell, I roll my eyes hard at that subset of gamers because they are tedious at best and toxic at worst.
FromSoft went from being niche to being cool within the space of a decade. No matter where they fell on that spectrum, though, they were considered the gold bar of hard games. You were a real gamer if you played them–unless, of course, you didn’t play them in the correct* way.
I don’t play the games for the difficulty. I know how that sounds, but it’s true. I like the incredible worlds, environments, and level design. I put up with the difficulty because I enjoy everything else so much. I used to buy into the “you’re not a true From fan if you summon” bullshit, but not any longer. I’m on the “it’s a fucking game. Whatever makes it fun for you, go for it” bandwagon, and I have been for the entirety of Elden Ring.
If people want to solo the games, that’s their business. If it’s fun for them, so be it. I just hate that it’s considered the gold standard way to play the games by the self-appointed gatekeepers–at least it had been for Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. It lesesned with each game, in general, even as it intensified in certain sectors. I remember when I first played Dark Souls, it was several years after it came out. I bought into the insistence that if you didn’t solo all the bosses, you were shit. I ran headlong into a wall in the form of the Black Dragon Kalameet in the DLC. In addition, there were no summons for that boss, anyway. I can understand why. It’s a tedious fight with some bullshit attacks. It’s very much not a fun fight because Kalameet has so much goodamn health and way too much hyperarmor.
Anyway. In desperation, I went to look up tips for fighting Kalameet. I immediately found the toxicity of the FromSoft forums that persisted no matter the game. 1. Any build you do is wrong. No matter what build the original poster (OP) said they were using, there was at least one asshole who insisted on pushing his own build as the only way to beat the boss. 2. Git gud. I quickly grew to hate reading that phrase. Not only is it dismissive, it’s so fucking meaningless. I mean, that’s why people are asking for advice, damn it! Because they want to ‘git gud’, though they probably wouldn’t phrase it that way.
To be fair, there was a lot of helpful info, too, but I had to scroll past all the masturbating wankers (I know that’s redundant, but I felt like it needed to be said) to get to the actual helpful information. It was so bad, I really hated going to the forums for any help. I did it as little as possible, and I rolled my eyes at every time I ran into either of the two things I described above.
I mention it because I have had a hard time saying I’m a hardcore From fan because I’m so bad at the games. I play them all wrong, and it takes me twice as long to get through them as it does for most people. I’ve said this many times, but there was a prominent FromSoft games journalist who once declared forcefully that there was no way it would take anyone over a hundred hours to finish Dark Souls (the first game) or any From game. It always takes me a hundred hours for my first playthrough of a From game. With Elden Ring, my first playthrough took me 200+ hours. I’m slow because I’m bad at the games. I assume it’ll take me twice as long as it takes other people.
It’s the same with martial arts weapons. I don’t like them for the same reason that most people (read, guys) do. The forums I found talk about the different specs of the different weapons and that’s just not my interest. I am much more into the feel of the weapons and the flow than the min/maxing aspects.
I’m always doing things wrong–I fully admit that. It doesn’t bother me in the least–well, for the most part. I enjoy what I enjoy how I enjoy it and as much as I want to enjoy it. That sounds pretty sweet to me. I just once in a while wonder if I’m doing things wrong because I just don’t see things like other people do.
I really appreciate my friend, A, pointing out that female interests aren’t considered serious enough to be special interests. I never really thought of it that way, but it makes sense. I mean, anything that has a target audience of women is conisdered more frivolous than anything aimed at men.
More tomorrow.
*Correct according to the hardcore From fans. This included but was not restricted to soloing all bosses; not using a strength build, specifically a greatsword build; no shield; no magicks; no over-leveling; no extreme dex build; no heavy armor; and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. The astute reader will notice that almost every build is covered here, which is the point. There is so much gate-keeping in From games, it’s disgusting. I’m sure it’s not just the From games, but those are the only games I consistently play.