In 2004, my brother and I were arguing about the presidential election. He was voting for W. on the basis of morality, and I argued with him mightily about W. being the more moral choice. My brother was speaking strictly in the Christian sense, by the way. I said that he led us into a fictious war, what was moral about that? My brother said that, yes, that was bad, but that wasn’t what he meant. He was speaking specifically about abortion, and I said that abortions went down when Democrats were in charge because there were more safety nets and support for prospective parents.
Then he said that W. was a Christian so–well, I’m sure John Kerry professed to be a Christian, too. I checked. Just as I thought, he’s Catholic. which some Christians don’t consider Christian. I pointed out that while W. professed to be a Christian, he certainly didn’t act like one.
My brother finally snapped that he had the right to his opinion. This was probably after a half hour to forty-five minutes of us arguing. I said he did. But he didn’t have the right to his ‘facts’. Which is a snitty thing to say, but it’s also true. And it’s more relevant now than it has ever been.
Oh, side note to that story. My brother did end up voting for W. and regretted it. I voted for Kerry, and while I did not regret it, I wasn’t enthusiastic about it, either. The Democrats tend to nominate the boring and safe candidate who does not excite anyone, Obama excepted. Kerry was a terrible speaker and did not excite anyone.
Side note II: My brother had already been wavering, even during that time. He had been a Republican for ‘moral’ reasons and was more lefty on some issues than I was. Not most because I’m so far left, but on a few like the enivronment. When 2008 rolled around ,he was thoroughly disillusioned with W. and the Republican Party. Let’s be real. W. phoned it in during his second term. Not that he had his foot on the gas during his first term, but he at least tried to govern that term.
My brother called me one day after his eyes opened to the perfidy of the Republican Party, but I had no idea why he was calling. He started out by saying, “Minna, I have something important to tell you.” He sounded agitated, and I asked him what was going on. He sputtered for a few minutes before saying that he had gone to the national Republicanm website. I was waiting to hear what he had to say because I had no idea where he was going with this. It took him several minutes to say what he actually called me to say: That the Repulbicans had actual lies on their website.
I will admit that my immediate thought (which I did not express) was, “Well, duh.” It was amusing to me that he was telling me this as if it were some revelatory thing because I have been a Democrat since I was eighteen. By the time my brohter and I were having this convo, I was 37 years old–so nearly twenty years of being a Democrat.
But I was glad to have him on our team. He would not call himself a Democrat, but he now speaks more scathingly about Republicans than I do. Which is hilarious and gratifying to me.
Anyway, in the RKG Discord, every time there is a new Elden Ring Retry episode (every Saturday) or Roundtable Hold expisode (every other Sunday), out comes the criticisms of Rory, the person playing the game. I expect it on the YouTube comments (which I for the most part don’t read because–YouTube comments!), but for some reason, I didn’t expect it on the Patreon comments.
I realized why after I thought about it. Youtube is a shit show. I know that. Everyone knows it. But Patreon is for people who pay because they appreciate something. Naivele, I expectted that meant that the people paying would be supportive of the creators. Or rather, I forgot that dudes were going to be duding.
What do I mean? I mean that there are gatekeepers in any fandom, and they are noxious in the From games. Given that the first Dark Souls was so known for being difficult, there was a Prepace to Die edition. So, yeah, you’re going to get people who are assholes about it.
I played the game a year or more after it came out, so there were dudes giving their advice very freely. I remember looking for advice against a few bosses, and without fail, the first ‘tip’ would be to ‘git gud’. Oftentimes followed bo ‘noob’. The second post would be about how you should do this boss as a tank or dex or whatever, ignoring the class the poster had stated they were playing as.
Then, maybe four or five comments in, there was actually useful advice on how to legit tackle said boss. But as a person who was really bad at the games, it was offputting how many dudes were so rude and mean to people. I remember looking for advice on Black Dragon Kalameet, and the first comment was about how BDK was easy, brah, and the poster did it first time around with eyes closed and one hand tied behind their back. Which, yay for you, but how is that helpful? Funnily enough, that person said that they found the Sancutary Guardian difficult, and I had no problem with that boss.
I always want to say, if you don’t have a problem with a certain boss, move the fuck along. Someone who needs help with a boss does not need guys being dicks about it. As a FromSoft fan, I want other people to like the games, not think they can’t hack it. It’s probably because I’m mediocre at the games myself that I’m willing and eager to help people when I can.
Anyway, this is the first time since I got on the RKG Discord that they have released a FromSoft Retry weekly, which is why it was a shock to me. and I’ve taken to not reading the comments ot the Patreon posts, either, which is sad, but whatever. The thing is, someone brought it into the Discord itself after the last Roundtable Hold, and by the time I saw it, the discussion was done. RKG are in Britain, and I’m six hours behind. I don’t get up until noon so by the time I see things, it’s their nighttime.
Anyway, the original poster was more reasonable than most, but his comment was that he thought Rory should have to face story bosses solo a few times first before using summons. To be clear, there will be no human summons. He’s been using the jellyfish un-upgraded, and he does some of the NPC summons.
And he has stomped Margit. With just the jellyfish. On his second try. Which made the whining start. “Powers is OP!” Wah, wah, wah. The guy I’m talking about was after a later episode, but the gist is the same. He, let’s call him John, essentially wrote the same post over and over again to anyone who had a diffreent opinion–which was everyone. But realistically, about five to ten people.
He kept saying it was his opinion, but what he didn’t get was that we all clearly understood his opinion–we just didn’t agree with it.
That’s the thing that people need to realize. Yes, you have the right to your opinion. Other people hav ethe right to roundly disagree with your opinion. In this case, it’s also that on the internet, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when several people disagree with you. It’s not a pile-on, but it can feel that way.
When I gave my opinion, he immediately jumped in to say that he thought we had agreed to disagree. My immediate thought was, “I didn’t agree to anything, mate”, but what I actually said that it was the first time I had commented on that particluar thread, even though I had made my opinion known on other threads. He retorted that it felt like he was the only one who wasn’t allowed to speak and that it was a pass-agg way to get around the agreement. His comment wasn’t in direct response to me, which was iteresting, too. Very pass-agg on his part.
I wasn’t pass-agg at all. Believe me. I’m from the Midwest. If I were being pass-agg, you would know it. I didn’t respond to him though outhers did because I knew that I would come down like a hammer if I said anything else. But I wanted to tell him taht once you put your opinion out on the internet, you don’t get to control how others respond to you.
And, again, no one agreed with him. That was the main point. He could explain all he wanted, but no one was obligated to agree with him. And we didn’t. And I am so very tired of all the ‘someone has to play it this way in order to be a TRUE gamer’ bullshit. He could say that wasn’t what he meant all he wanted. He also pointed out that there have been rules in place for the past games, which I thought were unnecssary at the time as well.
Here’s the thing. The games have changed over the years, so why wouldn’t the attitude towards them change, too? I’m honestly so tired of the ‘the games are meant to be haaaaaard’ talk, no matter how it’s couched. Just let people play them however they want.