As long as there have been FromSoftware games, there have been gatekeepers who are eager to tell you just exactly how you should play the games. There are also the fans who insist on bleating about how EASY the games are and you just need to GIT GUD. I had a running joke that any time you asked a question, any question, in a From forum, the first answer would be GIT GUD NEWB LOL and the second would be how that boss wasn’t hard, anyway, GAWD.
When I played the first Dark Souls game, it was years after it was first released. I got stuck on Kalameet and looked up how to beat him. Not only were those two answers prevalent in the forums, there was an added sprinkle of ‘just change your whole build into the one I prefer, and it’ll be easy’. I’ve done posts about this before, about how toxic the hardcore From fans are. I’m sure there is that subsection in any fandom, but From is the fandom I know best.
For the first several years in which I played the games, I never called myself a fan. I played the hell out of the games, but I never felt welcomed in the fandom for many reasons. One, it has a very bro-y culture. So much testosterone wafting around, you can nearly choke on it. All the ‘git gud’-ing and ‘LOL N00B’ and ‘summoning is for pussies’ really got on my nerves.
In addition, I sucked at the games; I still do. I can’t do a onebro or no-hit or anything like that. I can spend hours on one boss, which makes me a scrub. I’m OK with this in part because, well, it’s just me playing the games. I don’t co-op much, so it’s just me in my solitary journey. I hate the invasion mechanic and am relieved that if you don’t do co-op in Elden Ring, you can’t be invaded–at least not by other players. The NPC invaders can eat a bag of poisoned dirt, to be honest. They are way too hard for the areas they’re in and have infinite skills, stamina, and moves. I become incandescent with rage any time I have to fight them. To be fair, you don’t HAVE to engage with them, but my pride! Plus, they drop some really great loot.
I will say that some of the toxic masculinity that permeated the early From fandom has been mitigated to some degree. As the games have gotten more popular (meaning more kinds of people have been playing them), there isn’t one fandom any longer–not that there ever really was only one. But that whiny part of the fandom seems to be getting smaller and smaller.