by Siegfried. Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:23 am
Regular griefing is restricted by soul level, though, which does a decent job of ensuring that players have comparable gear.
But a new player going through the Burg for the first time doesn't deserve to be invaded by some joker with a lightning claymore +5 and a fully upgraded set of armour.
It might be tolerable to a lot of us, but a lot of us were also playing this game upon release, and multiplayer didn't really start in earnest until after the Parish. Remember that there are only ten Cracked Red Eye Orbs in the game unless you join the Darkwraith Covenant, so invasion options were initially slim. Most of us benefited from general ignorance about the game and out first "invasion" was Kirk in the Depths.
For many new players, their first invasion comes during a time they're still coming to grips with the game in the Burg or Parish. And that would be fine if it were just people who had found the Firelink Shrine invasion orbs, or ones who knew where they were and were starting out honestly themselves. But the bulk of early invaders use elemental weapons and heavily upgraded armour and shields, ensuring that new players have an exceedingly negative experience of multiplayer as soon as they start.
I think a fair few of us have forgotten that this is a difficult game. We've all probably beaten it about a dozen times and half of us have done some kind of challenge run. One griefer seems like nothing in the face of that; a temporary setback during a much harder task. But a new player doesn't get the benefit of having that initial, "pure" experience of the Burg and Parish. And I'm reasonably sure anyone who was playing this game upon release had that "pure" experience.
So it's disappointing that new players can no longer have that. While one can play offline, that also means losing out on multiplayer content, and my friend on PC doesn't even get that option, his only recourse being to use Alt+F4 whenever he gets invaded. It's sad that his default assumption is that an invader will be some fool with a lightning weapon +5.
I don't care much about griefers who grief within the balance parameters of the game. When I first saw a video of Catacombs griefing, using the bridge controls with Chameleon, I thought it was hilarious and wanted to pat the guy on the back. That's a fun and creative way to go about it. Or when I saw a video about someone who waited around in human form to be invaded, only to use Undead Rapport on a tough enemy and buff them with the Channeller's Trident.
But I can't condone the damage glitch griefing does to the experiences of new players and the lack of benefit it has for anyone else. And I don't think we should want the kind of people who glitch low level characters with incredible gear in our community; these people are seeking to dominate those weaker than them by any means necessary, and while they may not do this in real life, it reveals some exceedingly dark things about how they think of others and what they want in their lives.
So, griefing? Dark Souls is built for it, sure enough. But glitching and griefing at the same time is a different matter entirely, and falls entirely out of the game's balance considerations and any notion of fair play. After all, if you catch a regular griefer off guard, you earn yourself a fair fight. If you catch a glitching griefer (Batman!) off guard, you'll probably still get defeated because of the massive power imbalance.
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