Hahaha, wow, this is the most professional put-down for a game ever on this site. I can't wait to read your Bayonetta review!

This may be the greatest post of all time. I'm not sure if it's a wonderful piece of satire or you're actually serious, but I applaud it either way. Read some FAQs and start playing as a Royal, dude. You'll get there!

This game can only make you a better Neurosurgeon. Studies have shown this.

/b/ called, seems one of their trolls is missing. I believe I have located him.

Hey now, he was framed for causing cancer!

Demon souls is in my top five games of all time. If that makes me mentally ill so be it. The funny part is it isn't even that hard once you figure it out.

In summary,

L34rn2PlayN00b!

Sorry, I read this thread again this morning and it just made me smile again. Pure hilariousness.

Ok, I am totally calling Milgram the Godwin of psychology.

Deal.

That's the problem everyone always has trouble with.

I can help you with that if you like. Current going rate for kidnappings is 5 grand and we're having a special this month where we'll throw our optional ransom program at half price. As always duct tape and ballgag are complimentary. Check out our ad in the latest Solider of Fortune magazine for additional details. Sorry, no credit cards, we take payment in cash only. Small, non-consecutive bills preferred. We do not accept liability for people with weak hearts or cheap families. Call us at 1-555-d1e-n00b.

The OP just made my day. Amazing.

See, I don't see it that way at all.

Ghosts 'n Goblins is an absolute nightmare, sure, but at least its consistent; if you don't make the required pixel-perfect jumps and javelin shots when the game asks you to do them, then you pay for it every time. The rules that GnG plays by may be exceedingly difficult or demanding, but at least they play the same way throughout the entire game.

Demon's Souls, on the other hand, was like a Macy's Day Parade of arbitrary difficulty in my (admittedly) limited experience. Happen to stumble on the red-eyed knight in the first level? Sure, I'll be happy to taste some pavement, even though I've ran through the castle like Lancelot in Monty Python so far. Did you happen to pick a sub-optimal class for your initial playthrough? Or, heaven help you, did you actually bother to take any of the hints/clues left by other players seriously?

I just find the following around the game to be fascinating and, at times, baffling. Demon's Souls thrives on setback punishment, one of the most punitive forms of player feedback out there, and yet there are a lot of people continually keep coming back to play and, often, become even further engrossed in the game.

I think there are a couple of factors involved in this:

1. Even though the initial death in the tutorial did absolutely nothing for me, it somehow trained other players into understanding that arbitrary death is a part of the game. If that's the case, then its success may be two-fold. On an episode of the Another Castle podcast, I believe Jesper Juul mentioned that his research had revealed that players actually respond more favorably to success if they've failed once before, which means that the initial death in Demon's Souls sets players up for a more positive experience if they manage to carve out some success after the tutorial.

2. I wouldn't go so far as to invoke Stockholm Syndrome as a possibility here, but I do feel like part of the appeal may be tied to the remarkable atmosphere of the game, as players may subconsciously find it easier to rationalize the punishment within the sheer sense of dread provided by the Ravenloft-esque setting. That level of ludo-narrative consistency, in addition to the MMO-esque lack of a pause button, make it very easy for players to immerse.

3. Through the multiplayer and world tendencies, players have a possibility for different (and, in the case of the former, potentially random) experiences in the game, which almost always goes a long way towards implying a deeper value for the player, even if they never take advantage of it.

All of it leaves me in a weird space for any kind of evaluative consideration of the game. When Demon's Souls is bad, is it being bad on purpose? It reminds me a lot of Silent Hill 2, where the negative aspects of that game actually played directly into the premise; it made sense that combat was a chore because you were just some normal guy, stuck in an unfortunate, insane circumstance. In the case of Demon's Souls, though, I feel like it's a bit more of a stretch than I'm willing to take. At some point, it has to be chalked up as bad design, doesn't it?

So, I'd conclude that the folks who like Demon's Souls may not be mentally ill...but they probably are a lot more forgiving of arbitrary difficulty and setback punishment than I am. And I'm sure they don't mind.

I still can't find my game, it's been over a month. It doesn't help that those bugs keep coming back. Boy, they sure do itch. No matter how hard I try to brush them off, I hear the little pitter-patter of their legs dancing on my flesh. I saw one go under my skin the other day. I'll show him, I'll show him good. Little bugs can't hide from a razor.

Demon's Souls... I don't even know what to say. I'll come back to it someday, it calls to me. But I've locked it away in the attic and feed it fish heads when I remember it's there. The next time my heart is broken, I know it'll be there waiting to cleanse me with pain.

See, I never found the difficulty in Demon's Souls random. Granted, I have very limited experience with the game (I'll play it again, someday), but when I died, it was because I screwed up and got careless. I always learned from death, which isn't true with most games.