Dark Souls II: The rise of “masocore” gaming.

 


"When I was 11 years old, around the 20th time I died just trying to walk between towns in the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Wasteland, my father asked me, "David, if these games make you so frustrated, why do you play them?" 

 Loosely speaking, a masocore game exhibits some combination of the following: Perfect timing: Your margin for error in executing certain moves may literally be less than a tenth of a second. Instadeath: Your character is sickly and fragile, exploding sometimes after just a single hit. Permadeath: Saved games? No. If you lose, you go back to the beginning and start over. Dirty tricks: See that gold across the bridge? Just cross it and BRIDGE COLLAPSED YOU’RE DEAD HAHA. OK, let’s go around the bridge and pick up the OH NO IT’S A GOLD MONSTER IT KILLS YOU HAHA. Unhelpfulness: How does that thing work? What am I trying to do? Like the game’s gonna tell you."

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Dark Souls II: The rise of “masocore” gaming.: