Not Playing

I'm still playing Elden Ring and, of course, there's a ton of media surrounding the game right now. It's even part of conversations I'm having with non-Ring players, as they know just enough about Elden Ring to talk to me: you die a lot. 

One of the more interesting things I've read about the game comes from Defector, and as with the chats I'm having with non-Ring players, it raises some interesting points about videogames at large. 

Probably the most interesting thing is about how one can have fun watching it. They don't say this in the article but it becomes more like watching a sport, in a way.

I can’t remember ever having had so much fun watching other people play a video game. To me it’s very cool that video games can work this way. The same remove isn’t really possible with other media. A book that is not for you is not any more interesting when you watch someone else read it. A movie that drives you crazy will still drive you crazy; a song that brings you to the brink of a rage meltdown will not suddenly become good and fun while it is enjoyed by some anonymous stranger. Elden Ring is unapologetically Not For Everyone, in the best tradition of FromSoftware games. The solution, for me, is to simply not play it, whereupon it ceases to be a game that is driving me insane and becomes a thoughtfully crafted and beautifully rendered fantasy television show about other people going insane due to conflicts with overpowered skeletons. It’s great! 

That's something rather surprising. Unlike watching a sporting event, where there is a narrative, either already there or being crafted from the available information by the announcers, Elden Ring spectators don't need or need to care about such things at all. 

They can enjoy one simple phrase: YOU DIED and it still works. You can simply give people memes like this, and it's funny to ER players because bears fucking wreck you but anyone who doesn't play the game is going to go; Well yeah, bears fucking wreck you and it's still amusing. 

Does it matter why there are skeletons hanging from sky balloons? Or there is a turtloid species? Or a golden horseman? Color changing jellyfish? Nope! And the thing is: it doesn't even have to matter to ER players! Which might be the secret of it all: because the story and lore in FromSoftware games is so dense, often players know what a casual viewer knows:

Everything wants to kill you here, and you're gonna die. 

I've put a couple days worth of hours into this game and I still don't have the slightest idea what the hell is going on. I know two things:

There are eagles and rabbit-like creatures who don't want to kill me.

Everything else does. 

Let's go.