I don't know how this keeps happening to me, but almost every community I could be a part of ends up being more toxic than is reasonable and makes me not want to interact unless it's close friends; Star Wars, Pokèmon (can be), RWBY are just to name a few. However, as bad as these can be I feel like the Dark Souls/FromSoft fandom can be even more so. I'm not saying that everyone is, but they're definitely there and have no shame in it.
So...let's start with the multiplayer...the biggest issue I have. I think it's a neat idea that you can call in your friends to help and play with them as well as invade for pvp...but some people are the worst for it...and that's before the taunting. I, as a practically new player of DS3, still using my starting gear, hadn't had the chance to level up and set my build into motion, and fighting tooth and nail for every inch in Lothric was suddenly invaded by a player. Said player was wearing full Havel gear (for those who don't know, an absolute massive fuckton of armor) with high level pyromancies. A surprise to no one, he destroyed me in a handful of hits even with me dodging and healing. Needless to say, I was pissed but then he taunted me as if beating such a low level player was such a great feat...it's needless to say that I was pissed.
Now, before anyone tells me "Just don't play emberred" remember that, unlike humanity in DS1, having an ember greatly increases your health along with allowing you to summon and invade. I resolved to play offline instead, but that locked me out of any genuinely helpful messages people have left. And the point is that I'm not mad about being invaded...I'm pissed that he basically said "Look how great I am for annihilating a player with gear he hasn't even come close to seeing yet." It's the only genuine time I've actually gotten truly made at something that wasn't a boss enough to stop playing for the day. There's a reason why we collectively agreed in DS1 to stop using the "Well, what is it?" gesture in PVP...because it's toxic as fuck. It's still a piece of shit thing to do and no one can deny that.
Now...on to the advice section. When someone is struggling with a boss especially, often times the advice will simply be to get good and learn how to roll. This doesn't help when there are much better was to help such as suggesting certain weapons or even little tricks. Just telling someone to "Get good" is discouraging and, frankly, makes you sound like an ass. I asked my brother for advice on how to beat Ornstein and Smough and he suggested that I take out Ornstein first until I felt comfortable enough to kill Smough instead. Literally next attempt, I won and got Smough's soul. It was helpful and honest...and I don't see a lot of that unless it's discussing weapons and builds.
So to sum it all up, if you're someone as described above, knock it off, please. The games are disheartening enough without someone looking down on you for basically not being good no matter where they are and looking for a little guidance and advice when they're stuck. We're a loyal community to FromSoft but we need to be a little nicer when it comes to helping each other and just general etiquette for PVP.
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