Interview with DarkProjectMayhem

This weekend I interviewed one of my inspiring Dark Souls Youtuber DarkProjectMayhem. We talked about general things but as well as brought up ideas and thoughts on Dark Souls II. Overall I enjoyed the interview and I still thank him for sharing his time and being a chill guy.We do talk about the dark souls community and what happened to RedRosie. Everyone has there own personal opinions, views and experiences; respect his personal connection with this. Below is our interview with some cool thoughts from Mayhem. (Check out his channel)

brian: my fiirst question will have to be what got you into dark souls and what do like most about it?
mayhem: Ok right here we go....First off I heard from a friend that they had found this super hard game that cannot be beaten, so right away I went out and bouthg it for the challenge lol. I went through the game a mage like usual on this kind of thing, didnt research it at all, so I didnt actually know you could upgrade weapons or go online lol. After a long hard time of dying over and over, i completed it and almost stoped playing, then I introduced Rosie to the game and she got through it the same way i did

brian: What got you into PvP videos?
mayhem: After a long time I caught up with Rose again and she told me how she had started recodring pvp videos and become a member of this community, contributing to other gamers and the whole experience in general, so i started helping her with video ideas and editing
mayhem: Then more recently, she wanted to slow down making videos, so I told her that i would start a channel and carry things on, and she helped me at first, which was super fun to work together with. We wanted to bring a series of unique videos that offer more entertainment value than your typical pvp video, and so far its gone really well

After this he had to address what currently happened to Rosie; she was such a huge part that i respect his next statements as a fan and as a human being. Some people online can just so rude and sadly Rosie at the end was damage by this.

Redrosie Incident-Brian:I respect Mayhem and RedRosie and seeing this played out as a viewer was tough here is Mayhems personal relation and side on this.
mayhem: Last week Rosie quit just about everything online, this community is more fickle than it seems. People were obsessed with the idea that Rosie is a male (Even though I went to school with her and she is definitely a girl lol) and they think that she pretends to be a girl to get subs (Even though hundreds of females have channels where they actually show themselves and have fuck all subs because the content sucks, also neither of our channels make money so there would be no gain from such a thing) Anyway the sommunity as a whole basically bullied her of the internet by creating pages on gamefaqs, 4 chan, reddit, forums etc about how she should go and die. People have made fake accounts on youtube of her which they use to post racist and hateful comments, and someone was making specific videos hating on her and all she represents - all in the naame of ruining her online image

Please if you take anything outta this remember to please be respectful online and to not let the internet change who you are or give you the false idea that you have the right to be rude and insulting. We continue our questions and thank you Mayhem for your thoughts and clarification.

brian:  is there anything you would like to see changed in the next game PvP wise?
mayhem: In light of that... i dont have alot of love for the community as a whole, so I wont have as much involvement as she did.

mayhem: As for what I would want to see changed... More covenants, that have more benefits and differences than just a couple of spells and invasion types, I want the covenant I belong to, to be an actual difficult choice with attractive bonus's each side. I want to see more armor, shields and weapons with aux effects than we have now. For example, moonlight sword increases magic defense, grass crest shield gives stamina regen, sanctus gives hp regen, server restores hp each hit. All are interesting concepts and I think we should have more, and include armor in that too.

brian: Have you bin following dark souls II and what are your thughts over the game and its gamplay as of right now?
mayhem: For dark souls 2.... I have seen that short trailer, but I love my magic, and there was none in the one I watched lol. I think that however the game turns out, it will be amazing so I am not too fussed in judging every detail

brian: Fianlly what do you plan on doing when dark souls II is out will you focuse still on PvP       videos or will you focus also on the single player?
mayhem: i will always focus on pvp videos. Maybe something single player if it has entertainment   value, like cheating a boss out of the area or something else unique that is out of the ordinary. But I will never just do walkthroughs, guides or "Normal" pvp where I just invade with an efficient build ad win loads. For me its all about the entertainment, something different, and editing
mayhem: I love nothing more to sit back after making a video and think "Yeh ive edited some cool effects on that video to the best of my ability, its a fresh idea that people will/wont like but I am happy with it". Anyway i hope that helped! Let me know if I can help in an other way!

brian: Once again I thank you for sharing your time and i hope the best for your channel. I await Dark Souls II and can't wait for what ideas you will have; take care man thank you once again.

Dark Souls II: Global Gamers Day and Shield Contest

Director Yui Tanimura spoke about  Dark Souls II at the recent Global Gamers Day event. He stated that he “felt encouraged to hear that a lot of people are interested in Dark Souls II, but that he also feels a good sense of pressure to delivering a great game—one that has much to live up to in its predecessor” (Cheong). He believes that his task as director is to enhance and deliver a more challenging experience than what existed in the previous game Dark Souls. Blood messaging, invasions, and summoning phantoms will all be in Dark Souls II.

Tanimura wants to provide players with a little more freedom to decide on their own with how they want to conquer the stage. This includes having the boss appear mid-way through and allowing the opportunity to defeat the boss even if you're not at the end of the stage.  Also as a side note the Dark Souls II's official Facebook page has allowed contestants to design shields to be featured in Dark Souls II. This contest can be similar to "the contest that brought the Sanctus shield to Dark Souls" (Tach). The contest will end May 13. You can find more details about the contest on the official Dark Souls Facebook. Anyone can visit the Dark Souls II Shield Design Contest app on Facebook, "where they can download and design on three shield templates and vote on those that have been submitted" Tach). Representatives at From Software will choose from the top-rated designs and select  the winners for each category.

Sources:
Cheong, Ian. Dark Souls 2: Unorthodox Multiplayer and Level Design Detailed [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/14243/article/dark-souls-2-unorthodox-multiplayer-and-level-design-detailed/ [Last Accessed April 24, 2013].

Tach, Dave. Dark Souls 2 contest lets players design in-game shields. [ONLINE] Available at:  at:http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/15/4227352/dark-souls-2-facebook-contest-shield [Last visited 4/24/13]

Dark Souls II: Combat, Estus Flask and Humanity

In the Dark Souls II demo it is clearly seen combat has evolved, The graphics do look good and "the atmosphere felt spot on for a Dark Souls game. "(Damen). Duel wielding weapons have been enhanced and even been hinted that there are special combos that you can activate via quick time event during your swings. The combat has not only bin evolved with not just the duel wielding but as well as the increase of your inventory to now being able to wield three items on each slot. The demo never paused so we still don’t know anything about how weight, stamina or armor works but we did see a new type of healing items. Drop stone of healing can it be the new Estus flask? In the demo the player had two types of healing stones; can the beloved Estus Flask be replace or are we too early in the production. There is a new symbol is on top of your HUD and instead of a humanity counter there seems to be a symbol that has been hinted to be related and influenced by time. There has been a hint that there will be a season system and environments will change; the demo shows different climates and in the demo they kept bringing up the idea of time. Time in the end will be an importance and we will see when more information is given. The game is still in development and I await more information.

Sources:
Damen. Dark Souls 2 Gameplay Analysis [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.explosion.com/28193/dark-souls-2-gameplay-analysis/ [Last Accessed April 19, 2013].

Dark Souls II: Dragons

Dragons played a huge role in the Dark Souls II demo. The castle of the dragons or mansion is still under development; this area caught the eye of a lot of dark soul’s player as the dragons have been a huge part in the Dark Souls lore. The castle of dragons "looks similar to the painted world" (Damen) and it is said that this game will take place in the future but too many including myself the game has so many little details that are making this game feel like a prequel. The demo seems to be answering many questions left behind from the previous game. Drakes branch off from dragons and in the demo you see these drakes destroy a bridge which is important as in Dark Souls the same area look similar to the beginning of the painted world and as indeed the bridge is broken as well. A week has past and the demo is still on everyone’s head. The idea that there will be more dragon combat is a huge excitement as in the previous games the players were limited to only fighting three dragons; Kalameet, undead dragons and the drakes. The eternal dragons might play a huge part in the next game over the emphasis over the idea of dragons still being alive. In the demo a bone dragon comes to life and as a surprise attacks you. The idea of immortality is an importance as the dragons are representing this. In Dark Souls II it might be possible to go more in depth and learn more about these creatures and witness what Big Hat Logan and Seath discovered.

Sources:
Damen. Dark Souls 2 Gameplay Analysis [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.explosion.com/28193/dark-souls-2-gameplay-analysis/ [Last Accessed April 19, 2013].

Interview with RedRosie

This weekend I interviewed one of my favorite Dark Souls PvP Youtubers RedRosie. We talked about general things but as well as brought up her ideas and thoughts on Dark Souls II. Overall I enjoyed the interview and I still thank her for sharing her time and being very such a great person. Below is our interview with some cool and surprising facts about RedRosie. (Check out her channel)

brian-Have you played demon and dark souls and what is your opinion on the director change?

redrosie- Nope never played demon, and didn’t know about the change; I am an expert on in game mechanics, but I don’t know the lore or any background stuff.

brian-How did you get into dark souls how did you hear about it and why did it get your attention, why do you like it

redrosie- Ok well my brother was playing it and telling me how hard it was, and that I wouldn’t manage it.....so I proved em wrong. 

brian-What got you into the whole PvP n YouTube also what’s your favorite part about the game

redrosie- Well I joined chat to ask what occult weapons did.... I got ignored over and over, and then signed in as Rosie with my picture, and got hassle for being female (it wasn’t a nice chat then lol) And at the time my brother was playing around with a recorder.... So I had a go and recorded a troll video of me hiding as chameleon.... Then I uploaded it and noticed that people were always talking about this "Peeve" guy on YouTube, I checked him out and he was CRAZY popular. I then checked darksoulsmindeye who did the first stuff with trolls.....Then.....I carried on unloading and started to really enjoy it! and I got noticed around the community a fair bit, I would get greeted in streams and invited to events etc.....My channel exploded overnight and grew faster than any other dark souls channel ever, it was great. 

brian-What all do you know about dark souls 2 or have you not been following it up that much? Have you look at the Edge magazine Interview?

redrosie-I don’t know a great deal to be honest, I know there has been this huge debate over it being easier or something - unless they nerf me, it won’t be any easuer online; thing is, people on this game say it’s already easy - that’s over a year after release when the majority of players left are all pros with glitched saves containing all the best weapons etc.; people have MADE the game easy for themselves by doing such things. It’s also the familiarity of the game. Knowing when to roll each enemies attack is priceless info, and knowing where all the surprises are is also the same thing.

brian-What ideas do you think will make the game better?

redrosie-Well one idea I had was to divide STR and DEX weps. At present you can back stab, riposte with all weapons, but also prry all weapons. I think only dex weapons should be ablt to backstab and riposte, whilst str weps just do a counter hit damage, but str weps should not be able to be parried.. Because a huge smoughs hammer being parried by a bare fist is stupid, and it would give some difference between the 2 sides. But even if they don’t do that I am actually fine with the way it works, they seemed to patch dks for the better every time.

brian- what do you plan on doing after dark souls II is release will you be playing and recording it or just focusing on the community?

redrosie-Well I am not going to do any, YouTube and the community in general... I have grown to hate it to be honest lol. but my friend Mayhem is certainly going to upload! We aren’t really fans of just uploading raw clips of PvP or first time play, we like to edit things and make an entertaining video, usually a montage of some idea. So we will play it for a while, see what wacky stuff there is to do and start making a unique idea out of it

redrosie-my problem with this game was, I joined it after almost a year of release; And all the cool stuff had been done; I still managed to think of some unique stuff to do, but this time I will be the first to suggest it to mayhem, and the channel will do well I know it

brian-thank you for sharing your time Rosie I hope you have a great day

redrosie- no problem! I’m always here so give me a shout if you want anything else, I can link you to most in the community

Dark Souls II: Demo Review

The Dark Souls II demo video from IGN has been released and overall has blown expectations. A lot of stress has been put over this game but now with this demo answers have been made. Three dimensional environments, interactions and surprises is what Dark Souls II will deliver. You interact with the game by picking up torches and actually seeing the game change with your interaction such as lighting up areas and depending on what routes you take it will affects the game entirely by giving you a new area to fear for.

Enemies AI has been improved and they now have different reactions and thought processes furthering the battle mechanic system. Enemies can now break through walls and also right away you can see that the graphics have been pushed. It is extremely high definition but has a unique texture to it that makes it its own. Players will still experience troubles and difficulty but that is always part of the game and is appreciated.

Spoilers if you haven’t watch the demo yet; but more on interactions, a bridge can collapse over and dragons will be aware of you as as will the other creature in this game. The game doesn't punish u but helps you grow and understand the mechanics. The developers have focused on deaths being divers so then its more satisfying to the player and overcoming tough area will be more personal and satisfying. The game is still in development but this demo has opened the eyes to many and has been successful in getting the fan base appreciated of their hard work. I await more information and ill keep you guys up to date.

Dark Souls II: Edge Magazine Podcast Discussion

I will be covering Adam Barne's Edge Magazine interview. Below you will find a link to the Dark Souls II podcast. The podcast will be a simple and short overview for what is in store for Dark Souls II. I will be using information from numerous sources but focusing on the Edge Magazine interview.

Youtube:
Dark Souls II Podcast (Edge Magazine Analysis)

Sources:
Barne, Adam. Dark Souls 2: Everything We Know So Far [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1729804/dark_souls_2_everything_we_know_so_far.html [Last Accessed April 2, 2013].

Dark Souls II: Edge Magazine Analysis

So far, FromSoftware has been very tight lipped about the content in Dark Souls II. Very little information has been directly released. Even the Dark Souls 2 homepage has nothing but a single cinematic trailer. Most information that has been gathered so far consists mainly of hints and suggestions dropped during interviews, or conferences. Some other details have been confirmed by FromSoftware as a means of keeping fans interested and preventing the spread of completely wrong theories.

One detail that has been confirmed so far is that the control scheme will be the same as it was in the original Dark Souls. The unique control layout may be a bit out of place if used for other games, but the combat system in Dark Souls probably would not be as flexible without it. It can be assumed that since the controls will be the same, the majority of gameplay will be as well. Expect lots of parrying, backstabbing, kicking, and lunging.

Another subject that has been a bit less clear is that there may actually be a difficulty select of some form. Tomohiro Shibuya, co-director for Dark Souls II, has commented on various occasions that he "wants to make the game more accessible" (Barne). This would be a departure from the tone of both Dark Souls and its predecessor Demon Souls. Both previous games used its difficulty barrier as a selling point. Dark Souls’ catchphrase was, “Prepare to die.” 

As it stands right now, Dark Souls II looks like it intends to keep the majority of gameplay fairly similar to that of Dark Souls, but there may be some significant changes that could possibly leave the final result with a very different feel. Whether or not that is a good thing has yet to be seen, but hopefully some more solid information will be released in the near future.

Author: Sean Johnson
Sean's Blogs: Games You Never Played

Sources:

Barne, Adam. (2013). Dark Souls 2: Everything We Know So Far. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1729804/dark_souls_2_everything_we_know_so_far.html. [Last Accessed April 2, 2013].

(2013). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.darksoulsii.com/. [Last Accessed April 2, 2013].

Dark Souls II: New Director

Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, will no longer be directing Dark Souls 2 but rather be the producer and be looking over it. He will have his perspective say over the development  but he will no be directing it. “I will not be involved in the actual development of Dark Souls II”(Edge), “I want to clarify that I will be a supervisor, not the actual director or producer” (Edge). This is a huge announcement for fans of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls; he knows that this has cause controversy.

     The second item that Miyazaki claims to have looked after is the transition from a peer-to-peer online system to server-based network play, which promises a markedly improved online experience. “It was a company decision,” clarifies Namco Bandai producer Takeshi Miyazoe. “Miyazaki worked on Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, but for the IP to evolve and provide a new experience within the Dark Souls world the new wind from directors Shibuya and Tanimura is key to providing players with a brand new Dark Souls experience" (Edge). In order to maintain the expectations and satisfaction and the rewards that players experience, this was the right time to bring in the new characteristics and tastes of the directors for this series to continue on evolving" (Staff).

Sources:
Edge, Staff. Hidetaka Miyazaki on stepping away from Dark Souls II and the future of the series [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.edge-online.com/features/dark-souls-ii-co-director-tomohiro-shibuya-on-accessibility-and-taking-control-of-the-series/ [Last Accessed April 3, 2013].

Staff, Edge. Dark Souls II: Shibuya on the gameworld, awkwardness and accessibility [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.edge-online.com/features/hidetaka-miyazaki-on-stepping-away-from-dark-souls-ii-and-the-future-of-the-series/ [Last Accessed April 3, 2013].