Gatekeeping Discussion

[Feelsbaddan]

Hey everyone. The topic of gatekeeping tends to get brought up a lot around the FromSoft releases and the whole retro-difficult genre in general. With the DLC on the horizon I was wondering if anyone who has experienced gatekeeping in the Souls community (mainly in online forums, subreddits or any out-of-game interaction), or has engaged in gatekeeping themselves would be happy to share the experiences and discuss.

Hope y'all doing well

[Hippocrass]

If a feature is in the game and you use the feature to play the game, your gameplay experience is perfectly valid.

[Key]

Gatekeeping doesn't really exist. 99% of the time it's a term used by people who want to be part of a community centered on an interest they doen't actually have.

I.E. Souls games difficulty is a form of gatekeeping, when said difficulty is an essential part of the experience and can be mitigated in several ways through knowledge and experience.

The problem here is you don't like a fundamental part of Souls games, and you're asking for it to be changed in order to fit your preference, therefore changing what a Souls game is.

I've never seen an interesting, well-thought out argument in which someone accuses somebody else of gatekeeping. It's always either people who want to fit in because it's the cool thing to do, or "gaming journalists" who actually hate video games.

On the other side of the spectrum you have those "using this item invalidates your accomplishment type of people", who also aren't gatekeeping, just desperately looking for acolades. Nobody actually cares about what you use.

[Lord Bob]

There's a group of players using niche hardware setups that constantly and without fail gatekeep themselves from enjoying the game.

[pix]

Originally posted by Lord Bob:

There's a group of players using niche hardware setups that constantly and without fail gatekeep themselves from enjoying the game.

*cough cough widescreen monitors cough cough*

[Feelsbaddan]

Originally posted by Key:

On the other side of the spectrum you have those "using this item invalidates your accomplishment type of people", who also aren't gatekeeping, just desperately looking for acolades. Nobody actually cares about what you use.

This is an interesting take. I've seen people go to the extreme of "you did it using [insert playstyle] do you're not a real Souls player". Something to that effect. Would you consider that to be someone gatekeeping another from the community?

[pix]

Originally posted by Feelsbaddan:

Originally posted by Key:

On the other side of the spectrum you have those "using this item invalidates your accomplishment type of people", who also aren't gatekeeping, just desperately looking for acolades. Nobody actually cares about what you use.

This is an interesting take. I've seen people go to the extreme of "you did it using [insert playstyle] do you're not a real Souls player". Something to that effect. Would you consider that to be someone gatekeeping another from the community?

yes.

[Icke]

wtf is gatekeeping?

[pix]

Originally posted by Icke:

wtf is gatekeeping?

from google
the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something.

[Key]

Originally posted by Feelsbaddan:

Originally posted by Key:

On the other side of the spectrum you have those "using this item invalidates your accomplishment type of people", who also aren't gatekeeping, just desperately looking for acolades. Nobody actually cares about what you use.

This is an interesting take. I've seen people go to the extreme of "you did it using [insert playstyle] do you're not a real Souls player". Something to that effect. Would you consider that to be someone gatekeeping another from the community?

I don't consider that gatekeeping, I consider it begging for attention masked as gatekeeping. These people don't actually think that, they're just trying to brag about how good they are, all they want is for someone to tell them they're really cool.

Also, these people are an incredibly small minority, I actually have never seen anyone saying stuff like that in a serious tone.

[Mikebeez]

Who cares? Just ignore it. That's what I do when I see it or have been engaged in gatekeeping.

I do not understand why players get their feelings in a knot over other players' opinions/statements. It's a VIDEO GAME. You bought it, play it how you like. Most of these gatekeepers wouldn't say a word to you face to face because in reality they'd be to afraid to do so.

It's the internet, it's anonymous. There is no real life consequence for them. Not worth your time. In fact, you making this thread is them winning.

Play the game the way you want. You bought it.

[Senki]

I think people that try to join a franchise only to cry 24/7 about how it needs to change, add easy modes or other nonsense deserve to be gatekept and thrown in the garbage bin

People that join it to enjoy it and only have actual valid criticism are fine

The truth is no one has any power to stop anyone from buying something and talking about it online tho. But I think it's important to at least try and not allow the stupid masses to change a franchise into something bad like it happened many times already

[cernodan]

Bro, it's a single player game, so unless some dude comes to your house and slaps your keyboard away, then all that "gatekeeping" is in your head.
Or are we talking about the scenario where you read some comment like "git gud" or "didn't beat the game if X" and you started to suffer from immense butthurt, in which case, again, it's a you problem.
There's only one form of gatekeeping.
Gatekeep diz nutz

[Mikebeez]

Originally posted by cernodan:

Bro, it's a single player game, so unless some dude comes to your house and slaps your keyboard away, then all that "gatekeeping" is in your head.
Or are we talking about the scenario where you read some comment like "git gud" or "didn't beat the game if X" and you started to suffer from immense butthurt, in which case, again, it's a you problem.
There's only one form of gatekeeping.
Gatekeep diz nutz

This is kinda what I was getting at, except I was trying to be nice.

[vamirez]

Just above you can see an example of "gaslighting".

Common gatekeeping examples: Using spirits is cheating. Magic is easy mode. If you used xy you didn't really beat the game. And so on. This goes so far that some players are self-restricting and having a bad time.

Btw interesting how the first few comments already feature guys with a strong opinion on why "nah gatekeeping doesn't exist" and try to control this topic.

[Fineous🔥]

There is no way to gatekeep you in a From game. The only thing the gatekeepers can do is post mean threads and after describing the way they think the game should be played post "AS IT SHOULD BE PLAYED". Nobody except a invader or a co-op buddy can actually interact with you in-game, so there is no way to keep you away from anything.

Feel free to ignore them (just a suggestion).