After being alerted to a theoretical reality of how horses function, I think my advice to Silksong players having trouble would be to start horsing around.


Do as the horses do

I think it’s fitting that while I write this article, I struggle a bit with mood and energy levels, which is generating a melancholy within me of sorts, as it is my weekend, the moment where I have a lot of free time to get shit done. Possessing a deprivation of spirit is truly the last thing I would want, as resting for long periods of time generally irks me outside of extreme need.

I continue to put hours into Silksong, though I think on average, I only put in about an hour of time a day, so it is a slow moving process. Outside of only a couple of sessions, I *usually end on the defeat of a boss, so progress is certainly being made, though maybe a bit slower than I originally speculated. The last achievement I got in terms of progress in the game has it sitting at less than 10% of gamers having obtained it, so I’m moving much faster than others, a verified reality pointing to progress that is objectively and measurably way further than the overwhelming majority of others, so I feel as if my insight has plenty of accredited lived experience supporting a premise I put forth in reference to the game..

Speaking of which, I thought it appropriate to write this article now, after finishing up one of my only sessions that ended on an *in progress* kind of scenario, as I ran into a delightfully psychotic little arena fight, which I thought I was crushing until I realized that what I had surmised would be the finale, turned out in fact to be the halfway mark. Those rascals at Team Cherry, I tell you what. No matter, and quite honestly, an excellent jumping off point for this write-up, however short it may be, as if there were to be a moment I would lash out in some manner of frustration and change my viewpoints on the difficulty discussion, now would be the time, though I’m in serious doubt such a thing will occur at all, as I generally like to approach these matters from a place of rational resolve.

I think there are a few articles I want to write in trying to continue to address some of the energy around Silksong, as my compulsion isn’t to type up negatory dismissals, and when considering all of my thoughts on the matter, I don’t think any of them come off as such. I want to genuinely continue to dissect what Silksong is offering, and the player interactions with the title that is helping to create all of the fuss over the game. I think at the very least, I would like to write one that has a practical aim, detailing some basic strats one can utilize, breakdown some truths about players themselves, and maybe do a fuller examination of one idea I will leave with you today, as I don’t think I do in fact, possess the mood or energy to go on at length about such proposals to my desired ends.

I think it is high time, much in line with games getting a content warning to alert users (parents mostly, but that is besides the point), what kind of “challenging” any single video game truly is, and thusly, I propose some kind of difficulty rating system, in curbing player expectation about games like Silksong, something akin to how they had to invent the PG-13 rating due to the violence in Temple of Doom and Gremlins, but a whole scale to boot, following whatever rating Silksong would be warranted in receiving, I understand that from a practical standpoint, this actuality won’t come to pass, but I think it would be for the best for everyone involved, as then players would know what to expect when seeing that a game has a certain rating, and they are familiar with the idea that their comfort levels of challenge vs standing ability level do not much the rating warning issued. I likened challenge when discussing Silksong not too long ago to consuming spice, and not everyone can stand to eat a Carolina Reaper, hell, some people don’t even like jalapenos. Maybe if gaming adopts some form of scaling system, much like the Scoville scale for capsaicin is for peppers, it would kind of alert gamers that the title is “too spicy”, so they wouldn’t feel as disappointed when they get burned in the process. We could even borrow this notion for the scale itself, maybe the Heat Index Rating, or the Pepper Rating System, scale of 1-5 (just spit balling here.)

A fun idea to play around with, and I have some ideas of how to do it, and of course, all of the obvious reasons people would have pushback against such a system, but ultimately, aside from suggesting ideas like strategy refinement, realities about game design, and common sense notionality revolving around the idea of the metaphysics of challenge and practice, the only thing I am really left with to do is to propose a way to help mitigate adjusted expectations involving the challenge itself, as it does fall into this abstract realm of subjective issue that has no real right answer. I remember reading an article where the director of Dragon’s Dogma Hideaki Itsuno was quoted as saying:

““I made the game not like a Nintendo one to be liked by all the people, but for a certain type of audience, so it’s normal if some people outside that target audience don’t like the game,” 

And ultimately, for different reasons of course, the same is true of Silksong…I just don’t think the game is for everyone. Since the games discourse does revolve around difficulty, I’m left with the notion that quite obviously, not everyone has the inherent abilities to beat the game, ergo, not everyone is good enough to finish the title, but then sensitive egos would likely accuse me of being too cruel or overly critical of players, which leads me back to the idea that Silksong is not a game intended for everyone, and you might be one of them. And, to reiterate on Itsuno’s point, with different phrasing of course, maybe ya’ll are too pampered by the likes of Nintendo, and do want to feel custom tailored to with a safe, overly polished, demographically tested game that falls within the safe zone of sterilized fun in order to feel placated.

There are a lot of factors at play, and as I said, it is a subjective reality we are dealing with, so no one singular opinion will be the end all be all that totally concludes the discourse surrounding Silksong. All we have the ability to do is continue to have a Socratic discussion that drives us closer to the heart of the matter, and leave it at that, possibly with a new perspective in tow.

Or you know…go home salty. It’s your choice.

~Pashford