I've been trying to be helpful on the Helldivers sub. When people say "X is impossible and Y needs to be nerfed/buff I'd go earnestly say "okay this is how it works, and these are the tools you have, and here is how you can use those tools to solve the problem or succeed or overcome the situation.
And, invariably, what I get back is abuse and scorn and insults and incredulity. The poster, and the hundreds of people supporting them, don't want the solution to be within them. They don't want to hear that they have not mastered game systems, that they don't understand how the weapons and enemies work, that they're making mistakes that can be corrected or that they can learn new tactics that will grant them victory.
The problem cannot lie in them. The problem must be external. The game must be broken, or bugged, or the devs must be fools. They are good enough and skilled enough and smart enough to play on the highest difficulty, but they cannot win, so the highest difficulty is broken and the devs must mechanically reduce the difficulty until they can easily, effortlessly conquer, until their "power fantasy" of unlimited unearned prowess can be restored. If they are challenged, if they face difficulty, if they face hardship, that is a flaw in the game. All obstacles must be smoothed down. Their favorite weapon should be the ideal choice for all situations.
At first I was overjoyed at the opportunity to share my knowledge and expertise, to help others learn what I had learned and enjoy the sublime feeling of mastery.
Then i was confused, because the rejection of simple tactics, simple explanations of systems and ideas, must mean I was not communicating clearly enough. Surely, if I only found the right words?
Then, anger. Why won't they engage with these ideas? Why do they reject simple explanations clearly explained? Why do they insult and berate instead of questioning or interrogating? Where is the desire to grow, to overcome, to perfect?
Finally; contempt. I do not care. These fools, let them stew in their own ignorance and misery. What can be said to them? They cannot be educated, not because they are illiterate, but because they refuse the mere possibility of education. They refuse to accept the world as it is, instead demanding from god the utopia they surely deserve.
What can you say to someone like that? What can you do but sneer "git gud" and move on?
I'd never really questioned where the "git gud" cliche that Dark Souls players threw around so mercilessly came from. But now I suspect that I know.
I wish there was a more widespread culture of mocking anyone who starts complaining like that.
Ugh. there is in some games, like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, where as I mentioned the refrain was git gud. What I don't think many people understood about the Soulslike games is you're not supposed to win, you're supposed to persevere. The whole core theme of the Dark Souls series is people who keep powering through all the horrible bullshit because they don't want to give up. You throw yourself at the same boss fifty times because you only need to win once, you just need that one boss fight where you get in one extra hit and carve off that last sliver of health. There's no being bad at Dark Souls. It doesn't matter how much you suck as long as you keep going. Eventually you can grind levels or summon phantoms or just cheat and beat that boss. That's the game. Don't give up. Don't go hollow. The only way to lose is exiting the game.
But I think a lot of people saw themselves getting killed, and thought they were being punished, so they threw their hands up and said the game was too hard and oppressive. And they decided the people telling them to skill up, to read guides, to talk to the community, were being mean. I've heard tons of people complain that you have to go online to learn about mechanics and that they just want to play the game and they don't want to interact with the community. But the communal process of learning how the game works is a huge part of the experience. It's people working together, cooperating, collaborating, sharing knowledge, to overcome hardship. You don't have to participate in that, but if you don't, then Dark Souls probably isn't your game.
And a lot of people, they just won't accept that a game isn't for them, that not all games are intended to appeal to all players. Arrowhead's motto is apparently "A game for everyone is a game for no one" and that's really showing up here, where their balance patch shut down all the "PvE games should be empty power fantasies where every button is a win button" crowd.