What Elden Ring Is Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games

Reports of Gaming For A Non-Gamers' death have been greatly exaggerated. For this episode, I had my wife try out one of FromSoft's many masterpieces, Elden Ring. While the Soulsborne series is notoriously difficult, especially for those who are trying to get into it for the first time, I was curious to see the ways in which Elden Ring attempts to ease in new players, and I was surprised to see that it does way more than most give it credit for.

Special thanks to honorary bagbutens Kay Kay and WilliamGlenn8.

[razbuten]

Hope you enjoyed this little journey! Wishing you a happy old new years, and I will see you in the next one.

[sairam]

The fact that she even entertained this request of yours shows what a great trooper she is. Goals.

[SaltSpirits]

the dichotomy of “Can you get me something to fight?” into immediately screaming and retreating is something that never leaves even the most veteran soulslike players

[caravaneerkhed]

Congrats on the baby! Now in a few years you can run experiments on the kid to get the true non gamer experience

[liambanning]

The squeal of joy near the end where she finally beats the beast man without summons really brought a smile to my face

[AmericanRoads]

Your wife is so courageous, that she would attempt a "no level up run" on her VERY FIRST Elden playthrough. Kudos to her!

[Hydraas]

Your wife's screams of delight every time she beats a major hurdle are the best part of this series. I'm really glad you've helped her to enjoy playing games

[NotYurAverageJoe]

That shriek of joy when she finally beats the Beastman on her own is the absolute essence of why people love these games and im so glad she got to experience that

[SynergistN]

I'm late to this video but I'm cackling at the thought of your wife loading into the game, reading the first floor message she comes across that inevitably says 'try finger, but hole', and then thinks to herself 'ah, this is how the game will tell me its secrets' 😂

[bradleypariah]

I love this series. My wife was very briefly into games (first Torchlight). I don't know how she got hours into the game without opening her inventory, but she asked me how she'd equip something she just found. I said, "Try pressing 'i'." Of course that opened her inventory and she was happy, but her mother (who was overhearing the conversation) was confused to the point of visible annoyance that I was able to suggest such a thing without having yet played the game myself. "And just *_how are people supposed to know that_*?" she asked, and it dawned on me that "common knowledge" is quite a misnomer. Gaming has a bar of entry, and hardly any gamers on earth recognize the "training" they've undergone.

[meekaboi]

This is one of my favorite series. Those of us who grew up with gaming find most of the mechanisms second nature, and we come to expect most of the tricks/limitations/gameplay loops/etc. Hearing your wife's takes (and oftentimes understandable confusion) is always interesting, and the way the narrative is framed always works really well.

[kp]

My wife picked Elden Ring as the first video game she ever played. She was mostly attracted by seeing me play on the TV. She would play while using my character which was overlevelled for Limgrave as I had already defeated Godrick. This enabled her to learn the controls without worrying about dying. Once she became good enough, I created a new character for her which was exactly the same which she had been playing earlier.

This enabled her enough to enjoy the game. She is now at NG+ having defeated all bosses in Elden Ring. In fact, she's often more creative than a normal gamer (aka me).

IMO, games tutorials are rarely for a non-gamer. The best way for someone to learn how to play a game would be to play an overlevelled character and actually enjoy the mechanics for a bit before starting from scratch.

[Fire-bjvc]

Elden ring really helped me overcome my panic button pressing. Never got through these games, but I think I can finish this. I actually beat Radahn ! (Unfortunately he has been nerfed)

[swordmonkey]

A triple A game: $60
The shout of glee as someone you love defeats her first boss on her own: Priceless.

[gbeach]

Man, I really love this series you do. I watch all of them a lot.

My wife died in a car accident a couple years ago. She had a similar voice, cadence, and personality of yours. She’d try my games too, but was so adorably bad at it.

This New Years is hard. I miss her terribly. In some weird way I guess I’m soaking in your guys’s dynamic because it tastes familiar.

Please keep them coming.

Adore you both. And happy new years.

[MidnighttheDragon]

man...the sheer JOY in her voice upon finally going back and beating the asylum demon. That was heartwarming in a way I can't described. It sounded like she was almost in tears from going back to conquer such an impossible task with what was now (in comparison) relative ease.

[ryemseptende]

Even though I am the one who bought a PS5 and a disc for Elden Ring, I am so glad my husband was the first one to play it. He handheld me through the Godrick soldier camp near Gatefront. After successfully eliminating the enemy group there, I had grasped most of the combat mechanics and was able to beat Margit eventually. Now this has become my favorite video game with more than 500 hours gameplay time and extra time on Youtube for learning boss movesets. Having never played a 3D action game before, without his coaching, I may have given up on the game and missed my chance to fully experience such a masterpiece.

[noahkirschtein]

i actually didn’t expect this series to ever make a comeback, but here we are. she has suffered through elden ring.

[Jkb]

As a game dev student, I think these videos are very interesting. It is nice to see what kinds of features that are needed to possibly guide newer players better. I think these videos are good resources to see very explained frustrations and what works and doesn't for people who don't know other things that gamers might already know

[riderofangmar]

Having never played a souls game and going in blind, I chose the wretch class and immediately picked a fight with big golden horsey boi. And after 4 hours of fighting him with my little club, the game finally got it through my thick skull that I couldn’t just walk around expecting victories.

10/10