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Hundreds of people playing a FromSoftware game is about as effective as you’d expect.
There are a lot of people playing Elden Ring in co-op already. The game is certainly enjoyable as a singleplayer experience but some people prefer playing with mates. Sometimes you need a little bit of a hand with Margit and that’s okay, we all struggle with that guy at first. But what I didn’t expect to see was 600 people playing Elden Ring all at once.
The ‘Twitch plays’ format is legendary. Hook up a game to your stream and allow your audience to play it via commands they type into Twitch chat. It first shot to fame with Pokémon let’s plays, but now has been applied to all sorts of genres and styles of games. So of course it was only a matter of time until someone got Twitch to play Elden Ring.
Bruce Greene, whom you may know from his work on Funhaus, Rooster Teeth, or Inside Gaming, has a subathon going. This is a Twitch rite of passage where subscriptions to a Twitch channel contribute to length of the stream. 50% of the subs are going to UNICEF and the Red Cross in support of Ukraine.
Subathons have been known to go on for a month before but streamers do need their rest. While Bruce has been sleeping and doing other activities he’s needed something to entertain his audience while tucked away in his sleeping bag and tent.
Sometimes streamers opt to put on YouTube videos, others allow their mods to take over entertainment but in this case Bruce has allowed his chat to play Elden Ring. I can’t say that 600 people trying to control a samurai in the Lands Between is especially effective. As I’m writing this, they collectively struggled to detach themselves from a wall for a while, but it sure is entertaining.
Bruce has a list of instructions on the left side of his screen which helps guide the chat in how they can help the Tarnished become the Elden Lord. From simple commands like crouching to full guarding tutorials, he’s got it covered. But like I said, it’s not exactly the most effective way of playing the game, is it? Everyone will want to do different bosses, use different items and explore different areas all at once.
Oh well, at least if you’ve not been able to play Elden Ring yourself yet, this is a taste of what you can expect. Right down to accidentally jumping off ledges and falling to your death.
Imogen has been playing games for as long as she can remember but finally decided games were her passion when she got her hands on Portal 2. Ever since then she’s bounced between hero shooters, RPGs, and indies looking for her next fixation, searching for great puzzles or a sniper build to master. When she’s not working for PC Gamer, she’s entertaining her community live on Twitch, hosting an event like GDC, or in a field shooting her Olympic recurve bow.
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