I recently replayed Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and still sensed a strong "Souls" flavor. Yet despite multiple completions, I never achieved that feeling of knowing the routes better than my own home as in Dark Souls. Why? Because,It lacks one thing—Messages, which are notes left by other players scattered throughout the world.
Take Wuchang: Fallen Feathers'For the Zhenwu Temple section, this path is arduous. The roads twist and turn, light and shadow are dim, making it easy to get lost; traps are hidden along the way, every step is precarious, and ambushes often occur around corners. Yet such torturous levels are common in Dark Souls. The difference lies in the messages: they mark the path ahead, remind you of shortcut locations,warnings of "Beware of deceit";a faint glimmer in the corner warns you of an ambush here, a bloodstain on the ground indicates someone died here. Though walking alone through dark ruins, you rarely feel like you're proceeding alone.
The Zhenwu Temple in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
It can even be said that the harsh exploration levels with long treks and few bonfire save points, as well as hidden side quests, are built on the foundation of player messages. This is not my over-interpretation; Hidetaka Miyazaki inIn a 2009 interview, he introduced"Souls-like"'sdesign philosophy: The gameplay I want to create is about"death"and"mutual aid". It is based on these two points that the design of Demon's Souls becomes systematic and logically self-consistent.
"Dark Souls" series messages hinting at side quests ahead
Understood roughly,This "death" aspect points to a desolate world, fierce enemies, and brutal combat. It was later researched and developed into a certain type of ARPGofproduction paradigm directly led to spectacles in major game review sections—as long as it's an action game,someone will definitely farm"It's another Souls-like."
I am not a fundamentalist, nor do I intend to criticize everyone"conventional" expression habits. However, theoretically, there should be another timeline for "Souls-like" games: if successors had learned the "mutual aid" aspect rather than the "death" aspect, andWhat would happen? Obviously, following this line of thought,"Souls-like" games are too few.
One
"Souls-like"another path is to encourage player mutual aid.
Many peopleMany people know that the concept of Demon's Souls inherits fromFFromSoftware's own "King's Field"(King's Field), but few people know that the concept of King's Field inherits fromthe dungeon exploration RPG "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" popular on Apple computers in the 80s. "Wizardry"(Wizardry)series was very influential in Japan; it not only inspired Koichi Nakamura to participate in the production of "Dragon Quest", its sixth installment "Wizardry6: Curse of the Cosmic Forge)(Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge)It also emphasized monster ecosystems, inspiring manga artist Ryoko Kui to create "Delicious in Dungeon" (Dungeon Meshi).
"Wizardry" is about dungeon exploration, with its core feature being the lack of a map during exploration, requiring players to take notes. Another feature is the high penalty after death,high penalty, but allows players to explore the maze to find their own corpse, revive it, and retrieve items. It's not hard to see that these two points arefeatures later popularized by the "Dark Souls" series, plus the maze save points not uncommon in old games—Fundamentally, Hidetaka Miyazaki did notbuilt upon "Wizardry"somewhat.
The remake of "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord"
insist on sayingpioneering, one is more modernized combat, the other is encouraging player mutual aid.
But if judged by action game standards, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls deserve low scores. Because, in early "Souls" games, the protagonist's action input was sluggish, able to roll in only four directions,Not only do monsters have few moves, but the finalbosses are also quite weak, with narrative function far outweighing combat. Why? Because in related interviews, Hidetaka Miyazaki gave it thepositioning as classicalRPG: The action has been modernized, but the design emphasizing exploration and strategy is inherited from"Wizardry", playing with information exploration and trial-and-error learning.
How so? For example, in Demon's Souls, before fighting the Fool's Idol, you must deal with the two puppeteers upstairs, otherwise she will keep cloning herself; in Dark Souls, to defeat Gravelord Nito, you need a holy weapon to destroy the undead, otherwise the skeletons will resurrect infinitely; in Bloodborne, if you complete the side quest to obtain Father Gascoigne's daughter's music box, you can play it during the fight to interrupt his frenzied attacks.
Reading weapon descriptions,andNPC dialogue, understanding the worldview, you can gain an advantage. Playing action,relying on reaction, thenthe frail character performance and high input latency of the "Undead", it will teach players a lesson.
On the map exploration level, the value of mutual aid and intelligence is even more evident. In Dark Souls, there are fortresses like Sen's Fortress filled with traps, the Tomb of the Giants where you can't see your hand in front of your face, and the Crystal Cave with nearly invisible paths suspended high in the air, corresponding to human instinctive fears of torture devices, darkness, and heights. So, whether it's the"Trap ahead", or traces on invisible paths, or glimmers in dark crypts, this intelligence from other players is very helpful for exploration: then, even the most disgusting areas will have solutions, because there are "footprints" left by predecessors on the map,difficult paths instead interpret the meaning of "where many people walk, a path is formed."
Additionally, before some illusionary walls and hidden passages, there will also be"Message" suggests you try attacking. Each attempt makes me feel helped—the world is cruel, but I can feel human kindness.
Messages in Elden Ring also help players find their way at great heights
Of course, some might argue that if you want to experience cooperation, you can just play online games. My analysis of Dark Souls' mutual aid gameplay might seem exaggerated, akin to praising a microwave for its cooling function. But those who play online games often know that cooperation in online games is almost something else entirely; it's a system that forces players to cooperate with several strangers. Even though teammates share the same goal, they easily pressure each other, sometimes escalating into endless verbal abuse.
IncludingFromSoftware's own Elden Ring: Nightreign(ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN),all have this problem. Although it inherits the emphasis on"exploration," "information," and "mutual aid" gameplay, but the random matchmaking feature under hardcore difficulty still contributed to this game having the worst player community environment in 2025. Browse any related post, and it's full of harsh critiques of teammates, bullying of characters, and complaints about being screwed overand complaining until breaking down. Its magical ranking mechanism, adding 200 points for a win and deducting 800 points for a loss, amplifies themalicious emotions, itsthe "mutual aid" gameplay brings is hardly goodwill.
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Ultimately, online games provide a strong connection. They bind strangers together for an exam, assigning players responsibilities and obligations,but does not promise stable returns, trustnaturally alsofragile, easily evolving into friction and disagreement. Under this structure,"partner"is redefined as a risk variable that must be endured, you will instinctively monitor him, judge him,evenerupt when he makes a mistake—not necessarily whoofbad temper, but the game structure forces people to act this way; it would be strange if they didn't argue.
To avoid this situation, games like Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne adopt a completely opposite design philosophy: First, it imposes no obligations; you can complete the game without leaving any messages. Second, character deaths on the path can themselves be helpful, leaving bloodstains in other players' worlds to warn them of traps. Furthermore, the message system only provides a limited set of words for players to combine, making it nearly impossible to exert pressure on others orverbal abuse: The industry calls this practice, where you can't see others but can see their traces,"asynchronous multiplayer," it providesA weak tie.
Touching bloodstains reveals how another player died
Indeed, since the system doesn't force players'obligations, some players also leave deceptive messages. When you fall for them, you often feel both angry and amused. However, messages have a like mechanism, and the number of likes can serve as a reference. Once familiar, it's easy to distinguish between helpful hints and malicious misleading advice. Moreover, when someone likes your message, you immediately regain health from one Flask of Crimson Tears. Several times, Ireceiving this power just before losing a boss fight. Planting kindness inadvertently like this,The unique experience of hearing an echo long after the fact can even instill a sense of not wanting to let others down, bringing courage in desperate situations.
Similarly, the game's connection features impose no restrictions. Invading other players' worlds allows for both assistance and hunting.. But players who offer help are always easier to remember, such asSolaire the Sun Knight dressed up in the Dark Souls series, or LetMeSoloHer standing before Malenia in Elden Ring—they have become everyone's impression ofimpression of "Souls" games.
Hidetaka Miyazaki's games are like this: cruel on the outside, but very gentle on the inside.
And what builds its flesh and blood is precisely the encouragement of spontaneous mutual aid among people"weak ties."
Elden Ring legendary player LetMeSoloHer—known for helping other players fight Malenia out of love
Two
American Journal of Sociology(American Journal of Sociology)has a paper titled "The Strength of Weak Ties"(The Strength of Weak Ties), through sampling surveys, controlled comparisons, and MRI scans of respondents' brains, it found:"Weak ties" bring happiness more easily than "strong ties." Because, facing intimate people requires maintaining a persona,fulfill obligations, meet their expectations, and care for their emotions, all of which relate to stress. In contrast, recognition from casual acquaintances,the smile of the female clerk at the convenience store downstairs—the kindness of strangers,actually makes people feel more at ease.
Game designers also discovered this,such as the so-called"Zen Master" Jenova Chen. "I played World of Warcraft for three years, but most of the time I felt quite lonely. Emotionally, I needed someone to talk to... Once, I was staring blankly at a waterfall by a suspension bridge, and looked up to see another player also staring at the waterfall. At that moment, I felt our emotions were identical, that he and I shared the same feelings."
This feeling became the prototype for what would later become Journey. He initially envisioned a four-person travel group, but soon realized that four people tend to form cliques, isolating one member, and making them feel forcibly bound together by the system. Therefore,The number of players was reduced from four to two; if you encounter other players on the road, you can walk away at any time; voice chat is disabled, and even gender andIDs are not displayed. This createsa kind ofthe feeling of "wandering together, forgetting each other in the vast world"connection.
Similar to Dark Souls, Journey has a desolate atmosphere. Wastelands, ruins, deserts—one wanders alone in such settings. Immersed in this atmosphere, many players assume the person who appears later is anNPCs. Only upon reaching the destination does the other person's name light up, leading to the belated realization: you were never alone along the way. This experience is incredibly romantic.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is similar. Earlier I said its community is terrible, but the in-game atmosphere is entirely different. It disables voice chat and typing, so even if you're angry, you have no channel to vent towards teammates, preventing disputes from escalating. Instead, pinging is used; the only method of communication is placing marks on the map to plan development routes or indicate the next direction. As a result, when your ping suddenly overlaps with a teammate's, many players feel a sense of rapport: although they don't know each other, they instinctively know what the other is thinking.
This kind of"Telepathy" is carefully designed; producer Jun Ishizaki also calls it "resonance." Since Elden Ring: Nightreign is a three-player roguelike squad game, equipment can be dropped for teammates. Enemies often drop items with stats that are "useful for teammates, useless for you." Therefore,, whether to help teammates and how to balance the team's overall development became its core gameplay.
Before the final battledrop equipment on the ground to see if any teammate wants it
For instance, some characters urgently need purple ore, but mining areas in the roguelike map are always far and winding. If the whole team goes mining, it severely slows down development pace. At such times, a character with high mobility will often volunteer to go solo, quickly grab the ore, then reunite with the other two to drop the purple ore for teammates. This process involves no communication; random matchmaking prevents coordination, and routes vary each session, leading to different problem-solving approaches. Yet, high-ranking players naturally understand each other's thoughts when strategizing and execute tactics tacitly.
Furthermore, Elden Ring: Nightreign has a score ceiling of 9999. In other words, those who max out their scores don't need, nor can they use higher scores to prove themselves. So, when players want to challenge high difficulties and continue enjoying the game, the only path is choosing teammates, andand must choose weaker teammates. As a result, a strange phenomenon appeared in the community:Players in the 3000-6000 rank bracket complain about bad teammates, while those above 6000 complain that it's too easy, affecting their game experience. Thus, using the game's built-in "rank drop" feature, many top-ranked veteran Souls players voluntarily go down to help new players overcome challenges.
For example, in the match below, the dumber my teammate acts, the more motivated I get—Those moments where defeat seems imminent and only you can turn the tide best ignite a Souls player's desire to play the hero. Especially when fighting intensely untilthe boss falls, these two randomly matched strangers spontaneously bow and applaud me. That satisfaction sends chills down my SPINE - This is Gun Fu more than any carefully designed moment.
Behavioral economics has a concept called"Helper's High" (warm-glow): When people help strangers for free, the brain's reward circuitry lights up, specifically the ventral tegmental area (VTA)releasing dopamine—it follows the same path as eating delicious food or earning money.But besidesFromSoftwareofAmong these games, I rarely see developers making this kind of fun the core design focus. With my limited gaming experience,Besides FromSoftware titles, I can think of about four games.
First, there's Journey, introduced above.
It encourages you to complete a journey with strangers.
Secondly, there's Kojima Productions' Death Stranding(Death Stranding).
This is a game about delivering packages in a post-apocalyptic world. The terrain is complex, and paths between various starting points and destinations are quite difficult. However,As the game progresses, you might find a ladder left by a stranger at a cliff edge, a bridge built by a stranger by the river, or ropes or power poles left by others in the snowy mountains—throughout the process, you don't meet, type, or use voice chat with other couriers, but the traces you leave, either actively or passively, help others. It turns"Mutual aid" was turned into an anonymous kindness that transcends time and distance, without even needing to show your face.
Hideo Kojima explains this game philosophy as"Rope and Stick." He said, ropes and sticks are humanity's two oldest tools. Sticks push bad things away and maintain distance, while ropes pull good things closer and sustain relationships. In other words, within the distance marked out by sticks, many players actively extended their ropes. It doesn't have to divide players into winners and losers, but establishes connections on another level.
Thirdly, there's Nintendo'sBravely Default on 3DS(Bravely Default).
This is a classic narrativeJRPG, characterized by the hero's "Nornde Village" being destroyed at the start. To rebuild the village quickly, however, the fastest way is to leave home—because,NintendoThe 3DS has a feature called "StreetPass": when a playerIn realitygets close to another player, that person moves into yourin "Nornde Village", becoming one of its villagers to help you develop the village's infrastructure.
There's a dedicated spot in Akihabara, Japan called"StreetPass Square." When Bravely Default was released in October 2012, many players sat there playing with their 3DS consoles. Usually,,They don't communicate face-to-face directly, but once they move into the village, they all become friends, offering help during the hero's adventure. Even this kind of"Mutual aid" relates to the final narrative twist—to avoid spoilers, I won't elaborate further here.
Fourthly, last year's Arc Raiders(ARC Raiders).
This is an extraction shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world. You enter with gear to scavenge supplies, trying to reach the extraction point alive; if you die, you lose Everythinggj. Logically, this environment naturally resembles a high-risk casino,"Shoot first upon meeting" is almost the default rule. Mutual suspicion and betrayal are hurdles everyone must face, but Arc Raiders' data is quite anomalous: twenty percent of players have never killed anyone, and nearly half have killed fewer than ten enemies. Even criminologists contacted the developer Embark Studios, wanting to study player behavior to understand why everyone is so unusually friendly.
Logically, this game's design philosophy is completely opposite to the games mentioned above. They all restrict player communication, controlling the extent to which people harm each other's"sticks," whereas Arc Raiders has voice chat, with 95% of players having used it. However, when meeting, players habitually shout first to declare neutrality. Reportedly, when Embark Studios deployed giant bosses in the test server, the developers expected to see "fighting among themselves" scenarios. Instead, several unrelated squads immediately negotiated ceasefires, division of labor, and loot distribution plans via voice chat upon meeting, with no betrayals occurring until the end.
"In such an environment of deceit and intrigue, acts of kindness carry genuine emotional weight." There's a highly upvoted comment under a related video. Through simulation, Arc RaidersIt even illustrates a point—Humans in a post-apocalyptic environment,don't just destroy each other as depicted in third-rate web novels,engage in completely unreasonablezero-sum game. On the contrary, groups that establish trust and mutual aid first are more likely to win in survival competitions.
Three
To be honest, I felt a bit apprehensive when typing out the paragraph above. Because the prevailing narrative on the internet right now is"Human nature is tested in desperation, and moralists are killed in the apocalypse." If I talk extensively about trust and mutual aid, do I really know how many readers will accept it? I'm more worried it might seem like a moral appeal, and I don't want to be associated with boring preachiness.
Fortunately, while researching, I found a true tough guy to back me up. James"Pigeon" Field(James "Pigeon" Fielder), US Air ForceRetired Lieutenant Colonel, twenty-five years of Air Force service, served as theIntelligence Warfare Director of the 28th Bombardment Wing, nicknamed for his experience raising pigeons in the barracks. After retiring,He teaches political science at Colorado State University and is also a game designer, having startedmaking games for the military, schools, and entertainment industry since 1997. Over the years, he has been doing the same thing: using game design, political science, and sociology to study how people build trust and resolve conflicts.
His most famous achievement was outsmarting the Taliban in Afghanistan. During the 2014 Afghan election, the Colonel pushed open the door to Pigeon's office with a clear instruction: "Tell me, will anyone die in Kabul during this election? How do we stop?"Pigeon pulled out the data and quickly figured out the pattern: Afghans don't align by left or right wings, but by ethnic groups. The election situation involved one Tajik candidate facing nine Pashtun candidates. So, in the first round, Tajik votes would definitely lead but wouldn't reach50%, and in the second round, the nine Pashtuns would unite, guaranteeing his loss.
The truly critical question is, where will violent conflict erupt?
The garrison didn't have resources to defend all of Kabul, a city larger than New York. So, Pigeon took out a map, set rules, and designed a role-playing board game, inviting cooperative locals as consultants. Every officer in the staff had to immerse themselves in a game character,"If it wereyou, from which direction would you emerge?" They ran this game over and over again, and each time the result was the same.
Pigeon slapped the security report on the table. The Colonel glanced at it and said only four words: "Then do it." Later, indeed, the Tajiks won the first round, and the Pashtuns won the second. But thanks to the simulation on that game table, not a single soldier, local police officer, or civilian died due to violence during the election process.
In a recent interview, this master of game theory discussed his summarized"Search, Fight, Extract" gameplay. You need to extend your hand, lower your weapon, speak into the mic to show no malicious intent, and even drop some supplies as a gesture of goodwill. Often, this leads to cooperation. But he also emphasized that this method only works for rules like Arc Hunters, where "the benefit of mutual aid is not significantly lower than the benefit of fighting"; switch to early PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)Compared to Escape from Tarkov (Побег из Таркова), where the benefits of hunting each other are greater, this doesn't work.Thus, even though humans have an innate tendency to help each other, how we express it depends on the social environment.
Pigeon in his ownworkmentions a startlingpeopleviewpoint:"The essence of fun is learning."The original quote is roughly: Fun is when the brain learns something new. It doesn't always express itself as happiness; it can also be the frustration I feel when tinkering with synthesizer modules, andIt can be one person getting repeatedly beaten down in Dark Souls, angry enough to want to smash the controller.—but once I learned how to play and my brain suddenly 'clicked,' that was when I learned something new and gained confidence in myself.
Actually, Pigeon also inherited the theories from this game design book.
That's right, learning is a human instinct, and curiosity can even be considered a form of sexual desire. It causes pain for many people because of external pressures, performance-driven stress, and the meaningless feeling of uncertain rewards. But putting aside vulgar pragmatism, learning is alet oneselfpleasurable thing. However,Some discourse artificially divides knowledge into"useful" and "useless," whileforced to cramknowledge, usually makes people lose interest.
Ancient sports trained warriors for battle, and chess taught nobles strategic thinking. So, in Fielder's view, games have always served the same function throughout history:—training people to be members of society. Pigeon himself took this logic to its extreme, running Dungeons & Dragons for inmates in prison.(Dungeons & Dragons). There is a class in the game called"Paladin," the mechanism is simple: the more lawful and good you are, the stronger you become; once you break your oath, the blessing disappears immediately. Inmates use this role-playing to live a life they haven't experienced in reality. This is probably closer to the purpose of "prison rehabilitation" than any preaching.And this process of playing tabletop RPGs is learning.
In Baldur's Gate3) (Baldur's Gate 3), everyone can also play as a Paladin
And what this article discusses is"Mutual aid" is precisely what is missing from many regional education systems.. The concept instilled by the performance machine is"One point outweighs ten thousand people" reflects the idea of "enduring hardships to rise above others.",to the point where naive and poorly reasoned"Dark, deep, and cruel" narratives are prevalent. However, the life-or-death "dark forest" scenario is always the most extreme case. Even if the outside world becomes cruel, it often manifests as some people being better at interest exchange, using alliances and cooperation to outnumber opponents.
Still from the American Journal of SociologyThat article "The Strength of Weak Ties." Sociological surveys foundAmong "people who got jobs through connections," 80% came from acquaintances. Those acquaintances could mostly only offer a sentence like "We're hiring over there." But supply and demand in the job market determine that this might be very important to someone else. It may come from the good impression left during their last meeting. Its operational logic is very similar to the messages in Dark Souls: Your message can help me, and my casual like might save his life in another boss battle.
And,This is not a metaphor, but literally"human life."
Four
"Don't you dare go Hollow" is a slogan used by overseas depression communities to encourage each other. It comes from Dark Souls and translates to "Do not become Hollow." Yes, it's counterintuitive, but this very game—difficult, hardcore, with severe death penalties—is considered in various depression community discussions to help alleviate self-destructive emotions.
First, the game has a cruel atmosphere and a world full of malice. Even the player's efforts have no impact on the final outcome of the story. Characters are weaker, and dying too much turns them into ugly hollows. This setting closely aligns with the world perceived by depression patients: they cannot gain a sense of value and find it harder to connect with the world.
Secondly, every challenge in the game is merciless. Players see streets filled with corpses of those who failed their legends and turned into hollows. Even within the Firelink Shrine hub, there are NPCs who are world-weary, insane, or even advise you to give up.NPCs. This also resonated with depressed players,They want to try anything, but the first thing that wells up inside them is a sense of powerlessness.
"I think the cycle of hollowing is an excellent metaphor for depression. In the cold world of Dark Souls, you are surrounded by characters with tragic fates and pessimistic outlooks, who secretly fear losing their humanity, fear succumbing, and fear becoming hollow. When you are going through difficult times in your own life, it's easy to resonate with these tragic characters."
The "Born to Die" comic series documents how the author fought depression with Dark Souls.
However, all gloomy and depressing emotions, frustrations and discouragement along the journey, are eventually replaced by the thrill of victory at each stage. Don't forget, Hidetaka Miyazaki's game is about"Death and mutual aid," not "combat and mutual aid." "Death" itself is intentionally designed into the gameplay; clearing levels on the first try is actually a disadvantage.So, whether it's traps on the map or enemy moves, although dangerous and brutal, they follow patterns. This creates a positive cycle that encourages players to constantly learn from failure.
"Playing Dark Souls while struggling with depression was a profound and cathartic experience. I saw it as a reflection of life: misfortune is inevitable, but every adversity carries a glimmer of hope. Investing in personal growth, learning bit by bit from failure, and finally overcoming what once seemed insurmountable...This mindset was,extremely helpful."
The original Dark Souls had a special mechanic where, when players died repeatedly and exhausted a resource called"Humanity" resource, the character's appearance becomes increasingly similar to the mindless hollows found by the roadside. At the same time, players can no longer see white summon signs, meaning they can no longer seek help from others. However, messages on the map like "Beware of trap" and "Try courage" always help.In this state, many players were by the NPC Laurentiusthat line"Don't you dare go Hollow" linetouched—No one wants to become a hollow by the roadside, and these encouragements from others, all transformed into narrative integrated into the game world, supporting players to overcome difficulties and move forward continuously.
This help has almost become the beginning for many players to relearn accepting kindness from the outside world. Dark Souls created a dark and unfriendly world with no sympathy for the struggles of ordinary people, while simultaneously providing mechanisms that encourage people to help each other and face challenges together.
"When I summoned a Brother of Sun to help me fight a certain boss, I felt greatly encouraged. In that moment, we united; I was no longer alone in my desolate world. We tackled this terrible task together and won. Ultimately, I realized I could ask for help in the real world too, so I started doing that. It's not that the game cured my depression, but it gave me the courage to face it."
Throughout gaming history, there have been many inspiring works. But few, like Dark Souls, break through to players purely through gameplay rather than narrative. In a world destined to fade, players still spontaneously create meaning for themselves. Some say this is one of the best examples of 21st-century existentialist philosophy. The game's unique atmosphere is like the bonfire in the game: dark and lonely, but as soon as you approach, you feel warmth.
Unfortunately, inheriting this"Fire" games are too few.
References:
1. Demon's Souls is a work centered around"Death" and "Mutual Aid": CEDEC 2009 Hidetaka Miyazaki Interview
2. Interview with Ryoko Kui, author of Delicious in Dungeon:4Gamer.net
3. A player equipped with a jar head is helping another player defeat Malenia:Kotaku
4. Designing Journey: Jenova Chen's GDC Speech in 2013
5. Revisiting"Sticks and Ropes": 2016 Hideo Kojima IGN Interview
6. Criminologists want to study this game too: Youyan She
7. It's just a game—Until It Wasn't: James "Pigeon" Fielder's TED Talk
8. A group of adults crying over pieces of paper at a table: James"Dove" Field's public lecture at Georgetown
9. I interviewed one of the few game political scientists in the world, who taught me how not to get killed:PCGamer
10. The Strength of Weak Ties:American Journal of Sociology1973, by Granovetter
11. "Don’t You Dare Go Hollow": How Dark Souls Helps Players Cope with Depression—A Thematic Analysis of Reddit Discussions: by Jaakko Väkevä, Perttu Hämäläinen, Janne Lindqvist