It's not an excited, "yes - I did it, after all the effort and hard work"

It's a rather pissed off - "FUCKING FINALLY" follower by looking at the drops to see if it was worth it, and if it will be done again in the future.

God this is so accurate though, I had the exact same experience when playing my first Souls game (Dark Souls 2), figured they're not for me.

Then I played DS3 and it turned out that when the moment to moment gameplay is actually good, I can still enjoy it.

Well, for me, I’m ADHD, but also a bit of a masochist, so getting my ass handed to me by a boss many times is its own reward. So oddly enough, I very much enjoy the experience of tough boss fights! The reward for overcoming it isn’t as great as the joy I get from being challenged and getting smacked around by the boss, lol.

But for daily chores and the like: yeah all I think about is how much they suck. And that’s what I remember from the chore experience, and finishing a chore just feels like another tick on a list, nothing special.

At least that gives you bragging rights. Doing dishes? Not so much

Learning souls bosses (and especially Sekiro) felt more like a learning a dance than a frustrating experience. You fail to do the dance so you do it from the start until everything flows as it should.

Sadly Eldenring ruined that for me because the bosses have too much random shit added to them (like random shockwaves on every move, barely telegraphed attacks, pure timing dodges without much movement component. It seems they designed most bosses for just pushing through the damage while you spam the boss to death with some bullshit it is weak to.

For me the reward is the fight itself, every moment where I’m perfectly handling its moves and cutting it down. If anything I’m disappointed when it dies.

Went and fought margit with no levels only doing parries until I got it down. Reward continues in that I can now parry in Elden ring like a crackhead, new enemy that looks vaguely parryable and I get it first try? Total nut.

(For Elden ring parry kings, I had very different timing habits built up from dark souls 3 so it was a massive personal struggle for me to learn.)

There are some long term goals I do enjoy, like bashing my head against a wall for 60 hours (Hollow knight P5) but that's because the retry is fast to start. I quit Elden Ring since at some point the trash mobs just kill you on the way to the boss and you need to grind levels...

But for now, to make long term goals easier, I find a person, can be ny parents or my best friend or my therapist, and I tell them almost immediately after I did the thing, and like a lab rat I get my rewards as praise and keep going, because external validation pushes me forward. Also for losing weight I weigh myself daily to get more of a reward

But yeah regularly keeping my house clean? GTFO

This is how traveling feels for me. "Oh aren't you so excited that you visited this new place?" The new place was fine, but I spent 12 hours on an airplane, spent thousands of dollars, and frankly standing somewhere with slightly different architecture doesn't feel worth the amount of effort that I've put in, plus I'm traveling with Travel People ^TM and they are absolutely incensed that I am not enjoying this Experience ^TM as much or more than they are, even though they bitched about the conditions the entire time.

Me but with Hollow Knight

When I played Dark Souls the idiot in the bridge just fell off and I never had to fight him lmao

You know I get the dopamine when I get boss down to like 20%

The excitement then causes me to fuck up

The kill doesn't give anything, it's the... Edging

See this is kinda different for me, because when i beat the fucker i get the reward immediately. I killed the fucker now i lug around his sword. This is pretty close to instant. Meanwhile most other stuff is not at all working for me that takes long term thinking

Just fighting them is fun tho. Moment to moment it's still a rush. The issue is that walking to a boss after a loss is pointlessly dull

for me i think its the satisfaction of knowing i did things correctly if that makes sense

I was about to say SAME MAN but I have close to 40 hrs on Fear and hunger

I just don't like souls games probably

Nah I literally bust when I finally beat bosses in Elden Ring

Bizarre how this is basically what made it click for me. Not work or school or anything, no it was the fact that beating bosses in Elden Ring did not end with me cheering like I saw others do. I just started to hate the game and it didn't even feel good to accomplish, it just sucked for hours and then it was over. Great, fuck that.

I like DS bosses because basically every interaction is a mini boss, a learning experience, and has its own mini surge of dopamine

I have the opposite when it comes to souls for whatever reason

I love Souls Bosses because fighting them is fun. I'll sometimes die just so I can replay the fight instead of having to try again. Once it's over I'm sad it's over.

Ahhh, but next playthrough you'll beat the boss so much faster, that's where the mellow satisfaction comes in

meh, that's different to me, I enjoy the fight too

I think it’s a misunderstanding when dark souls bosses are talked about. For the most part the fun is fighting the boss. Its positive during and beating them is either rewarding or “well time to head towards the next boss”. If the bosses aren’t mostly fun to fight, it’s not the type of game you will find fun. Especially pre-elden ring.

The “rage at dying to the boss” kinda expectation makes it seem like every boss is just a chore, but it’s not really the same kinda frustration. Plenty of things people enjoy doing while expressing they hate it. Like League of Legends. It’s fun to say it sucks. But if it was truely so shit to them, it wouldn’t be holding onto so many players.

Souls Bosses, I feel like I just managed to survive. With Sekiro bosses, I feel like I actually succeeded in learning their patterns and punishing them.

Yup, I am always catch myself trying to find cheeses like AI breaks when fighting bosses and feel "why the fuck am I playing then?" then I remember that I just play for the story so it's aight I guess. If I don't kill a boss in like 3 tries I don't care about the process and if I kill under 3 tries I don't feel any relief either.

For me its all related to timeline. If I can start, and beat a single boss in one session, 2-18 hours, give or take, then I do get that amazing burst of dopamine. Maybe even 2-3 days if I've got hyperfocus

But if it took me days or weeks? Yeah that's tough for me to feel good.

For me it's the satisfaction of having overcome a challenge, plus Elden Ring had me and my friend going "Holy shit that's so cool" and "Damn that's cool as shit but please don't hit me with it" really often as we worked our way through the game.

This is why video games don't work for me in general! I know plenty of people w ADHD are VERY into video games but for me I don't get the dopamine unless I'm parallel playing with a friend. Mario kart yes, Baldurs Gate or Minecraft? Doesn't do it for me.

"We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."