Messages
From Wikidsouls
Messages are the game’s ingenious built-in strategy system, allowing for others to leave tips, hints, and warnings for other players, perhaps preventing them from making a rather poor decision or entering an area they are ill-prepared for (because the game most certainly won’t try and help you). Within a few moments of starting a game, players are sure to notice messages scattered across the ground.
The notion of “shared learning” is huge in Demon’s Souls. For one, the game doesn’t care to hold the player’s hand one bit, and there are plenty of threats that won’t be discovered until it is too late. Because of this, the ability for players to pass on their lessons from their game to players in other games is crucial. The community is able to know more about the game, to better master the game, through indirect cooperation.
Moreover, should players find a message particularly useful, they are able to upvote them, which will accomplish two things: a) other players will be able to see that a number of people found the message useful, and may be more likely to heed the wisdom within, and b) the player that generated the message will receive health points in their game, something most players of Demon’s Souls will always have need for.
Players cannot leave any text as a message. The game uses a contextual template system, giving you phrases to choose from. Some have blanks, and upon being selected will then prompt you to fill in the blank as well from a list of relevant choices. For example, you might want to say “you must be **** soul level to proceed,” and upon selecting this choice another menu will open giving you a selection of soul levels in multiples of 10. This flexible system minimizes spam and unproductive messages while still offering a lot of variety to what can be communicated.
With as many secrets, traps, surprises, and unpredictable challenges as there are in the Kingdom of Boletaria, most will find the ability to teach and learn from other players vital to progress and fun.
