Is this just an issue on my end? Is it an issue with steam? GFWL? Or what?

I have so many issues trying to summon or be summoned. And I can never invade anyone. And I start to get invaded all the time (fog gates go up, bonfires don't work, etc) but they fail 90% of the time. I can stand in Arno Londo in human form for an hour and never get invaded. But I can tell people are trying.

It just seems super broken. And I am not sure where exactly the break down is. I don't have the best connection. But I don't have these issues with the game on PS3. And I don't know anyone else that has it on PC. I am assuming its a GFWL issue, because GFWL.

Google would've told you that it's an incredibly pervasive issue for anyone playing on PC. My summons/invasions failed:succeeded ratio is probably something like 3:1 - 5:1.

If you're trying to summon friends you could get DSCfix, but other than that there's not much you can do, other than wait and see what happens to the game's online once GFWL unplugs.

Yeah, that sounds like my experience with the IBM compatible version of Dark Souls. GFWL has trouble establishing connections to other players. I found that quitting back to the menu and reloading your character helps sometimes.

It is super broken (comparatively to Demon's Souls). Been that way since launch. PS3 and Xbox are a tad better. Best advice I could give if your trying to summon/be summoned would be to spam your sign every 30 seconds. It also depends on what area your trying to summon. The forest can be just about impossible. As for the PC open these ports on your router, this has worked pretty well for me. Good luck.

I think I am just done with the PC version. It sucks. Too many people playing with "hacked" characters. Too many network issues. GFWL is going away, and probably going to get the game desisted from steam anyways so there will be no MP aspects. I'll stick with the PS3 version for the next month I guess. Until the second comes out. I need to get used to the old DS3 again anyways.

@sterling:

Huh? Everything I've heard points to it almost certainly being put on steamworks.

@belegorm: No one knows for sure. Its all speculation right now. But I doubt From does anything to patch in Steamworks.

I don't believe it either. They didn't patch in any of the other features people complained about, like HD, other aspect ratios and stereo, so why should I have faith in this?

I rarely try to play with others anymore. It sucks.

yeah, every now and then I jump from PC to PS3 and it's like night and day the differences in summoning and invasions. The amount of summoning failures is ridiculous, but yeah, the network settings need to be fixed up through DSfix.

after beating the game like 3 times (melee, archer, wizard) i just wanted to bum around and help people boss, i tried for days laying my summon signs everywhere, and it just kept failing :[
i have dsfix, whatever though i NEEDED to move on
goodluk to you though, praise the sun.

@gazel_ministry said:

It is super broken (comparatively to Demon's Souls). Been that way since launch. PS3 and Xbox are a tad better. Best advice I could give if your trying to summon/be summoned would be to spam your sign every 30 seconds. It also depends on what area your trying to summon. The forest can be just about impossible. As for the PC open these ports on your router, this has worked pretty well for me. Good luck.

I haven't played the PC version, so I don't know how bad it is, but I'm not sure what you mean by console versions being 'a tad' better. From what I understand from OP they seem lightyears better. I haven't encountered any problems on my 360. In fact, I enjoy helping other people and while I wait to be summoned I usually spend some time on forums. While typing this message I've been summoned 3 times to fight Gaping Dragon. I admit, I feel like I'm getting lucky right now, but still. It works pretty well for me.

My experience with PC multiplayer usually sucks, but I've been getting successfully summoned a lot recently. It mainly depends on where the other people in your connection pool are and how good their connection to you is. Hopefully the new matching system in Dark Souls 2 will be more reliable...