Good article Patrick, but comparing the difficulty/mastery of games like Spelunky to the Souls games is just not valid. Spelunky is a game that you game that you can play for 15-30 minutes everyday, getting better and better with time, until you become a master of it. Dark Souls requires much more than just daily dedication. It is MUCH more complex in terms of mechanics and progression, and will probably require (as you stated) the use of FAQs or streams to help you along. This is much more extra time/work than the average person has/wants to spend on a game. Especially one who's big pay off is "hey, you're one of the few who did it!".
Meatboy and Spelunky are difficult games that you can pick up, play for a half hour, and have fun for that half hour while steadily improving at the game. The end game is not important or essential to the experience; you can have hours and hours of fun with these games without ever doing a Hell Run or making it to the final stages. Just playing and getting better is a good experience.
Dark Souls is fundamentally different. It requires much greater dedication and extra curricular work. You can pigeonhole yourself into a corner stats-wise, get lost for long periods, or miss whole sections if your just playing and aren't completely devoted. I'm a fan of the Souls games, but don't try to paint them as "overstated" or compare them to other games based on difficulty/learning curve. Dark Souls is a completely different animal to the average gamer. Don't forget that you are a serious hobbyist and someone who plays games for a living, and your experience will always reflect this.
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