Gameplay Journal Entry #6

For this weeks journal I will be exploring that wacky world of Dark Souls 2’s character creation glitches. Dark Souls 2 is my favorite Souls game in the series mostly due to the amount of freedom it gives to the player to do things. Some argue that this makes the game more easy but I think it makes the game more fun but I rest. I wanted to explore the face customization options for this glitch journal because Dark Souls 2 allows the player to heavily customize the face options to the point where when the player puts helmets on, it distorts the textures of the helmet to mold around the distorted face. I first discovered this glitch among the first times I started playing Dark Souls 2 and I went crazy with the face options. Once I started playing the game I started to notice that certain helmets where not looking the same on my character then they did on my previous ones. After closely inspecting my head with various helmets on, I realized that the sheer depth of my cheek bones caused helmets to sink into my face and sometimes cause the textures to glitch out, creating spikes that grow from my cheeks. My initial reaction to finding this glitch was immense laughter and a newfound search for the prefect helmet that would look the goofiest on my character.

This “Glitch” isn't necessarily a error in code or corruption of data within the game but a feature within the game that is exploited. According to Pedro Ferreira and Luísa Ribas, “This trivialization of glitch effects as mere appearance neutralizes the role of glitch in bringing to the surface and interface level the constraints and limitations of the experience of digital media” (Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art, 5). From what I have been reading in this class about glitches, It seems that glitches can be just about anything within a game; its just that they have to break the immersion of the player.

Here is a video showing off the ways you can transform the players faces within the game. It doesn't show off the ways helmets affect the the faces but trust me it does.