One thousand and two hundred hours, eight months, and innumerable vape hits after Dark Souls 3 streamer Suzie first attempted a no-hit run of the infamously difficult game, she lit her final bonfire last week. Suzie says she’s the first woman to record herself playing through Dark Souls 3 without getting hit. She pulled off the feat to demonstrate that women shouldn’t be afraid to try for over-the-top accomplishments in games.
“I wanted to prove that we are just as good, even though the majority of people who do the runs and who are invested in the Dark Souls games are guys,” Suzie said over Discord voice last Friday. “That doesn’t mean girls aren’t as good, you know?”
It’s difficult to prove that Suzie, 28, is in fact the first woman to do a no-hit run of Dark Souls 3. In our research, Kotaku hasn’t been able to find another. Regardless of if she’s actually the first, any no-hit run of the brutally hard game is impressive, something that only the top tier of players can aspire to.
Suzie, who lives in Norway, has slowly and assiduously become phenomenal at Dark Souls 3 while attempting to complete the game without getting hit by an enemy, a quest she’s been on since October 2017.
Over time, more viewers turned into her stream. Sometimes, she said, they’d try to backseat-drive her run, which she attributed to her gender. She’s gotten good at shutting them down. “I guess it’s just a norm, which I think is kind of sad, but also kind of inspires you to change it,” she said. Her successful three and a half-hour run is full of clean fights, deft dodging, and a lot of workarounds.
Sometimes, she’ll take fall damage to boost her damage output, a buff from an item she carries.
Watching her finish the run is emotional. Suzie begins crying and shaking from joy:
On Twitch, the last leg of Suzie’s run went minorly viral. The 265,000-strong LivestreamFail subreddit was joyous. A clip garnered over a thousand comments, mostly effusive ones. She says she earned over 2000 new followers in 24 hours. Megastreamer Sodapoppin even watched her completion clip with hundreds of his viewers.
“That was cool,” he said on stream. “She started crying and stuff. I was like, ‘Go her, dude, she owns.’”
“I honestly don’t mind if they get that amazed by it, because that shows that we really, really need to change that line of thought,” Suzie says of the reaction to her victory. Ideally, it wouldn’t be so impressive that a woman completed a no-hit Dark Souls run, because it would be commonplace. “This is obviously the place to start.”
“I want to tell [women] to do their very best to stop the stereotypical ‘girls aren’t good at games’ thing and really show them that we are,” Suzie said.
“That’s actually the case. I just really want them to understand they can be, and don’t ever be afraid to try. You don’t become good at something overnight. You have to really work for it.”
Comments
52 responses to “Dark Souls Streamer Did A No-Hit Run To Inspire Other Women”
What’s stopping them?
A toxic misogynistic culture directed at every female gamer ever?
Dunno, seems to crop up a lot. Might be something to it…
a toxic and very vocal minority who’ll use their gender as a focal point to bring them down every chance they get?
How would a woman use her gender to bring down a streamer?
a toxic and very vocal minority [trolls] who’ll use their [the streamer] gender as a focal point to bring them [the streamer] down every chance they [the trolls] get?
Okay, what’s stopping them from doing it and blocking chat?
Are you really so ignorant that you need people to explain to you about the value of positive role models or the fact that male role models are omnipresent while popular female role models (in gaming) are few and far between?
Are you really so retarded you don’t get that they can do it and be a role model, but block chat to avoid toxic dickheads? hurr durr
If blocking was all it took to stop toxicity, twitch would be toxic free.
Poor little guy, you honestly thought you’d stumbled on some kind of new way of thinking.
@thefong – I’m not familiar with how blocking/ignoring works on streaming services like Twitch, but to a degree, you are right, users of streaming services can choose to block/ignore their audience.
The problem though, is that people shouldn’t be trolling the way they do to begin with. People act like massive jerks on the Internet, because acting like a dickhead to someone over a text-based service, is so much easier (and for some reason, more impulsive) than acting like a dickhead to someone’s face.
See “John Gabriel’s Greater Internet F***wad Theory” – https://www.penny-arcade.com/S=0/comic/2004/03/19
People are calling these trolls “toxic” because they’re spewing some serious misogynistic abuse (and I dare say, hatred) primarily towards female streamers, not because they’re bad at the game they’re playing while on stream, but because they’re female. That’s it. That’s seriously pretty shitty of them and is honestly unacceptable behaviour.
Yes, blocking can work, but the point is, people shouldn’t have to be using the block feature to begin with, because it’s honestly not hard to NOT be a trolling douche bag. It takes a bit of maturity, common sense and empathy which unfortunately, a huge amount of the Internet’s population apparently lacks.
The problem with that approach is you have to cop the abuse to know who to block. No streamer should have to put up with any toxic abuse, and when the trolls abuse you for your gender, race or creed it can cut a lot deeper than telling you to Git Gud
Shhhhhh he doesn’t know how streaming works. He might call you a retard.
Doesn’t matter if he calls you a retard though. Just block him.
The patriarchy, obviously. And Harvey Weinstein. Aliens too, man.
A great feat regardless of gender. I
In my experience playing Coop games with guys and girls there was really no difference in skill, both died in stupid ways or pulled of a clutch victory, and they either got shit or praise.
I’m not even good enough to even begin to think about attempting this. Great achievement in a brutal game. We need to stop stereotyping female gamers. We’re all gamers, regardless of our gender. Let’s just celebrate the good things and let go of the negative sterotypes!
Don’t be afraid to accomplish things in video games.
Live your dreams!
Be in the now!
Make your dreams, your reality.
Get all the achievements.
You can do it!
Or you can, you know, play games for fun, love them, but actually live your life and achieve real things that are actually meaningful and make your life better, as opposed to getting likes and views.
INFIDEL!!!!
Hahaha. I know! It’s cos I started gaming in the 90s. I don’t understand youtube and streaming. It’s after my time. AND I DON’T WANT TO CHANGE!!!
Haha me too brother 🙂
Or you can, you know, do the things you enjoy and challenge yourself in ways that are meaningful to you and not live your life a specific way because other people say you should.
I know! It’s like I knew I would never be able to get an extreme perfect on The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku, but I made my own goals. I managed an extreme great and that made me feel proud 🙂
Still got all shaky and emotional when I extreme perfected Rolling Girl though. That song is the best!
Its Dark Souls. You can be female, male, or a mutant cow if you stream any of those games people will back seat.
It gets really tiring seeing this I am woman hear me roar rhetoric in gaming culture. Chicks play video games we know, there are female players who are insanely good gamer’s this is obvious fact. The only people that really talk shit about females playing games are young kids and really bad trolls yet these women continue to fight the good fight of the “girl gamer”
Here’s a thought stop attributing every negative thing that comes your way to your gender and just call yourself a gamer. It sucks you enjoy something that is predominantly engaged in by young teenage boys who act like dicks when they have anonymity but that’s never going to change, teenage boys are teenage boys and a lot of them are socially retarded.
The mute button exists for a reason use it. If your a streamer that says your chat is toxic because you’re a girl that’s on you, ban them. Don’t acknowledge what they say don’t bring attention to it just, hit the ban button.
What it means to be a gamer is culturally defined primarily in a masculine light. If it doesn’t appear that way it’s probably because you’re male and so ingrained in the culture it appears to be “normal”.
What you’re asking of “gamer girls” is to conform, when what they’re actually doing is defining their own cultural identity. This cultural subset of “gamer girls” needs space to define itself and thrive before it becomes a part of mainstream “gamer” culture.
So let them have the space to appeal to their peers, to create a sub-culture that feels comfortable and safe to them.
Multiplayer games are absolutely full of kids and trolls. I’d understand if she was trying to be competitive in something like that. Dark Souls though is singleplayer. your only critics the chat. if you’re trying something as intense as this then most of the time you probably won’t be paying attention to the chat.
End of the day, this is a great achievement. I certainly couldn’t do it. Gender shouldn’t really come into serious conversation though. no one legitmately derides women as gamers. they just think they’re funny.
It’s really easy to say this when you have no idea how much crap women cop everytime they log into a game.
You might be sick of hearing about it but the toxicity in gaming has gone on for far too long and this is the only way it can be changed.
Sorry that you’re sick of hearing about it though. You could do something to help though, instead of complaining about it.
I know women have a ton of crap thrown their way in the gaming community because I actually do play with women and they tell me about it all the time. You know what else they always do seeing as they adults and don’t really want to bother themselves with the nonsense? They report the idiots and block and mute them.
You know who else does that? Me and every other dude I play games with.
Here’s the thing, I agree its crap how people act online. Women do cop a lot more than their fair share. Unfortunately woman are the minority in most lobbies and to a lesser degree as streamers and content producers.
The thing about being a minority is when the majority consists of idiot kids and immature early 20’s they will gang up on the minority and say mean things. Believe it or not in some regards I’m a minority too. I’m in my mid 30’s and you should hear the barrage of garbage I hear if I flick on the mic and say something ESPECIALLY if I’m dominating in that particular lobby.
For a lot of gamer’s trash talk is a big part of playing. The only way to combat that is the mute button and to not give it any attention.
I used to think like you do. I’m 38 btw. I would wonder why they didn’t just mute the bad ones.
But then I realised. It’s because they shouldn’t have to. They want to change gamer culture for the better, so that people aren’t disrespected just for not being an awful person who happens to be male. Male toxicity is a real problem. The guys saying these things on the internet, are also the guys talking to women at nightclubs. And that’s a real problem. Attitudes need to change.
And what you’re doing, by saying these women are the stupid ones for not blocking and muting, and trying to do something to change it, is victim shaming and it’s also part of the problem.
Attitudes like yours make me sad. Because you don’t even know how much a part of a problem you are but you’re convinced that you’re right. You’re actively resisting people’s attempts to change things for the better. And it would be so easy for you to help, just by being cool and supportive.
I used to be just like you. But I woke up. You can too. If you want to.
Please don’t put words in my mouth, at no stage did I call anyone stupid. Don’t infer something into what you want to believe is being said.
Male toxicity is not a problem, the problem is that some people are arseholes male AND female alike. That’s life welcome to it.
Let me try a different explanation.
I agree 100% there is an attitude problem amongst immature gamer’s. Its a mob mentality as I said earlier there are far less female gamer’s then there are male that are willing to speak in lobbies, stream, make YouTube videos etc which sadly makes for an easy target and that’s where the issue lies, I would be very surprised if a female gets any more abuse whilst gaming and speaking to other randoms than say a person with a strong Indian accent would while playing in an American or even Australian region ( I’ve witnessed this several times first hand). It’s disgusting and yeah something needs to change I’m not arguing that.
My whole point has been the way that these women gamer’s turn everything into a gender thing, you’re not a victim because you make yourself a victim which is whats happened in this case. Instead of being stoked she pulled off something that most people wouldn’t even bother to attempt and just saying “hey look I did it” as a gamer she chose to say hey look I did it and I’m a girl gamer or people are back seating because I’m a girl. It’s nonsensical.
She made it about being a woman, mot the game, not the people watching, not even the act of succeeding. She did.
Very rarely are things changed by words, you change them by actions in this the action of muting, reporting and banning are immediate actions that stop every single one of these people from doing what it is that’s wrong.
Its no accident that the bigger female streamers that are legitimately there as a result of their skill/personality/interaction tend to not have such a huge contingent of jerks in their chat some show up but they are dealt with swiftly and quietly and the stream moves on just like any other stream.
It’s one thing to claim you’re segregated unfairly from a group its another when you segregate yourself by referring to and about yourself by using terms that make you separate.
Oh wow. Just wow.
Male toxicity is not a problem? Ever seen road rage mate? Ever gone out at night? Ever tried opening your eyes?
Nup. You just want to believe what you want to believe. “That’s life welcome to it”. Wow. Really in depth appraisal there.
I’m sure it annoys you when people call out racism too. Why can’t they just ignore it and go away? You’re a white male and you’ve never experienced racism, what are all these people on about?
Yes some women are awful but awful men outnumber them by at least 1000:1. Look at any statistics for violent crime. just for an example. Ever gone to a nightclub and been groped and made to feel uncomfortable the entire time? But that’s the way it’s always been right? And you’re fine with that. Why don’t they just ignore those guys and go somewhere else?
You should probably, honestly, try to work out why this makes you so uncomfortable that you can’t disagree quietly. You could take your own advice and just mute/ignore/move on, but here you are wasting a lot of time writing long replies about something according to you, will never change anyway. Why is that? Why do you fight so hard to change our minds, when you can just ignore all this?
#heforshe
It’s only through changing attitudes in men and passing these down to future generations that true equality will occur.
All men? now youre generalizing a whole gender based on the actions of a few.
change the attitude of assholes, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality.
Sorry, I meant changing attitudes of men who have the attitudes which need changing. Not all men, but certainly male attitudes. Words are hard today!
Hey look an actual intelligent comment!
positive articles about women as some sort of attack on your gender and man up.
Did you hurt your back reaching for that one?
Never said anything in regards to positive articles about women.
My entire point was being a woman shouldn’t be constantly leaned on as the sole reason for turds acting like turds online.
“Sometimes, she said, they’d try to backseat-drive her run, which she attributed to her gender.”
Go watch any Dark Souls stream or stream of any game that lends itself to multiple play styles regardless of gender the back seating will be there.
I know you didn’t but you felt the need to knock on women for waving the female flag. It’s a situation of sending a positive message to girls and women (and men). The power of people just seeing awesome women in games overshadows your minor issues of semantics.
Whats the message?
I dont think youd get a good wrap if you waved the male flag when steaming. double standards hey?
“man up” that sexist, no its not an attack on men gender its an attack on woman gender, becuase shit like this make them look like weak snowflakes, this type of shit doesnt help any one.
Not calling women “chicks” might give you a little more credibility..
Never used that term yourself then? Never called a male dude or guy?
It’s funny when people want to add their two cents but cant actually add anything of substance they usually find the tiniest most benign thing to pick at. I’m all for discussing this and having a conversation about what some people may take from my statement as being in bad taste but contribute intelligently don’t look to attack something that’s not even a thing.
Its Public transport. You can be black, white, or a mutant cow if you ride any of those trains and people will give up their seat.
It gets really tiring seeing this I am black hear me roar rhetoric in culture. Blacks catch trains, games we know, there are black commuters who hold 30 passes. The only people that really talk shit about black people playing games are racists and really bad people yet these black people continue to fight the good fight of equal rights.
Here’s a thought stop attributing every negative thing that comes your way to your skin colour and just call yourself a commuter. It sucks you commute on a route that is predominantly engaged in by caucasians who act like dicks when they have no one steps in but that’s never going to change, racists are racists and a lot of them are socially retarded.
Just move to another seat. If your a commuter that says another passenger is toxic because you’re black that’s on you, catch another bus. Don’t acknowledge what they say don’t bring attention to it just, block your ears.
A bit of perspective.
If you find self-affirming women tiring because in your eyes they don’t need such reassurance, then know that it is not for you that they are doing it. It is for all the other people who actually care about gender (or race or other traits entirely unrelated to one’s capability to play games) and who give them hell for it. Present your complaints at their doors, not at those women’s. Once toxic sexist trolls have gone or at least, diminished to a tinny, easily filtered noise, women will be able to stop feeling the need to be in arms about it.
I feel there are probably lots of women who have achieved similarly difficult things in games or are skilled enough to attempt it.
Since we don’t hear much about it, I guess articles like this act as good positive reinforcement for either a) more articles about awesome female gamers or b) female gamers attempting these feats…Either way, awesome run!
One day we might celebrate great achievements like this and not have to point out that it’s a girl as its completely irrelevant. Today is not that day
As much as I would like to see that day myself, celebrating the achievement and not talking about the gender tends to illicit the same attitude from many anyway.
Wow didn’t take long for this to devolve into MRA-Esque fuckwittery.
Doing a no hit run is an incredible effort. After spending about 1000 hours in this game I could not conceive of being able to do this. Well done!
Holy shit! That was awesome!
It’s 2018. Gamers are gamers. Be they man, woman or some form of primordial space creature. Seriously time for trolly little boys to grow the fuck up.
Amen
There are likely women that have done no hit runs, and all sorts of challenges, but they don’t feel the need to broadcast themselves doing so. If there was an achievement tied to it, doing research to try and contact everyone that had gotten it and ask them ‘So, are you a girl?’ might have some validity, but until then you’re working on an unfounded assumption that its not been done before simply because people may have chosen not to publicize it.
That said, brilliant going for the gamer. I hope that it does give gals (and guys) inspiration to try something ludicrously challenging so that they can say ‘I did it!’ I know I’d never be interested enough in the Souls games to do it myself.
My old thing was fighting game arcade modes on the hardest difficulty without continuing. No video or anything, but it was a sweet taste unlocking all the game extras on the JP Saturn version of KoF96 you could only get from doing every team, both regular and secret, that way.
I don’t know the full story because I can only go by what’s in the article but from the language used it doesn’t really feel like there’s any specific gender issue here. Suzie says she did it to be the first woman to do it and show that women shouldn’t be afraid to try for over-the-top achievements in games but is that really a problem? Have females said they feel like they can’t achieve grandiose feats in games? Are they trying but give up because of sexist comments?
Suzie also says that guys are the majority gender of those who try these runs but again, I haven’t particularly heard of females being super interested in doing challenge runs but shying away from it because of toxicity in the community. There’s also the comment about attributing the back-seating to her gender but anyone that’s been on Twitch would know that back-seating occurs frequently in any channel.
Finally at the end we are told that it shouldn’t be amazing a female completes a no-hit run but the fact that it’s amazing is because it’s a challenging feat, not because of her gender. Like I said, I don’t know what we aren’t told in the article but this whole story seems to create a gender issue where there doesn’t seem to be one. I know there are gender issues, any time a female is on stream chat turns into a cesspool of derision and sexism but there’s nothing here saying it’s the reason females aren’t posting their challenge runs, especially one as grueling and specific as this. It’s a general issue no matter what gaming activity is occurring.
Just trying to get through those games without dying is a feat in itself. Damn impressive.