A gaming journalist documents their experience launching Elden Ring in 2022 as their first FromSoftware title, only to realise years later that misconceptions and self-imposed psychological barriers fundamentally undermined their approach to the game. Over two hundred hours of play, various assumptions about difficulty and mechanics shaped their strategy ineffectively.

The piece examines how player expectations and internal hesitations created a suboptimal experience that remains incomplete. The narrative illustrates how mindset and preconceived notions about game design can substantially diminish engagement with complex interactive experiences, serving as a retrospective on the gap between playing a game and playing it well.