Dark Souls II

Is it not simply a meme? People tend to latch onto opinions that are shouted at them by influential figures in their lives. On the internet, this happens when [notable_youtube_personality] says something about the game, especially before anyone else has a chance to get their hands on it and draw their own conclusions. It's not a meme when someone says "DaSII was disappointing" and then a well thought out argument that outlines why is presented. It is a meme when dipshits spew verbal diarrhea like "xD DANK SWOLES DOUBLE LE WURST SOULS GAEM". More often than not, you come across the latter than the former.

Eh, I don't know. I went into DaS2 having heard pretty much nothing but bad things, but figured it couldn't possibly be that bad. I played through Heide's Tower and thought it was fucking great, thought Forest of Giants was kinda generic but with some really cool bits, and thought the Lost Bastille was fucking incredible I still think the level design in that area rivals the Painted World in quality and tight design. The game made a fantastic first impression. Then the more I played the more i came to realize that even though some of the core mechanics of DaS were improved, the game just isn't nearly as well-coded (which is saying something since the first game wasn't a model of programming excellence itself), the level/enemy/boss/world design is mediocre compared to the first, there wasn't nearly as much thought put into anything, and the difficulty is cheap, poorly executed, and generally just shows that the design philosophy of the game is completely different from the first.

The Youtube personality thing is true, but in the case of Dark Souls 2 I don't really think it applies. I've seen a lot more Youtubers praise it without saying why it's good than I have ones who criticise it without saying why it's bad.

The only relevant example of a popular Youtuber criticising it and swaying public opinion that I can think of is that Matthewmatosis critique of it, but I see it cited as an explanation of why people don't like the game often simply because it really nicely sums up a lot of problems that the game has and there isn't really any need to repeat the points he raises. He mentions the swarms of very strong enemies placed thoughtlessly all over tight corridors, the immersion breaking level design, the terrible enemy/boss variety and just about every other issue it has that we've all heard about by now. The one extra thing I would put into a critque of Dark Souls 2 is the fact that those dog things in the Gutter have hitboxes that come out long before their attack animations start. The point where I noticed that is when I stopped trying to convince myself that I was enjoying the game, despite really wanting to like it.

There'll always be bandwagoners, but the reputation that Dark Souls 2 has isn't without foundation, which is kind of what calling criticism of it a meme implies. It has features that I do really like, such as its introduction of cloth physics on capes and stuff, dual wielding being made interesting and the introduction of lances. In every other regard, it just felt like such a step back from the rest of the series. Even in terms of graphics I still think that Demon's Souls looks better than Dark Souls 2 despite the latter being objectively superior in terms of technology in that regard, because Demon's Souls has a good, consistent art style whereas 2's is all over the place.

kill him.

Definitively, I can say that I enjoyed the game despite all its faults, though I've got to admit that learning to like this game wasn't easy, given all the problems it has. I think my opinion has changed since launch and I've given myself time to play through it more thoroughly. Even so, I can see why people were left with a sour taste in their mouths and have, as a result, been unable to enjoy this game as much as its predecessors.
You're right, DaSII has earned its reputation through all of the negative aspects that it possesses, and I will not argue that point. I agree. However, I just feel like we're talking about two different subsets of idiots here. On one side, you've got the uninformed, biased, or shortsided fools who take other people's well thought out analysis and boil it down to a few specific talking points that then get repeated ad nauseam, and often these talking points are not representative of the original point they were derived from. On the other hand, you've got equally blind or zealous outliers that wish to defend this game from any and all criticism directed at it, and will do so by trying to dismiss people's umbrage as nothing more than nitpicking and shallow talking points.

I find it interesting that people might think that saying something is a meme is a way to discredit the argument or message. I don't think that's necessarily true. A meme is just an idea that spreads that manages to resonate with people. I think it becomes a problem with people take popular and well received ideas with a sense of religious sanctimony and prevent themselves from thinking about it.

Yeah, I've seen people link that critique I mentioned before and start off sounding moderate about the extent to which they dislike the game, then progressively get more and more hyperbolic about how bad it is as people defend or sidestep the flaws that it's outlined. Dark Souls 2 just seems like one of those controversial cases where disagreement about how good/bad it is leads to more extreme opinions coming from both parties.

You're right about the meme thing. I've seen the word diluted by so many captioned pictures and jokes without punchlines that I just kind of assumed that it was being used as a catch-all term for 'thing I don't like,' sort of like 'toxic' or whatever other buzzword. My bad.