Social Media (in general) as a 2022 Influencer

Influencers are great – in fact, I’ve worked to build a brand outside of GamesReviews.com to attempt and achieve that to some extent. But I’m finding more and more that one single person isn’t generally convincing me of making a purchase. Instead, I’m finding the growing communities on Twitter – as toxic as it can be – as a driving force behind whether or not I play games. And Elden Ring is a great example of this.

Let’s break this down a bit – in full disclosure, I had the opportunity to play the Elden Ring demo a few months back and absolutely hated the experience. You can watch some of my triumphs – sarcasm – below!

But then the game launched, it got rave reviews, and …. well that didn’t mean a hill of beans to me that a ton of websites thought the game was a 10/10. Even our own Will Pennell thought it was magnificent, although not a perfect title.

And somehow, despite not being swayed by the reviews, not being swayed by a few big YouTube personalities, and not even being swayed by my own writer, Elden Ring is currently downloading on my PlayStation 5, and it looks like I’ll be enjoying (?) it this evening after my kids are in bed. So why the dramatic 180? Why am I going to dive into something I was pretty sure I thought was garbage? Friends and social media acquaintances get the gold star here.

Each and every day since Elden Ring has launched, I’ve been inundated with small video clips of horrific deaths, outstanding victories, and everything in between. I’ve seen vast expanses that are jaw dropping to look at, and so many unique things to uncover and explore. I’ve seen hilarious glitches, and combat skills rarely seen from the common player. And it all came together in my head and I uttered that one little phrase that is so deadly to the wallet – “Well that looks pretty cool.”

And it does look so, very cool. I often do use reviews as a benchmark for a game I’m on the fence about, but since this wasn’t one of them, it didn’t matter. But the experiences of my friends did, so I’m about to go on the ride of my life. At least I hope so…