People have been waiting on Hollow Knight: Silksong for a long time, so long that it has become a meme. Every time Silksong fails to show at a specific showcase or The Game Awards or at your birthday party/therapy session, the fandom goes into meltdown. I always thought it was a big joke everyone was in on together, a bit of gallows humour to lighten the mood. But recently, things have gotten more serious. And when the fun stops, stop.
Silksong fans discovered this week that the cake is a lie (remember that?! Am I le epic funny, internet?). A chocolate cake profile picture was thought to be the start of an ARG, teasing Silksong’s reveal or release date, but this turned out to be untrue. Some fans have gotten angry at this fact. But the thing is, waiting for Silksong only works if you’re not really taking it seriously.
Sooner Or Later, Silksong Is Coming
None of us know how good Silksong will be, or if it will be good at all. You can guess you’ll like it based on liking Hollow Knight, but it seems to have grown into a game whose expectations are impossible to meet. Being a Silksong fan does not mean liking the game (no one can yet), but joining a community anticipating a game and feasting off nothing.
This can pull the community together. It can make the internet a fun place to be, which is a rarity. I’ve written in praise of the Elden Ring community for the same ‘laughing through the tears’ mindset, and suggested GTA 6 fans take a leaf out of their book – which seems to have happened with the wait for the next GTA trailer. But instead of Elden Ring, I could have easily written the same for Silksong.
When Silksong is finally revealed again, it will be a day of hard-earned celebration for fans. It’s probably a more exciting day even than release – when it exists in the world, there’s pressure for it to be good, and it won’t meet some fans’ standards. There will be complaints, discontent, the gnawing feeling that the wait wasn’t worth it. Some won’t even play it straight away, and the community will no longer be united. That next trailer, when they can ride together as one, is the real moment of togetherness for the fans.
Don’t Put Pressure On Silksong
There’s no need to overgeneralise here. Most fans are in it for the ride, and are just having fun. But as the cake ARG debacle seems to be actually upsetting people, it’s worth remembering what this is about. We are waiting for a commercial for a video game we might not even like. If you’re not enjoying it, why are you doing it? When this happened to Half-Life fans, it was seen as a big joke.
It’s important not to put too much pressure on Silksong. For the devs, that horse has already bolted, but for you personally, you can’t have this much riding on it. That’s why everyone has two folders – memes for when Silksong is revealed, and memes for when Silksong isn’t revealed. The waiting, the disappointment even, has to be part of the experience. If you just want the trailer and nothing else, why make waiting your online identity? Silksong is a watched pot that has failed to even simmer yet – that is supposed to make the eventual boiling more exciting, not a call for you to dip your finger in and whine that the soup is cold.
Silksong will get here when it gets here, and most fans understand that. It would have been extremely cool had the cake ARG panned out, and I would have enjoyed seeing where that rabbit hole led. But just because it has been blocked off is not meant to be a call for alarm. Every day is another day closer to Silksong. Hey, it could be worse. You could be a Bloodborne fan.
- Developer(s)
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Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
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Team Cherry