Is the online of DkS still worth paying for?

Hello,I recently 'pirated' DkS for the PC and I enjoyed the game so much that I am planning on buying the game and starting fresh.However,since it's multiplayer requires a fee (Games for Windows).I just want to know if the online community is stil active or has gotten small and won't provide a newcomer with an experience worth the fee,be it PvP or PvE.
Thanks for the replies and GLHF!!!!

I honestly can't speak for the PC so i'm probably not of much help to you. But, i would like to point out that the online of Dks enhances the experience rapidly, and from what i've heard the amount of people playing pc online should be pretty big. Consider the first point i made, wait for the second point to be confirmed though.

Edit: Oh, and welcome to the forums

I can't wait for the dlc because the pc version absolutely SUCKS for me. The online part, I mean. I'll go hours without being summoned, invaded, or being able to invade. Same thing with the Arena. The only thing that helps sometimes is when I reboot, then it generally works for one summon/invasion. When I say hours I mean hours. I've left my sign down for 6 hours before while I played offline on my Xbox without ever getting summoned.

Then some days I'll go on and get summoned half a dozen times before it shuts down on me. Go figure.

I think maybe I'm in the minority, so hopefully that isn't your experience if you decide to go for it. If you don't have the game on console it's worth the risk. Online DkS is so great.

Isn't Games for Windows - Live still free to play online on pc?

Yeah i thought gfwl was free as well. I didn't have to pay anything to go online.

I would say it's definitely worth it...Right now I'm placing my sign just after the Anor Londo elevator and I'm getting summoned nicely (sometimes I have to wait, but since I help the player from there to Ornstein and Smough included, I spend a lot of time coop-ing). You will see a bit more "summoning failed" than on the consoles, though. At least I was getting a lot of them until I port forwarded.

The worst thing about the online in PC is how little invasions there are, since there's a bug which causes the bonfire to not work and the fog gates to close as if someone is invading you, but nothing happens: apparently it's caused by people getting "invading failed" when they tried to invade you. I was invaded for the first time in Anor Londo, though I got the already mentioned bug in Undead Parish, the Depths and Blighttown Swamp. Anor Londo PvP is nice however, and so is Oolacile Township.

^This bug is present on consoles as well,I'm quite happy when the invasion fails though as I'm really bad at PvP.

Honestly,The online adds a lot of fun features,helping other players being my favorite.
Plus you have more and more mods.
I guess if you have a decent connection,the online worth the bucks.

hello

gfwl is free, so u have to pay for the game only. once u play online the game's registration key is kinda linked to your gfwl gamer tag, and nobody may be able to register the same game for playing online later on. consider that if u plan to maybe sell the game later. dks online is just amazing, i own the game for console, tried the pirated pc version, and ended up buying this version too.

but i also think that the technical aspect of the pc version can be improved. funny thing is that i have way more success in invading than summoning. i can't remember get that many summoning failed on console. community seems to be still quite active, but it somehow depends on what/how u play. but this may change once the dlc for console comes out....

I just got a lot of summoning and pvp action in Anor Londo...it was probably the hour plus the fact that I had the game on since a lot of time (it makes you connect to more people, so you see more ghosts/signs/bloodstains/etc). I was killing the 4 Silver Knights near the bonfire (practicing parry and killing time) and I was getting constantly summoned, about 1 summon for each time I had to go to the bonfire to respawn the SKs.

Also, I second vatar, coop is the best...getting "thank you" messages from the people you cleared the area with is awesome.

Well,got the game today and am currently at O&S and I have been invaded twice and done a zone in co-op.So far it's been taking some time to get summoned.However,it's being much more enjoyable like this

I came the same path. Heard about the game in the Top 10 hardcore games (Demon Souls on consoles). Heard about a sequel - Dark Souls, and again - on consoles %) Ok. Then accidentally saw it coming on PC - downloaded a "cracked" version, played it, loved it. Then saw several YouTube vids about PVP - loved it even more, and bought it. No regret. Satisfaction guaranteed

the online component to co-op with randoms/buddies and to PvP to my heart's content is the only reason i've logged hundreds of hours! =]

definitely go for the online component its the most fun part of the game!

Okay, so during the short spans when getting summoned goes smoothly for me my host is in the US 90% of the time. The rest of the time, when summons are EXTREMELY rare my host's account says Russia about half the time, and other random Eastern Europe/Asia (no Japan though) locations the rest of the time. At least that's the case the last couple days, since I started paying attention to it.

Seems like on Xbox it's almost always US or South America or western Europe.

Wish I understood these things better.

I did the same thing... pirated, played for like 6-8 hours, pissed my pants over how awesome thing game is, and threw my credit card at steam so fast that... well I don't know, but it was fast I assure you!

The patches are awesome, defintely way better than the pirated version I played. Worth every single penny (and at $40, how can you go wrong?).

On a personal note however... I didn't like the online part of the game. Greifers killing you when you are like 30 mins into the game, all the spoiler notes left on the ground... it kinda ruined the game for me. Plus the pvp I have done is choppy as hell, one second they're infront of you, then they just happen to teleport behind you and backstab.

Still worth every penny, as you can play offline. Just make sure you have a gamepad!

This is coming for a noob though, ive only done like 4 pvp battles (as ive avoided them like the plauge), so don't weigh my opinion too heavily, could just be those few instances were choppy pvp.

Still worth every penny, as you can play offline. Just make sure you have a gamepad!

I play with mouse and keyboard just fine, using a mod called Mouse Fix. Also the lag is not inherent to the online, it has to do with from where the other player comes from...if you play with someone from a country near to yours, it will be great, but if the other comes from too far away, you will experience lag.

Don't bother 'bout the lag - it is unpleasant, you can't do anything but accept it, and - the coolest part - the person you're fighting is lagging too! So just have fun

If you already have it on console , I wouldn't bother getting it on pc , not worth the investment. It's a really bad port. Best trade I've ever done was trading it with a mate for GW2.

Since it is 1 week before we have PTDE release on consoles - this question just gets old. Just hope From includes the new content + fixes of the new bugs.