I've avoided meeting other people in Souls games. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II: across them all I beat all but one boss solo, and I always dreaded being invaded.

I was able to S-rank Dark Souls without too much trouble, quickly farming the covenant items, and cheesing my up the Forest Hunter ranks. But there are several covenant rewards that are incredibly hard to obtain in Dark Souls 3. People have farmed the Anor Londo Silver Knights for two hours without a single Proof of Concord Kept. I Bombcasted my way to thirty each of the Pale Tongues and Swordgrasses, but after working for Proofs and Vertebrae without any luck, I gritted my teeth and slotted my Mound Makers token.

I dropped my purple soapstone just past Sulyvahn's bonfire--if you've been there, you're probably nodding--and waited. Within twenty seconds I got the "you're being summoned as a mad spirit" message. I wasn't sure what to expect, besides a lot of deaths, and hopefully a few kills with their precious Vertebrae.

I was not expecting to pop up in a Fight Club. Three or four people, host, red phantoms, purple phantoms, stood on the ledge watching a makeshift colosseum, offering clapping emotes and throwing "Very good!" stones. Down below, two players feinted and dodged, throwing out 2-handed sweeps with a blazing Dark Sword or several quick thrusts with a bleed-infused Estoc. There were unspoken rules, but pliable ones; if someone drank Estus, then healing became canon. If one fighter drew a catalyst, then their opponent's pyromancy was fair game.

The rounds went quickly, and I died just as quickly. But I replaced my summon sign, and within a minute was again called into another world ruled by the Tyler Durden method. I spent the next hour fighting in the jury-rigged, bafflingly law-abiding duels. Occasionally a bystander would abruptly throw a chaos fireball across both fighters, or a greataxe would suddenly flatten someone whose back was turned, but even that was oddly acceptable in its manic, orgiastic mayhem.

I don't know if Dark Souls 1's PVP played out anything like this, since my only experience was with the one-sided and unintentional facet. But I do know that I'm going to stop writing now to go to my PC and play more DaS3 Fight Club.

Yup, people need to branch out of their games more, stuff like this can happen a lot if you give shit a chance.

This playlist is pretty much the end all be all when it comes to understanding Dark Souls pvp:

Another good place is High Wall of Lothric bonfire. Both of those places you will be summoned within seconds of putting your sign down.

You should try invasions too! You're right that they are one-sided most of the time but Souls are crazy games and amazing stuff happens even in 3v1's.

I love the Catacombs boulder

One of the very few times I was invaded was in there. I sat down on a ledge and waited, and about fifteen seconds later I heard the boulder roll, that telltale "swink," and picked up a few thousand souls. It had me chuckling for a bit.

@fredchuckdave: Watching that makes me want to play DS1 now.

The Dark Souls games have always had "Fight Clubs" where the community gravitated towards certain spots to PVP. DS1 had the forest, Anor Londo Bridge, Kiln of the First Flame, and the Oolacile Township bonfire. DS2 had the Iron Keep Iron Bridge. DS3 has the area right outside Pontiff Sulyvahn's bonfire.

DS3 has the best situation thanks to the player increase on invasions. You can have quite a few people waiting their turn to fight in a world so there's no shortage of fighters as long as the Host keeps calling people in.

Maybe one day i'll beat that guy and try this out...

I think I've levelled out of the PVP range. I went all luck for farming but those skeletons can just die in a fire.

I was also a chronic PvP avoider until DS3. I slapped on the Blue Covenant thingy thinking it might just summon someone if I got invaded. I never realized that it would end up summoning me to people who were in need. A half dozen crazy fights among the giant crabs just before Farron's keep later, and I was hooked. I just beat the Pontiff and saw the massive pile of summon signs outside his lair (got invaded almost instantly, died miserably to a lightning hand axe.) I'll be back once I actually get through some more of the game.