Dark Souls 2 Soul Memory is Broken

the other day i was trying to meet a friend online i was level 48 he was level 38 after about 30 minutes of trying to find each other we gave up the next day we tried again still no luck. we both were using the Name Engraved Ring (effect increases level range and soul memory range of chosen god). we both live in the same region so cross-region play wasn't the problem, (in dark souls 2 you can restrict and allow cross-region play in game options settings). so i was thinking to myself that we must be on different servers, but after looking up how to co-op with a friend in dark souls 2 i learn about soul memory. (soul memory is the total amount of souls collected). to connect online with my friend our soul memory can't be more than 25% different. i'm guessing at the time my soul memory was over 400k (i like to co-op) my friends soul memory must have been about 50k, making use way out of co-op range. by this time if i wanted to do random co-op it wasn't unusual for me to wait 30 minutes. from my understanding soul memory mechanic was added to dark souls 2 to prevent players from having high level gear on low level characters in both co-op and pvp. so in short the reason i don't like soul memory it makes it harder to co-op with friends and it shrinks the player population. anyone else dislike soul memory?

Soul Memory isn't a factor in NG+. Also, NG+ players can't interact with NG players. So, it's not broken. It was done this way by design. What's broken are the hackers that die in your game and give you 400k worth of souls, on your New Game runs.

If all save game hackers were automatically banned from Online Play, Soul Memory balance wouldn't be a problem anymore.

And once again the PS3 version is the most secure version of the bunch... due to it being more troublesome to hex edit than the PC and the Xbox360.

@ Threesixtyci

Thats how they do it ? :o

I haven't seen that thing since I used it to give myself unlimited ammo in Tomb Raider 5.

I think with DS2 From Soft is relying on Steam's VAC to catch cheaters, but I also think it's not implemented, due to the problem people were having about not being able to play online if there was a VAC ban on their account from any game. Only time will tell if a future patch brings in the Ban Hammer to DS2. Don't think anyone has been banned, yet.

@Threesixtyci: i don't think save file editors have anything to do with soul memory. anyway soul memory might encourage hackers sense a lot of pvper in the original dark souls would invade low level areas with high level gear making pvp very unfair at time hence one of the reason why dark souls 2 has soul memory so the people who want a unfair advantage if they cant do it naturally with high level gear they might resort to a unnatural way hacking.

Watch: http://youtu.be/6PIv8fls1Gg?t=3m3s

When the Invader dies, look at the guy's souls. He received 400K.

What do you think that does to the victim's Matchmaking?

Consider this the world's way of telling you that you should be playing Demon's Souls instead.