So here's the interesting thing... (Destiny)

by slycrel , Friday, February 12, 2016, 17:56 (3004 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

I'm a bit torn on this... Lately I've been wondering if I wish Bungie had just gone full MMO with Destiny in terms of monetization, content generation, and release schedules (don't freak out, Cody... I do NOT want typical MMO farming/fetch-quest activities).

I think this is a little funny... bounties are exactly farming/fetch quests. Bungie has done a great job recently to allow you to pick a bunch up and "get them along the way", but at their core, this is exactly what bounties are -- daily MMO quests.

I think I would be perfectly happy to pay $10 or $15 per month to play Destiny if we got the same kinds of regular content updates that WOW gets; significant, world-changing updates with boatloads of new activities. I'd be happy to pay another $40-$60 once every year or two, in addition to the monthly fee, for major expansions that add whole new locations, factions, enemy types, and large chunks of story content. I'd be happy to have Destiny exist as a game that keeps growing and growing without ever needing to reset or start us back at level 1.

I'm actually surprised that this isn't what we are getting. The only non-shaky reasons I can think of not to do this are 1) console gaming has differing expectations, you'll get a "redo" with a v2. And 2) dropping older console support.

Maybe this is because I've never actually played an MMO, so I don't have the same love/hate relationship with the idea that many WOW players have developed over the years. Or maybe it's because I don't find Destiny's combat to be very enjoyable until the upper levels, when my character's ability tree is fully unlocked and I have access to a wide array of gear. The idea of starting over from scratch is not exciting or appealing to me.

I think you're already getting the MMO experience here with destiny. You start off as relatively weak, with few skills. You progress and unlock more and more choices, and then everything changes at the "end game" when you hit the level cap. I know they don't want to -say- that destiny is an MMO, but it's about as close as you get without actually being one. The best part, for me, about this is that I can hop in and play destiny for 30 minutes and feel like I accomplished something. Most MMOs are larger time sinks by design.

Beyond that stuff, there's a big part of me that looks at what we have right now and still sees so much unrealized potential. There is SO MUCH that can still be done with the cosmodrome, mars, venus, the moon... I guess I'm still waiting for Bungie to add something to the game we're playing right now that lives up to the amazing scenarios that ran through my imagination as I explored all these locations for the first time. I feel like it would be a bit of a shame to leave them behind so underutilized.

+1! In a lot of ways, destiny has taught me to ignore a lot of the super pretty aspects of the game because of how these spaces are used. I always have a mixed reaction to space reuse in destiny. On the one hand I really like seeing everything from other angles and they do a good job of making them "new" with minimal modifications. On the other, I'd love to see new, fresh content. I suspect we will see a better mixture going forward, like we have in TTK, with new areas opened up from old areas. Patrols especially could do really well with additions to this, and I think the dreadnaught was a good first step in some areas. I'm hoping we see incremental improvements on that model, and some expanding focus as well.