I guess I'm not clear on the AAA/AAA+ distinction (Destiny)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, January 11, 2017, 22:45 (2659 days ago) @ Ragashingo

At some point people have to takes responsibility for their own actions and happiness. That's just as true of gamblers as it is of gamers.

You're not wrong about that, but that's easier said than done for some. I feel pretty strongly that Destiny is designed to make that difficult, and that's not cool.

I think that's where some of my real issues with Destiny come from. It's a culmination of everything about it--not getting the single player campaign with great encounters that I wanted, the raids (and Trials and IB, even though I don't personally care about those) being locked behind hours of grinding to get to the right light level, the fact that customization options are locked behind a paywall, and that some of those paywalls are just blind boxes with no guarantees . . . it all adds up to a game that I feel actively disrespects its players and basically tells them they always have to put in more time to get the cool things they want.

I know that's not a problem for a lot of you, and that you don't chase gear or light levels. I wish I could do that, but I can't. If there's a cool gun in a game, I want to play with that cool gun, and I honestly think it's bullshit that the designers tell me I can't until I put in some arbitrary amount of time and get lucky enough to get it. It's not only stupid, it's indefensible as far as I'm concerned.

Now, obviously I'm a hypocrite, as I made a post about how Destiny should be more like Diablo III a few months ago, and that game is as grindy and luck based as games get. But it embraces it. Destiny half-asses it, to the point that it's not satisfying as a good campaign shooter or a loot based shooter. Diablo (and Borderlands) shower you with loot constantly. Not all of it's good, much of it isn't, but it still feels good to see a screen literally littered with new weapons and armor. If Destiny fully embraced its shitty grindy nature and did the same thing, I'd feel better about it (even though I'd obviously just prefer they get rid of it altogether). Diablo and Borderlands somehow make the grind that I hate in Destiny actively fun and rewarding. And yeah, I know I was just talking about how shitty and player hostile that is (and it is!), but goddamnit, at least they make it worthwhile.

Destiny wants to have it both ways and fails on both counts.

I truly feel thankful that I was able to resist purchasing Rise of Iron and jumping back in. And that's a pretty shitty thing to feel about a video game that I really like. I'm literally thankful that I don't feel the draw to play it anymore. I really wish I could engage with Destiny in that way you do Raga, or the way Claude does, but I can't. I'd love to drop back in and help dogcow run some raids, but I'd have the problem Cruel is talking about where none of my characters are above 250 since I started over on PS4, so I'd be useless with a few hours of grinding out strikes, and I'd honestly rather do just about anything else in the world than grind out strikes. If this was still Halo, I could just jump in and play with him, but Destiny refuses to just let its players do what they want.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant. I think maybe I'll bow out of discussions about this stuff for a while, because I sound like a broken record, and every time it comes up I get a little more sad, disappointed, and sort of angry, and that sucks.