Fun, actually. (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Saturday, January 14, 2017, 04:33 (2674 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

narcogen: It has a become a strange world in which admitting that one plays other games is evidence of failure on the part of Bungie's designers, and that visiting once in awhile is not "playing" a game, and having done everything you want is somehow a disappointment.

I don't get it.

[Pointless meme snipped]

I've been sitting here with my mouth open for about... five minutes. Flabbergasted. Not only of this comment, but of the size of the chain below it.

Flabbergasted by what? Seriously, I'm asking.

[Pointless meme snipped]

It would appear some clarification is in order to ween us away from this stunning interpretation.

What is stunning about it?

A thread was posting asking if people are still playing Destiny, presumably wondering who is, and if so, why, and if not, why not.

Your original, unembellished post starts off with the subject "meh" as if it is barely worth your effort to have a reaction or to properly verbalize it, and then proceeds to make the following assertions:

"...play destiny? What is there to play?"

You are essentially mocking the question and the person who asked it by saying that the question cannot be asked because Destiny is currently not a thing which can be played. You are going far, far beyond saying why you are not playing, and suggesting that others who are engaged with the game are apparently not playing, because there is nothing there to be played.

Some of this is expected with Bungie design sensibilities of reusing everything as much as possible

Now comes the why, apparently. You say that Bungie's design sensibilities consist of "reusing everything as much as possible" and this explains why you've already

done everything I conceivably wanted to do in every conceivable fashion

This is a common criticism of the game; that it is repetitive, and designed to be so. You've basically turned the original question on its head-- that not only are you not playing the game because it is repetitive, but that Bungie's design sensibilities lead to this inevitably. As if many other online PVE games are played often three years into release without repetition, somehow.

So lets go into my yammering and poke at it.

You know what? Let's not. Let's look at what you actually wrote and what it actually says, instead of just saying lol sarcasm or talking about what you meant when you said something, or just... coloring things randomly.

Instead let's look at the crux of what you wrote and why I bothered to respond to it.

now... there are other games. Other worlds. Other Experiences. ... and it's actually fun.

The key word here is "actually". You could simply have said you were playing other games and having fun, and I probably wouldn't have answered at all. There is nothing unusual about moving on from a game, playing other games, and having fun. In fact, not doing so might be more unusual-- which might even have been the point of the original poster's question.

The use of "actually" here implies a contrast, however. It implies that playing these other new games is "actually" fun, while playing Destiny is not "actually" fun, and this contrast is made without respect to time, meaning it could be interpreted as meaning that Destiny is no longer fun, but it was earlier, or that Destiny was never, in actual fact, fun, but only seemed so until one stopped playing. This is also not an uncommon criticism of Destiny by those who feel drawn or compelled to complete quests, find loot, tick boxes, and to use those mechanics as the reason for picking up the game, instead of using them once they've picked up the game as a way of deciding what parts of it to experience.

In your next post, you added some explication that doesn't really explain, but again turns the question back against the questioner:

In the frame of videogames, If you had a choice between running down the same darned corridor for the 5000th time, where you know where every mote of dust lies, or running down an unknown dark hallway that has yet to be filled with light, which would you choose? Is the choice I have made really so odd?

No, not at all! Your use of "actually" implies, however, that the opposite choice you consider to be odd, and again, that's why I replied. The way you describe it above indicates not only that you don't find it fun, but that you struggle to understand how anyone else could.

5000 times? That might apply to vanilla content, but each of the last two expansions added new strikes, new patrol areas, and a new Raid. I've actually only completed WotM *once* so far, and never on hard or challenge mode yet. I haven't even hit 400 yet, and I'm sure many others haven't either.

Even in vanilla content I often look at some corner and see a detail I never noticed before; and more often than not, that light at the end of the dark tunnel in a supposedly new game just turns out to be a variation on a theme, no less so than any twist, modification or re-use of content than Bungie has made so far to Destiny in the past two years.

And then your parting shot...

Why would I be playing Destiny? I can only hope that Bungie makes that question a mantra in the coming mouths ahead.

I'm sure they never thought of that until you asked. All Bungie fans must be grateful for your stunning and revealing honesty!

You are suggesting that those who are still playing and seemingly having fun are somehow ignorant or unaware of the game's actual nature-- that if they, too, only stopped to ask themselves "why would I play Destiny" they would realize they are not actually having fun and stop.

[snip]

ALSO DESTINY IS THR WORST GAME EVER AND BLAH BLAH BLHA

You didn't say that, and didn't say you said that. You implied that Destiny is not, and perhaps never was, "actually" fun to play, and tacked on a thinly disguised "BUNGIE FIX YO SHIT" implying that that the poster and others still playing the game continue to do so only because they lack your level of introspection.

I'm not putting a sarcasm tag because hopefully at least one person here can figure it out. If no one here can, well, I'm fu**ed.

I guess you're f***ed then? If you didn't intend the initial post to mean what it says, then I don't know why you wrote it. If you mean the opposite of what this post says, then I don't know why you wrote it.

Also, what happened to SIX GAME?

I do get that you like Mass Effect. Me, too! Cautiously optimistic about ME4-- ME1 drew me in enough to see the series through to the end, despite a *lot* of changes (some good, some bad) along the way. I'm waiting so see if what they propose in Andromeda is engaging enough to keep playing now that the game is essentially a third person shooter with RPG elements instead of an RPG with some third person shooter elements.