Does Destiny need a "campaign"? (Destiny)

by Malagate , Sea of Tranquility, Monday, October 23, 2017, 08:21 (2390 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

The Cabal setup in TTK was precisely that: a setup. There main Cabal plot in TTK was resolved. Their arc in the story was complete. Bungie through in a tiny (and missable) hint that another force was on its way.

We disagree on how tiny and missable a hint it was, and that's okay. ;) I'm not sure they could have broadcast it to the audience more clearly without being obnoxious.

All of these connections you’re mentioning are nice touches, I agree. But again, there’s a difference between all of this and the kind of thing I’m looking for. I don’t like plot devices that are disguised as characters. It’s a common trope in bad fiction, and Destiny is full of them. Let’s look at The Stranger, for example. During her appearances in D1, we learn enough to believe that she is a genuine character, with motivations and goals that are driving her actions. Both the Guardian and the player are left wondering what she’s up to; that’s suspense, and that’s cool! But suspense is a dangerous storytelling tool to play with. It takes the form of a contract with the audience. There’d better be a payoff.

So when Luke Smith comes along and says that as far as he’s concerned, the Stranger’s story is done... that she got us where we needed to go in D1 and gave us a sweet weapon and that’s the end of her... that’s a blow for a couple of reasons. First of all, it eliminates the possibility of the Stranger being anything more than a plot device, practically speaking. And that’s just bad storytelling. And it also shows that Bungie has no problem breaking the “suspense contract” with the player. And that’s the bigger problem, in my eyes. Because that effects the player’s willingness to become invested in Bungie’s stories now and moving forward. And looking at Destiny’s story up to this point, Bungie has made this mistake far too many times. You can only watch characters behave mysteriously and think “I wonder what they’re up to” so many times without those questions actually going somewhere. The Stranger was meaningless, they hinted to the player that Mara was up to something in D1 (through her willingness to work with us) but that went nowhere in terms of the immediate narrative, Eris was introduced as an actual character with real motivations, then revealed to have some sort of hidden agenda, and that thread has been dropped for 2 years now.

So we’ll see how things go from here. There are narrative threads left hanging in Destiny 2, and hopefully Bungie has specific plans to carry those threads forward in the immediate future, rather than telling another “monster of the week” story that introduces new threads that don’t go anywhere.

This is the biggest problem with Destiny. As an IP, the concept of rediscovering strange forgotten futures sits at its core; and that hinges on sustaining a sense of mystery. But teasing a thread and then dropping it or "resolving" it without any satisfying payoff absolutely murders player investment in the mythos. Likewise being mysterious for mystery's sake.

When we learn the fate of Praedyth, although not a particularly flashy finish, I felt a sense of satisfaction that rivalled most of the rest of my experiences in TTK. Deft touches are all it takes. If the powers at be at Bungie want to can a certain character or storyline, there are ways to do it that don't require a fully fleshed-out DLC treatment. So I don't think the expectation that everything be addressed in time is unreasonable. But making things seem urgent, as in literally "no time to explain" and then leaving that thread alone for years is...not good.

~M