You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. :) (Criticism)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 09:39 (2109 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
edited by Ragashingo, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 09:43

Specifically, I think Warmind used Power Level in the best possible way in two cases:

1. Escalation Protocol. When we first started Warmind, an entire group of us could not kill the first boss. Heck, it was questionable if we could get to the first boss. Over time, as we’ve leveled up, that experience has changed more and more for the better. Now, I can almost solo level 1 if I really try, and I’m certainly a deciding factor in the first 3 or so rounds. That’s pretty cool.

2. Spire of Stars. That final room and especially the boss fight overwhelmed us while being just on the edge of maybe we can do this. (We couldn’t.) But, go a couple of weeks forward where we took Bungie’s encouragement to play other activities as a group (we did previous Raids and Prestige modes and nightfalls together) and pretty soon our team had gained enough Power Level that those final Spire encounters changed. Where they were on the far side of being nearly too difficult, now they were on the near side and several of us noted how much more fun we were having with the encounter.

(I also though the new faction rallies and their Renown system was a pretty good use of limiting players to increase fun. Even around here we had people who had all but ignored Lost Sectors proclaiming how much fun they were having and how interesting each hidden location was.)

So, my thought is: Sometimes holding players back a little is actually a pro-player strategy. If you can encourage players to go back and have more fun with past or unplayed content without making it too much of a chore to level up... then that’s a good thing. Destiny certainly doesn’t achieve pure “good thing” status. My main Titan build is below 380, for instance, because after sharing 1500+ weapon parts and spending another 10,000 glimmer, I didn’t get one single Void Melee Arms upgrade. There’s definitely a point that the RNG and Power Level gets silly and frustrating... but a little bit in the right places can provide tangible benefits to players’ experiences.

(Yes... anyone who says they can’t think of a single way that something can be good or bad is pretty much akin to lighting up the Raga Signal / Horn of Urgency.)