Fun Thread - Crota designer looks back on the raid (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, November 05, 2018, 08:08 (2006 days ago) @ Claude Errera

https://twitter.com/bthorne/status/1059236386182578176

Read the whole thread. It's pretty interesting.

It's interesting, and also somewhat illuminating for me personally, given that I tend to disagree with almost every conclusion he describes. Some of his points are clearly and obviously true (for example, the fact that players will find ways to get places within a space whenever possible). But all his other points, such as how thrusting more responsibility on 1 player = "not fun" for the rest of the team, or how certain mechanics that only pop up after a failure (like the oversoul appearing after someone dies) are inherently bad... I think his takeaways on these points begin to explain why I personally feel like the raids are getting progressively worse.

Having certain players take a "lead" role in raid encounters was fantastic. It allowed players who were more experienced or more skilled in certain aspects to lead and direct a team of less experienced players to success. It was a path for new raiders to participate and get a feel for the encounters without being overwhelmed by a tsunami of mechanics. Then, as those players become more familiar with an encounter, they can graduate to more of a "lead" role.

Killing all the remaining ads after the Deathsinger was also fun... it was a nice way to "vent" after the stressful race against the clock that proceeded it. Plus, it was a great way to build up supers and collect ammo before entering the final encounter of the raid.

His points about players cheesing the Bridge is also a strange one (by which I mean, it is strange that anyone ever cheesed the bridge because it was actually slower and more difficult than simply doing the encounter normally. I can't explain that one).

The abyss is a fantastic encounter. It is fun and exciting every single time. The fact that a small portion of the player base learned how to cheese it is, IMO, fine. Not a problem. When I compare it to more recent iterations on a similar style of encounter (such as the chase to deliver Riven's heart at the end of Last Wish <- Last Wish spoiler), the Abyss remains fun and exciting 4 years later, while the latter example is a pain in the ass that I would skip every time if I could.