I don't know how I feel about ToO (Destiny)

by someotherguy, Hertfordshire, England, Monday, May 25, 2015, 19:35 (3259 days ago) @ Mad_Stylus

I've played 3 lots of ToO so far, and I really dont know what to make of it. I got the armour on 2 characters and made it to 9-2 with one of them, which was an awesome feeling.

But, I dont think I like the way it works. The system is geared entirely towards losing to keep you coming back, where the rest of Destiny grts it's draw from success. If you keep playing well, you will get to have nice things. In PvE, in Crucible and in even in Iron Banner I know that win or lose, I'm making progress. If I lose I get to keep going, and unless I lose consistently, I'll be fine. If I win, the other team will be fine too. The important part is winning - winning is progress, and losing is just a not-progress.

In Trials of Osiris it's "Only one of you gets to have nice things. These people are stopping you from having the nice things. Now take it from them". All the emphasis is on losing - losing takes the chance away from you and resets your progress. For every flawless run that means 9(!) teams that will not get to see the Lighthouse. I also felt bad every time I kicked a team out. Were they 4-2, just desperately hoping to get their armour? Was this their third loss in a row and they were having a really miserable time (that I contributed to)? What about the team who disappeared as we were loading into the game - did they quit because they were sick of it? Were they trying to boot us out and it backfired? Or were they victims of Bungie's netcode/Activision's lack of dedicated servers?

The focus on failure makes the whole experience really draining. A win is like a relief rather than a victory - "Phew, we're not out yet". And if you do go on a losing streak, it's itensely unpleasant. I went in with the same group as I went 9-2 with, but we couldn't get ourselves together, and it ruined us. By the end we all just agreed to stop and try again next week. And I kind of dont want to. Even though I know I can win (Ive already done it after all), ToO is the first thing that's ever made me want to play less Destiny.