This is a matter of opinion (and I know I'm in the minority) (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Thursday, May 28, 2015, 16:15 (3261 days ago) @ Kermit

It breaks immersion and requires additional software, and those are two things I dislike very much about how it's implemented. I get that not everyone (or maybe anyone else) is bothered by this, but I am.

I'm bothered by it, and I doubt very seriously that anyone at Bungie believes the implementation of Grimoire cards is ideal. You ask all kinds of questions about why it was done this way when it would have been easy not to, but the truth is we don't know how easy it was or why they did that way.

I think I have a very plausible theory, though, which is that they had the change the scope of the game (and what story could be presented) pretty radically later than was ideal in the schedule, and Grimoire cards (and the way they were implemented) allowed them to include a lot of story (or backstory) with the game at launch. Content could be added to Bungie.net long after Destiny had gone gold. In other words, it was a compromise--not ideal, but better than the game shipping with no Grimoire content anywhere.

This is what I figure as well. At this point though, two expansions in and with lots of patches along the way, I wonder why it hasn't been integrated. I mean, the ball in the tower got an upgrade.... why not the grimoire?

You really think those two are equivalent? Did you say you were a software developer? I ask because at this point I don't believe it.

They're totally different, but it seems like a strange way to allocate resources. It's possible one of the artists was just mucking around on their own time and showed it to someone who thought it was cool. Stuff like that happens often.

And yes, I worked at Activision on a bunch of AAA titles (as well as several other companies earlier in my career). I was a production test team leader, so while I was not the actual guy doing the actual designing, I had lots and lots and lots of meetings (lots!) about user interface, player control, user experience, PvP balance etc. I ran focus groups, worked with the producers and techs, managed a 300 person test team etc. etc.. I probably know and worked with several of the ATVI-side producers on Destiny, though I've been out of touch with them for 8 years-ish and it would be weird for me to call and ask why X feature isn't in the game or why Y art asset is.