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On Authenticity (Destiny)

by red robber @, Crawfish Country, Monday, June 29, 2015, 02:04 (3196 days ago) @ Cody Miller

When I speak of authenticity, I'm talking about just the general joy in making the best thing you can.

I'm not really sure if I understand your intended usage of the word "authenticity". It has a few varying definitions, but none like your description above. I'm assuming that you mean that Bungie didn't design this game with pure "gaming joy" in mind, but rather as a sinkhole meant to pull consumers in, and grab all the monies from them.

The fact that it's not purely about making the best game they can make.

I don't even in the slightest believe that bungie set out to create a giant cash cow, looking at ways to cut, crimp, and save. I don't think they held back content strictly to make us pay for it in DLC's. I don't think level capping techniques were applied to cause a player frustration. "Grind" wasn't a design, it was a side effect of the new systems bungie was attempting to employ colliding with the human nature to "get more stuff". I don't think they compromised their work or beliefs and said "meh, we are ok with an inferior product".

What I do think was in the minds of the creative powers in Bungie was to meld multiple genres of games in a newly minted, non classifiable audiovisual experience. Something that we've never seen the likes of.... well, at least that was the intention. The MMORPGFPS is an experiment in development. Sure there are games like it, Borderlands, Warframe, (I've never played any of those so I don't really know how they relate). Even though these exist, I think the plan was something a little more unique than these.

For whatever reason, what we, and possibly they, expected didn't congeal. I feel there was a Halo 2 issue. Things just didn't work out as expected. The reach was farther than the grasp so to speak. Things had to be rolled back to provide us with a working product. That doesn't mean that Bungie is at fault, just that they are human. For as much as we bought a "broken/incomplete game" it has worked pretty much completely from the get go. We could have gotten an AC Unity or Driveclub or BF4 release where the games were essentially if not actually unplayable.

Quite the opposite, the game IMO is 100% authentic Bungie. It's beautiful, it's crisp, it's probably the sharpest of the shooters I've ever played. It's full of "guns, grenades, and melee's". The 3 pillars of Bungie fun. The story is definitely lacking, but the base lore exists to flesh out stories upon stories. I would also attribute a weak story, to the teams focus on functionality first. The GDC chat about the Netcode seems like it is extremely complicated to implement, hence Noah's ark of error codes. Glad it works as well as it does considering all that.

It's really a slap in the face to all the hardworking folks at Bungie, to repetitively critique their work, and question their ethics, and essentially disregard their accomplishments, all the while putting in hundreds of hours into a game you appear to enjoy. Even more, I feel in someways it's also a slap in the face to a group of folks who have created a site dedicated to the company that has created the games we LOVE, and to those of us who came here to share our passion for Bungie and Destiny. I don't login here everyday to hear another I despise/hate/loath X,Y,Z about Bungie/Destiny. I login to discuss the things I enjoy, learn from others, share my Destiny experiences. Sometimes Korny can be a little trollish (Love ya Korn :P), but he also goes out of his way to post about his unique exotic armor creation. Even going so far as to provide subtext and visual accouterments.

Why can't we see more of your positive side? I don't know you, but many folks speak highly of you, and I'm sure you have it in you. You sound like a pretty creative guy. You edit film/video? Where are your montages? Epic Fails? Tutorials? Anything other than flappin gums, blah blah blah, Destiny bad. Follow CruelLegacy's lead and mix it up. I think he does a great job voicing some concerns, but also looking at the bright side and not being as confrontational as you often appear to be.

That's my piece, and I'm out.


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