On Authenticity (Destiny)

by Durandal, Monday, June 29, 2015, 12:46 (3224 days ago) @ cheapLEY

"The difference is, in all of those other games, the more I play, the more my level goes up."

COD - Levels gate progress, you reset your progress at max level and repeat.
Titanfall - Same
Battlefield - you level each gun and vehicle perk via use. One you top out that's it.
Evolve - you level up guys to get bonus perks and unlock more guys to level up hard stop at the end.
World of (tanks, battleships, planes etc) you level up crew, vehicles and progress to end game vehicles. Hard stop at the end.

Destiny's end game is more like WoW or MMO's where it is defined by your gear, and initially very much like those MMOs you had to get to the hard end game content in order to get that gear. They've softened this greatly with the HoW changes.

"However, in a game that has an end, your weapons are getting stronger as the challenge level rises, which is where I feel the satisfaction is. You're not going to be getting a weak gun at the end of the game, but your once weak gun might now be upgraded and capable of the challenge."

Again, in the more MMO style you do ditch old gear as you get stronger and stronger stuff. In the more common FPSs above there is no real gear quality and all weapons when kitted out are more or less at the same level. Admittedly I haven't played WoW in a very long time, but when I did every expansion pretty much meant ditching all your old weapons and equipment to get new ones. Likewise Skyrim you got rid of that iron blade once you stared forging magic dragon bone weapons.

From an industry benchmark, no one currently lets you take your Kostov and upgrade it to Mythoclast levels. Not that that isn't a cool idea, where instead of gear drops you get materials that you use to slowly evolve your guns into their own unique, personalized variant that is at the max level. (Something like the old Army of Two system, where you essentially had Lego guns that you could swap everything out as you found new stuff)