Cody and I did a running commentary on the gameplay reveal. I'm more and more optimistic about the game, Cody is still a bit skeptical.

http://rampancy.net/youtube-video/06162013/ase-ep-33-destiny-gameplay-reveal

Cody and I did a running commentary on the gameplay reveal. I'm more and more optimistic about the game, Cody is still a bit skeptical.

http://rampancy.net/youtube-video/06162013/ase-ep-33-destiny-gameplay-reveal

I'm totally about to potentially derail this thread before it starts. This question has been bubbling at the back of ones head for years now, and thus far has yet to be answered by a "Get to know your. . ." thread. It's addressed to Cody. Perhaps this has been established already and I didn't get the memo. I almost don't want to even ask since in most cases the answer to this question is rebutted with the same answer. The question. . . Are you a pessimist or just jaded? I ask because seemingly every single post - Every! Single! Post! Be it made by you or involving you - is just a downer in some way. Something is always wrong and while I appreciate the difference in outlook - you bring very interesting viewpoints - but golly its stunning how "true the course" the emotional tone of your posts are. I find my self perplexed on the how of your individual tone - so I ask.

Regardless your reply - you have the floor. I asked.

Forgive me narcogen - couldn't hold back the question any more.

- No text -

Cody and I did a running commentary on the gameplay reveal. I'm more and more optimistic about the game, Cody is still a bit skeptical.

http://rampancy.net/youtube-video/06162013/ase-ep-33-destiny-gameplay-reveal

I'm totally about to potentially derail this thread before it starts. This question has been bubbling at the back of ones head for years now, and thus far has yet to be answered by a "Get to know your. . ." thread. It's addressed to Cody. Perhaps this has been established already and I didn't get the memo. I almost don't want to even ask since in most cases the answer to this question is rebutted with the same answer. The question. . . Are you a pessimist or just jaded? I ask because seemingly every single post - Every! Single! Post! Be it made by you or involving you - is just a downer in some way. Something is always wrong and while I appreciate the difference in outlook - you bring very interesting viewpoints - but golly its stunning how "true the course" the emotional tone of your posts are. I find my self perplexed on the how of your individual tone - so I ask.

Regardless your reply - you have the floor. I asked.

Forgive me narcogen - couldn't hold back the question any more.

I agree with Cody in that I don't feel that the E3 reveal showed significantly more of the game that we couldn't already figure on our own, so I don't think he's wrong about that. I liked the graphics and story stuff, but the E3 demonstrations seemed mainly about a lot of flash rather than substance. I'm still anticipating the game because it's Bungie and Destiny looked good and hopefully I'll be able to play with some DBO folks in it, but the harder questions about the project went mostly unanswered.

Cody and I did a running commentary on the gameplay reveal. I'm more and more optimistic about the game, Cody is still a bit skeptical.

http://rampancy.net/youtube-video/06162013/ase-ep-33-destiny-gameplay-reveal

I'm totally about to potentially derail this thread before it starts. This question has been bubbling at the back of ones head for years now, and thus far has yet to be answered by a "Get to know your. . ." thread. It's addressed to Cody. Perhaps this has been established already and I didn't get the memo. I almost don't want to even ask since in most cases the answer to this question is rebutted with the same answer. The question. . . Are you a pessimist or just jaded? I ask because seemingly every single post - Every! Single! Post! Be it made by you or involving you - is just a downer in some way. Something is always wrong and while I appreciate the difference in outlook - you bring very interesting viewpoints - but golly its stunning how "true the course" the emotional tone of your posts are. I find my self perplexed on the how of your individual tone - so I ask.

Regardless your reply - you have the floor. I asked.

Forgive me narcogen - couldn't hold back the question any more.

No apology necessary :)

I think Cody just likes playing devil's advocate, to be honest.

I find it convenient because it means I don't have to.

I think Cody just likes playing devil's advocate, to be honest.

I find it convenient because it means I don't have to.

He does force us to defend our fandom. That can't be all bad. Sometimes I can't believe he really believes what he's saying, and he's just toying with us. (He's come close to admitting this. See the last haiku.) He states his convictions so strongly, though, that I have to believe he's a good actor or he's ridden his chosen hobby horse so long that he's convinced himself too well that he's absolutely right and you're absolutely wrong.

But let's bring this into the vid. (Loved the intro!)

Cody, I'm going to stop talking about you in the third person. :) Glad you said some nice things--about the engine, about the environment, and I agree that we can't make too many ironclad judgments about gameplay and such in this kind of pseudo-scripted demo.

Your hero complaint is based on a legitimate difference--as compared to Halo, you are not the single-savior of the universe, but there can be, as narcogen said, multiple legends, and it's not the same kind of story. Whereas Halo was more like Alien, where one person survives to be the hero, Destiny seems more like Star Wars, where small groups win the day. Is Han Solo a legend in the Star Wars universe. Of course! Is he the only one? Of course not! Another way that the terminology fits is that this seems to be a world steeped in legend, which sets the stage for new legends to be born.

Your comment about the immersion being broken by the public event is valid, and even though we know this isn't how it's going to be in the final game, we know there will be some kind of prompt to join or not join, so there's will be some kind of break. We'll see.

I'm with you, narcogen, about a big part of games' appeal being virtual tourism. I can't wait to go exploring. Maybe if your internet is having a good day I'll see you there!

Kermit

I'm not as negative or pessimistic as Cody, but I'm more of both than average around here so I'll take the opportunity to project myself onto Cody to answer the question.

Cody is a smart man, but he's very jaded. He's been playing games for a long time, and during that time he's internalized many observations of what makes games good and bad. He's also been burned many times, believing a game will be great until it turns out to be not-as-good or possibly terrible. Each time he's burned, he identifies what went wrong both with the game and with his expectations, and keeps that knowledge with him going forward. The times he's disappointed likely influence his disposition more than the times things go well (a cat who gets burned by a hot stove won't sit on a hot stove again... but it won't sit on a cold one either), so we see a person who's more negative than positive.

Cody wants to like games, and he wants to like Destiny. But more than wanting to like Destiny, he wants his love to be justified. As Kermit alluded to, forcing people to defend a position they hold is a good thing. If their position is wrong, it gets exposed. If it's correct, it's strengthened. On a website like this, though, which is inherently a Bungie fan site and not an objective video game analysis site, there is a shortage of people who are willing to ask the "tough" questions, and aren't willing to excuse/gloss over everything just because "it's Bungie."

He has low points for sure, but he provides a different and unique perspective. His opinions themselves aren't necessarily valuable, but the expression of them certainly is. I think we're extremely lucky to have an admin corps who realize this and give him more range than he might be allowed on other fan forums.

EDIT: He also likes the attention, sure. Not that I can relate to that, though. Team Schooly D for life. Buy our shirts. Schooly was right.

He holds opinions that are consistently contrary to yours, and has the gall to express them. He needs to answer for himself? To whom? You? The admins haven't demanded such an explanation yet. It sounds like you're threatening to run him out of town if the answer isn't satisfactory.

He has low points for sure, but he provides a different and unique perspective. His opinions themselves aren't necessarily valuable, but the expression of them certainly is. I think we're extremely lucky to have an admin corps who realize this and give him more range than he might be allowed on other fan forums.

I don't really have anything to add beyond highlighting the quality of the admin corps at bungie.orgs.

I'll highlight the quality of Schooly's post, even if it was a meta-Cody post.

P.S. I've already bought your shirts.

...but yeah they're pretty great.

The question. . . Are you a pessimist or just jaded? I ask because seemingly every single post - Every! Single! Post! Be it made by you or involving you - is just a downer in some way.

So a blonde walks into a bank in the middle of Manhattan, and asks the teller for a loan for 5 grand. The teller asks if she has an account with the bank or any ID, to which the blonde says no. The teller says there's nothing he can do in that case, but the blonde insists so he goes to get the manager.

The manager says what the teller does - unless you have ID or an account, why should we lend you money? The blonde replies that she has a red Ferrari out front that she'll put up as collateral. The manager, intrigued, goes outside to check.

Sure enough, on the curb is a brand new Ferrari, worth over $250,000. The blonde asks if this would work as collateral, and the manager says sure thing.

The teller drives the Ferrari into the lot under the bank, and the blonde walks out with 5 grand after signing the loan terms.

3 weeks later, the blonde comes back in, and pays the loan off completely, with the total running to $5016.00 with the interest. The teller gets the car out from the underground lot, and parks it back on the curb. As the blonde is leaving, the manager stops her to ask her something. See, he ran the plate while she was gone, and it turns out that she and her husband are wealthy business tycoons. He asks her why on earth she'd need a loan for 5 grand, when they are worth billions?

The blonde replies "Where else can I park a Ferrari for 3 weeks in Manhattan for only 16 dollars?"

The question. . . Are you a pessimist or just jaded? I ask because seemingly every single post - Every! Single! Post! Be it made by you or involving you - is just a downer in some way.

So a blonde walks into a bank in the middle of Manhattan, and asks the teller for a loan for 5 grand. The teller asks if she has an account with the bank or any ID, to which the blonde says no. The teller says there's nothing he can do in that case, but the blonde insists so he goes to get the manager.

The manager says what the teller does - unless you have ID or an account, why should we lend you money? The blonde replies that she has a red Ferrari out front that she'll put up as collateral. The manager, intrigued, goes outside to check.

Sure enough, on the curb is a brand new Ferrari, worth over $250,000. The blonde asks if this would work as collateral, and the manager says sure thing.

The teller drives the Ferrari into the lot under the bank, and the blonde walks out with 5 grand after signing the loan terms.

3 weeks later, the blonde comes back in, and pays the loan off completely, with the total running to $5016.00 with the interest. The teller gets the car out from the underground lot, and parks it back on the curb. As the blonde is leaving, the manager stops her to ask her something. See, he ran the plate while she was gone, and it turns out that she and her husband are wealthy business tycoons. He asks her why on earth she'd need a loan for 5 grand, when they are worth billions?

The blonde replies "Where else can I park a Ferrari for 3 weeks in Manhattan for only 16 dollars?"

I have to say - I would love to watch a discussion between you and Veegie. About what? No idea. I just think it would be a very interesting and verbose dichotomy.

. . . and that is my reply. Thank you.

Eh, this ain't nothing new, INSANEdrive - I'd recommend just curbing your Cody Miller posts. After all the back and forth in HBO and now DBO posts, he's still crazily consistent. I can almost predict his posts now, so I try to only read one about every 3 months or so. Anything else and my blood pressure would be through the roof. :)

And you know, come to think of it, the opposite side of the spectrum would probably be terrible for a video like this. If I did one of these commentary things it'd go:

-"Whoah, that was cool."

-"Oh my god, that was sweet."

-"Cool. Cool. Cool."

-*giggles*

-"Oooooh. Neat."

-"I think we need to ask ourselves the hard question: is this possibly... too cool?"

And then I wouldn't even add the commentary to the demo because I wouldn't want people distracted from how cool it is.

Cody dropped a couple of headscratching comments in there.

Criticals are pretty obviously generated on head shots, not a random occurrence. It's more obvious on the IGN behind the scenes vid, where Hamrick is loading up the head shots. http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/13/e3-2013-destiny-reminds-the-world-to-never-doubt-bungie

As for co-op re spawning, we've had multiple confirmations that you won't always be playing in co-op if you don't want to. I wasn't sure where that comment came from

Also, Cody, have you played Dark Souls? If you haven't you should. Many things that you assume must happen in games don't in Dark souls (IE, if a game has loot then you must grind, co-op needs voice communication to work etc).

Some valid stuff was brought up though, world state in big scripted events is a big question to me. Space magic was tragically boring to me; essentially it acted as a replacement to grenades with the exception of the hunters gun buff. There's potential there for more interesting ability combinations (Hell, ME3 co-op's biotic combos are an example of this done well). Admittedly we haven't seen much though.

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Criticals are pretty obviously generated on head shots, not a random occurrence.

I see. Thank you for pointing this out. I wonder why it just doesn't say 'headshot' then?

Criticals are pretty obviously generated on head shots, not a random occurrence.

I see. Thank you for pointing this out. I wonder why it just doesn't say 'headshot' then?

Probably because other enemies will have different weak points. Kind of like the normal flood forms in Halo 3.

I won't lie though, it is definitely possible with the skill trees they have for weapons that some weapons will have random crits or building up a crit meter or something. That does not strike me as unrealistic from we have seen so far.

It occasionally feels like a forced effort to be antagonistic to the game and the thoughts and feelings of others, rather than a discussion of merits and demerits of the game as a whole.

Also, from what I have experienced, attempts to respond with educated, cited and/or well-formed responses feel like they are either simply

• Ignored in favour of responding to less constructive criticisms to points
  or
  
• Responded to with seemingly purposeful and awkward obtuse misunderstanding.

It occasionally feels like a forced effort to be antagonistic to the game and the thoughts and feelings of others, rather than a discussion of merits and demerits of the game as a whole.

Also, from what I have experienced, attempts to respond with educated, cited and/or well-formed responses feel like they are either simply

• Ignored in favour of responding to less constructive criticisms to points
  or
  
• Responded to with seemingly purposeful and awkward obtuse misunderstanding.

Agreed, except with the "occasionally" bit. It's gotten to the point with all the negativity and occasional outright trolling that I hesitate to read his posts or threads. I ignore any content / videos / podcasts he is in, and I certainly don't reply to his posts anymore. Like you said, responding to a Cody Miller post doesn't get you a discussion, it gets you an absolute statement, or an argument over definitions, or the willful misunderstanding of an alternate point of view.

Criticals are pretty obviously generated on head shots, not a random occurrence.

I see. Thank you for pointing this out. I wonder why it just doesn't say 'headshot' then?

Probably because other enemies will have different weak points. Kind of like the normal flood forms in Halo 3.

I won't lie though, it is definitely possible with the skill trees they have for weapons that some weapons will have random crits or building up a crit meter or something. That does not strike me as unrealistic from we have seen so far.

This is all true.

You can see the spider tank "opening" a few times for a nice glowy fudge centre you can shoot for massive damage. I am willing to bet this is a "Critical" area.

I can very much see a situation where "Shots fired for the next 3 seconds are criticals" is a high-level and long-cooldown Spacemagic power.

responding to a Cody Miller post doesn't get you a discussion, it gets you an absolute statement, or an argument over definitions, or the willful misunderstanding of an alternate point of view.

I would like to point out that my comments are how I feel about the situation. I may well be misinterpreting, internally parsing, or being oversensitive.

I thus wrote that it "feels like" what I wrote, not that it "is".

Absolute statements, and all that. :P

responding to a Cody Miller post doesn't get you a discussion, it gets you an absolute statement, or an argument over definitions, or the willful misunderstanding of an alternate point of view.

I would like to point out that my comments are how I feel about the situation. I may well be misinterpreting, internally parsing, or being oversensitive.

I thus wrote that it "feels like" what I wrote, not that it "is".

Absolute statements, and all that. :P

Indeed. I certainly didn't mean to tie you to a more absolutist position by agreeing with you. :)