Interesting points (Destiny)

by Revenant1988 , How do I forum?, Saturday, January 23, 2016, 00:23 (3322 days ago) @ Claude Errera

From two different, back-to-back posts on reddit, in a thread complaining about skill-based matchmaking:

"If you really think about it, there's absolutely no reason to play crucible. No goal, no objective apart from grinding rep. Nothing. No tiers of PvP armour, nothing tied to a certain level of play. It just basic for everyone."

(emphasis mine) This sentence in particular irks me, and is one of the gripes I have with Destiny (and to some extent, gaming in general)- what 'REASON' should there be, aside from "to have fun"?

Yeah, it's nice when there is a little extra incentive to do something, such as a double XP or an emblem or some other cosmetic doodad, but FUN is supposed to be the reason you play anything.

Quote number one just reeks of some sort of entitlement mentality...

Why are you grinding for rep in something? (You need rep to 'X' someone might say) Ok, well why do you want that thing? Destiny has been getting better at giving players different avenues to obtain high level gear to increase light level.... that's the only 'end game' that Destiny has now. So if you don't enjoy Crucible, maybe, I dunno, don't fucking play it?

Am I being too black and white here?

"Sometimes I don't want to have to get sweaty in every game. Without skill based matchmaking, I didn't have to try hard since I was either getting stomped or stomping. Every game now it's like clawing tooth and nail for kills. Just give me an unranked playlist so I can listen to music full blast, sit back in my seat and just have a good time."

I understand what this person is trying to say. I'm not sure what Bungie intended with some of these crucible modes.

• Trials is supposed to be THE competitive playlist. High stakes. Level advantages.
  
• Iron Banner is the same thing, but without limited lives... Level advantages.
  
• General Crucible then is supposed to be.... more social? balanced? No Level advantages.

I guess I do see a bit of a "hole" here then. If I'm a non-serious competitive player (as in, I want to win, but I'm not going to stress about it like I would in the other play modes) then all I really have is vanilla crucible.

Well, skill based MM turns that on it's head then, doesn't it? I would make the argument that what was "vanilla" Destiny is now more like Iron Banner but with a leveled playing field.

So where do the "casual"of casuals go then? It feels like that's where he's going with this.

I understand that people play games (and specifically Destiny) for different reasons than do... but wow. I can't even wrap my brain around these views - and the fact that they came one right after another in a thread makes my head spin.

I'm not going to lie- I dislike (at time of writing) crucible. The meta game is too much to think about for me. I prefer the simplicity of Halo, where I know my shotgun is the same as your shotgun and I don't have to worry about so many variables. Destiny has too much variety in this way, for me. I can empathize with the second player that for a long time, it WAS "getting stomped vs stomping on" for me. Vanilla Destiny was too easy. It lacked the thrill that I get playing Halo MP.

So I should have liked Trials and IB right? Well, I don't have the guns and armor to be competitive in that because I don't play a lot anymore. I can't devote the time required to level up. So for someone like me who NEEDS level advantages to be disabled, the new crucible sounds like a good thing! I'll have closer games, I don't have to worry about light. Good good.

But it still leaves out the casual player, in that sense. They don't have a "social slayer" anymore, a place to dick around with other players. In Halo, we all KNEW the difference in skill\seriousness we'd encounter in Team Slayer vs Social Team Slayer.

Destiny MP kinda lacks that, now. I would expect it to change and see things get re-tooled.

In terms of competitiveness, you've got

Hard - Trials
Medium - IB
Normal - Vanilla
Easy - ????