2 sides to every coin (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 23:55 (3070 days ago) @ TheeChaos
edited by CruelLEGACEY, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 23:59

On the one hand, I'm getting pretty tired of hearing streamers complain that this game doesn't have enough content for them. They're the ones who chose to make playing Destiny into a full-time job. Not to mention the fact that Destiny has boatloads of content. Maybe if more streamers found new and creative ways to work the older content into their broadcasts, they wouldn't burn out on the new stuff so quickly. "But then we wouldn't get end-game drops!". Boohoo. It's a game. Have fun with it or don't. I'm not saying TripleWRECK and others don't have valid criticisms at times. As Kermit pointed out, it's just that the hyperbole gets way out of control.

Buuuuuuut....

All that said, I do feel like Bungie has some issues they should probably sort out. There seems to be a level of miscommunication between Bungie and the community that I don't think was present until the past year or two. Bungie also seems to be suffering from a lack of agility when it comes to making changes or addressing problems with the game. Star Wars Battlefront just got custom games added to their feature set after only 2 months of hearing the community ask for it. I know they are 2 different games from 2 different studios, but it's starting to get silly how long we've gone without hearing even a peep from Bungie on the matter (in any official capacity). It takes months for them to make tweaks to the sandbox, while games like Battlefield and Rainbow 6 get those kinds of adjustments every few weeks (when needed).

I know for a fact that the team at Bungie busts their asses working on this game. I also know the team at Bungie is larger than ever before. So why then does it take so long to react or make changes? So long to create even minimal forms of content conpared to other studios? There very well may be internal issues (Dev tools, communication issues, whatever) but for the sake of this conversation I don't really care what those issues may be, if they exist. I would rather look at the game itself: where exactly does all of Bungie's time go? Is Destiny really that much bigger than Halo Reach? In some ways, it clearly is. And yet the player base at large feels like we have less to do in the long run. How does this happen?

Back in the Halo 3 days, Frank and Luke had a Bungie producer on the podcast (I think it was Pete Parsons, but don't quote me on that). The producer brought up the phrase "consentrated coolness" as the benchmark that Bungie used to judge the game they were making. The idea being that every minute of developer time is precious, so that time better be spent making something that will make the game substantially better or more fun. You can't include every feature, so pick the ones that you'll get the most mileage out of.

This idea, "consentrated coolness", is what I believe is lacking from Destiny as it stands now.

Don't get me wrong; I think Destiny has lots of incredible stuff in it. The art is spectacular. The shooting is best in class. The raids are the most fun Co-op experiences I've ever had, and Trials is the best competitive experience I've had. But when I step back and look at Destiny as a whole, I start to wonder how much of the game really needs to be there. Or if it is living up to its potential.

Do we really need so many guns and so much armor? Or more to the point, how is it that in a game with hundreds of guns, there isn't a single primary weapon that really feels right to me in PvP (compare this to games like Titanfall or Halo, where one of the very first weapons you touch feels PERFECT right out of the gate). How can a game have so many unique pieces of armor, yet I can't make my guardian look the way I want them to look?

How about the environments? The first time I jumped into the Alpha, I spent hours exploring every inch of old Russia. My imagination ran wild as I traveled across the landscape, seeing other Guardians along the way. "What secrets will I uncover here?" None, it turns out. "What will I learn about the history of this place?". Not much, so far. "What kinds of experiences will I have with other Guardians out here in the wild?". Turns out I saw just about everything Patrol has to offer, even now, back in the Alpha.

Where am I going with all this?

On the subject of "is Bungie killing Destiny?", my answer is: Of course not. Destiny is not dying. But I do think it is suffering from some long term health issues. A lot of streamers out there are saying things like "all we need is a roadmap" or "all we need is a little bit of new content". In my opinion, these solutions are as short sighted as the question in discussion. A roadmap doesn't give us stuff to do now. A little bit of new content will placate those who are complaining for a week or two, then we're right back here again. What Destiny needs, I think, is more "consentrated coolness". IMO, Bungie needs to figure out how to really capitalize on the parts of Destiny that are so unique and awesome without shooting themselves in the foot as they have done so many times over the past year. I'm talking about things like adding all this new armor into the game, but making it such a pain to level it up that nobody bothers. Or creating a brilliant, seamless co-op open-world/patrol system, but fail to add to it or expand upon it in any meaningful way since launch. These are the kinds of things that make a real difference in the long run.