"Value", "enough being enough" and that feeling of Déjà vu (Destiny)

by Revenant1988 , How do I forum?, Saturday, July 02, 2016, 00:57 (3160 days ago)

It was pretty much dead today at work due to the impending holiday weekend, so I spent a lot of time reading non-work related things. Long train of thought incoming.

This article about the Division's new DLC caught my eye because of the similarities between it and Destiny in the genre they occupy.

I found that the things the author described he was feeling about The Division mirror many of my feeling about Destiny- some sections I could even do a 'find and replace' between the two titles it was that spot on for me.

I've never experienced a game like Destiny before.

I never got into WoW or any other MMORPG type games.

As such, I'm finding myself having difficulty reconciling what I expect to get out of Destiny and getting older and having less time to game in general and to make the most of that time when I do.

(If Destiny came out while I was in college and had the Konami code for free time, I would likely feel much different about the game; I feel that much is certain)

Assess the mess.

I've fired up Destiny twice in the last week, which is more than I've touched it since December, so the first thing I set about doing was cleaning up my existing gear and the things that were optimal to me then.

After unpacking all the sterling treasures (had no idea what they were) and other rewards that had accumulated in my postmaster, I started to try to figure out what was worth keeping and what wasn't.

It immediately struck me how....inefficient it would be to try to level any gear right now with pending DLC on the way, because while it can add new content and things to do, it also undoes or devalues the work you've already done ("Hey that's a nice looking set of VoG armor you got there Titan, to bad it's SHIT compared to all this KF raid gear, which will soon be worthless with the RoI gear!")

This section of the article nails this-

"Time was, a gold high-end gun was basically a gold high-end gun, but nowadays the color of a piece of gear tells even less of the whole story. I’ve gotten new high-end guns that have a gear score of 182. I still have some that are only at 163. I’ve gotten coveted dark-green “set” gear items that are at 214. The people I’m matching with routinely have Gear Scores above 230, which makes me view all of my gear—including the sweet G36 assault rifle I just got—as junk that I’ll eventually replace.

Questions I now have to ask upon getting a new piece of gear:

What is the DPS? What is the armor rating?
What are the perks?
If I don’t like the perks, how much does it cost to re-roll them?
If it’s armor, how does it affect my various attributes?
If it’s set armor, which set is it part of? Is that a set I want? Or even have?
Above all else, what is the Gear Score rating?
The wrong answer to any of those questions can render a piece of loot either useless or, at best, only temporarily useful. When I think about weighing each piece of gear against all the other ones in my inventory, I mostly just feel tired."

Yep!

The gear I had last night I was sitting at a light level of 240-260; After sorting through the stuff I just got (mind you, for nothing, it was all in my postmaster) I was up to the 290-310 range.

Not bad. Still, this stuff I'm wearing is going to be garbage really soon... so I debated awhile before deciding to hop into the Strike playlist.

Then I started looking at all the other players around me...

Everyone is so unique that they somehow all look the same.

I look around and it must be an Iron Banner week, because there are matching emblems and wolf cloaks everywhere. K. I also wonder when Guardians lost their sense of style, because I see lots of neon and lights and just plain gross color combinations. Blehg!

It dawns on me while MM that I have no idea what the light cap is right now. I start to wonder, am I close? Far away? Should I level some gear so I can get a leg up on the new DLC, or will there be some consumable doo-dad that lets a non-regular player like me make up for lost time and skip all that grinding?

(from the article)

"When I started Underground, my gear score was 171. It’s now 196. I look around me and I see a sea of 231s, 233s, 240s, a stray 243. They all look the same to me, guys in grey military gear with (occasionally fluorescent) military guns, running around in circles before heading off on their next subterranean sortie. I think of how their gear is basically like my gear. I think about how all of our gear will be made irrelevant when the next DLC arrives. Then I think about all the other games I could be playing instead of this one."

Yep.

So I start to let my mind wander again... "what am I *expecting* to get out of this game?" keeps circulating in my mind. I'm not really looking at the world in front of me and enjoying the game play (which, FWIW, is still gorgeous and solid). I try to put it out of my mind.

Hey this Strike is different! But it's still the same....

I go to the strike playlist and see there are skulls now. Good ones too! SWEET.

Right off the bat it's the Undying Mind- but there's Taken enemies! (News for me) Ok, Taken enemies in spots... the boss fight is still the same.

Next strike is the Archon Prie- hey wait a minute, more Taken. Ok, guess that means this is like the last strik HEY THE BOSS IS TAKEN TOO WOAH oh it's like the Taken Lieutenant patrols. Darn.

I played one more strike to get the last of the marks I could earn and it played the same as the first.

So the addition of modifiers is pretty neat, and a good way to keep the experience fresh. I thought the Taken being in the strikes would be to, but ultimately was less satisfying. Once I understood the formula, the dance became mundane. I shouldn't feel like I'm 'going through the motions' in a game I have not played in 6 months that's been updated several times since I've been away.

(from the article)
"After an hour or so of blasting through increasingly difficult operations in Underground, the template became clear: Head into a mission, kill some dudes, go to another area, kill some more dudes, defend a point against some waves of dudes and kill a boss. Level up my Underground rank (separate from my overall level) to unlock more modifiers.

Another hour or two revealed some minor variations (these bad guys have a disruptor; this level has a slightly more interesting backdrop), but the template stayed the same. Playing with modifiers (ammo restrictions, no radar) makes things more interesting. Adding additional objectives makes missions last longer. But I already feel I’ve seen what there is to see."

Yep.

I feel like I've seen what there is to see.

I could go do the nightfall, but that would require me to level up more. To get gear with a high enough light level to infuse the stuff I have now (which by the way, glad to see that system is working better now and giving the FULL light value) I would need to do the Kings Fall raid. Well I don't have anyone to really do that with that hasn't already done it, and I don't want to hold anyone back, nor do I want to rush the experience like I did with Crota and not have fun. Even then, I have no idea if I'm leveled enough anyway.

The point I'm getting at, is I can SEE this path. I know where it goes, and I know that it's a crapshoot anyway once the new stuff is out and the current gear becomes obsolete.

(From the article)
"Were I to stick with Underground, I can see the future laid out in front of me. I’d start playing on challenging difficulty. I’d add more modifiers. Eventually I’d start to play on heroic difficulty. My Underground level would climb. I’d earn more and more Directive Intel and be able to afford more and more modifiers. The enemies I’d fight would absorb more and more and more bullets. The mission structure would remain basically the same.

All the while, my gear score would steadily climb. I’d replace my old guns with new guns that look the same but have a higher number. I’d get halfway to having a complete set of armor. I’d think about buying a blueprint and crafting something. I’d junk a lot of gear I didn’t want, and would gradually grow more and more numb to the endless repetition."

Yep. After those strikes I did I ended up ranking up with Dead Orbit and got a reward package. I got a Shader I'd been wanting since Y1 so that was nice, and I got a set of SPEKTAR arms that matched all the SPEKTAR armor I got for free at the postmaster, but I'd need to infuse this stuff to make it good, and to do that I'd need to play things and hope for engrams to drop. I thought about spending the marks I'd earned on gear to use to infuse it, but that seemed wasteful too.

Here I go again, worrying about stats and efficiency over fun and looks.

(From the article)

"As has always been the case with The Division, it remains difficult to get very excited about getting a new shotgun with slightly different perks, or a new grey backpack that holds more ammo. None of it fundamentally changes the way my character looks, nor how I play the game—my team and I roll into an area and hose down enemies until they’re all gone. Rinse and repeat."

This was the same with all the weapons I got as rewards too. I got another MIDA (still my favorite and still effective!) that is better that the 290 something one I had, but should I bother leveling this one up, when there might not be a Year 3 MIDA? I looked at all the new guns I had and started tying to see if the perks I had were something good or not, and ultimately decided to break them all down or use them to infuse things I know I like.

I'm disappointed this sentiment hasn't changed, but I'm not sure I can fault the game for that. It feels like I don't want to try these guns, as equal that I don't find them intriguing. Hard to say.

Groundhog Day

Six months ago I stopped playing because I saw where the treadmill was going and I didn't feel like running. Here I am today wondering if I want to get back on.

I have limited free time.

Destiny feels like it's a damn JOB if you want to keep up with that upper echelon of player. How some of you guys can find the time and mental fortitude to run multiple characters, I know not.

When something that should be fun, doesn't feel fun, then that is a sign you shouldn't be doing it.

But I DID have fun playing it. The levels look good. The gameplay is good, if not repetitive. But Halo is repetitive. Shit, I have played games in Halo Wars that lasted over an HOUR for one game and LOST and had fun. These games are all repetitive in one way or another.

The thing I can't figure out is why that repetitiveness or perceived repetitiveness impacts my enjoyment of Destiny but not other games. On the surface, they are the same damn thing.

Coke and Pepsi.

I have this nagging feeling that I should be liking this MORE but can't stop my mind from thinking about the metagame, the treadmill, how this is all structured to keep me coming back frequently.

It's like having a really tasty dessert and I can eat the whole thing, yet I don't want to.

(from the article)

"I’ve certainly gotten something out of my time with The Division. Steam tells me I’ve played almost 80 hours, which is actually higher than I would’ve thought. If I had a regular crew of friends to play with, I’m sure I’d stick around longer. But I don’t, so here I am: half a dozen operations under my belt, interest fading fast.

I’ll be back from time to time to casually play an operation or two, and I’m sure I’ll check out the next DLC when it hits. But it sure is hard to get back on the Division train once you’ve fallen off."

I don't know how many hours I have into Destiny, but the above sums it up. I still plan to play a little bit more here this weekend, but man, once you get off, it is hard getting back on.

(The thing that drew me back in this week is I'm hoping to start prop building again soon, and Destiny has some things I want to make, which means I need reference pictures! )

So, there it is. I'm glad to see you all still enjoying the current content and excited for the next round of content. Hoping I'll be able to as well!