I don't see a transcript and can't listen right now - anything cool?

Yeah. No closed captions in the video!

Reddit as usual comes through for a list of highlights: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/4xf7nr/game_informer_an_exclusive_roundtable_with/d6f5ar7

The Reddit post kinda bullet points what they talked about, but of course it doesn't capture the whole thing. Some thoughts:

- They briefly mentioned how the characters in current day Destiny are aware that the weapons and technologies they have access to now are like stone tools compared to what Humanity had in the Golden Age.
- Talked a little about how Eva Levante is kinda this character that is just so excited to be in the tower and around Guardians.
- They sorta said that there were less cinematics in Destiny in the beginning because they were unsure of their story and unsure with how much cutscene content should be in the game.
- Talked a bit about how SIVA is a thing that perhaps isn't itself evil but can cause disaster depending on who is using it and how they are using it. One of the Game Informer articles in the last week mentioned how SIVA is related to and a more advanced or concrete form of the idea behind engrams and data being convertible to matter. In this interview, they talked very briefly about the Iron Lords wanting to use SIVA to rebuild the Golden Age. Given that they had to sacrifice themselves to contain it, clearly something went very wrong with that plan...
- They did mention that the things we have done, like killing Crota and Oryx are historic events in themselves. That they are history being made in the present. And how one of the new characters in the new social space is something of a historian who is partially there because the things we have done are historic.
- Talked about how not all Guardians are the same age. That some like the Iron Lords existed before the formation of The City and some like Efrideet and, of course, the player are much younger Guardians.
- Had a brief lightning round with some fun questions like will we find out where Xur comes from (maybe) is there something cool we don't know about the Ahamkara (yes) was Mara Sov's plan a bad plan since it ended with her murdered and her fleet wiped out (they very nearly flat out said Mara Sov is still alive, saying "she'd be mad at you calling her plan bad if she saw this interview") and if they knew who the Exo Stranger was talking to on the radio when she didn't have time to explain (yes).

Most interesting to me was the bits and pieces that were revealed about the Dark Age (the time after the collapse but before The City). We already knew that there was a time where humanity was scattered after the collapse and warlords held territory and caused trouble and eventually Guardians established The City. What I didn't know was some of these warlords were themselves people who had Ghosts and were using their powers (and presumably their near immortality) to rule over others. It was the Iron Lords who got together and fought the warlords and established The City as a safe place for Humanity and who sorta defined what it means to even be a Guardian. This also means that Guardians like Saladin have been alive for centuries and that Dredgen Yor was not the only person with a Ghost to be corrupt. Make me wonder if Shin Malphur and the other notable Guardians we've read about in the Grimoire could possibly still be alive.

Finally, throughout the interview there was mention of and a sense of the writting team having a lot of great stories they wanted to tell. That Destiny's story is big and multifaceted and epic. And that the challenge is how to weave these stories of the past into the things the player is doing in the present. It was encouraging the see the enthusiasm they had and also made me think that maybe we need some novels so we can have some awesome Destiny stories without having to wait on each new game release.

All the Halo's are pretty much a linear path with a very specific story. What I gather from the various rumors is that Destiny initially had this very linear story, and that late in production they dropped that concept for a more open world experience where players wouldn't have to do missions in order.

That late change in direction didn't give them too much time to refine and rebuild things, and they have wandered into somewhat unknown territory. The only real models for it are RPGs, or Borderlands. Borderlands has a very linear plot, and is the closest to Destiny's current form, but is very focused on the four archetype characters and the main enemy. Exploration is a bit limited.

I'm really hoping that Destiny 2 adds NPCs out in the wilderness, and really expands upon the world spaces you can zoom around in.

I'd really love a halo 4 Spartan Ops show, where you played weekly with new cutscenes and story continuation, but Microsoft Dropped that pretty quickly and I wonder how expensive it was vs. the return. Likewise Sci-fy's Defiance had a tie in game. I don't think anyone has gotten an interactive series to work yet, but I imagine sooner or later a it will happen.

Many pilot episodes are rough around the edges, or it's clear from watching them that the show wasn't sure about what it was yet or what it was to become. That's the spirit in which I'm understanding the comparison.