ITT: Cody undercuts his central argument against Destiny

by EffortlessFury , Thursday, August 08, 2013, 08:48 (4127 days ago) @ electricpirate

It interests me that you praise Dues Ex, when the hooks are very similar to that of Destiny. Players spend so long creeping around these tunnels looking for nooks and crannies or doing missions for people for new gear, new guns, and upgrades! They want new scopes and silencers for their guns, more hacking tools, more money, and upgrade points. Even if the reward of a quest is information, most of the time, that information essentially results in a place to get more stuff.

For the vast majority of players, finding all the cool plot details is just there while they look for things to invest in their character. Really, Dues Ex's itemization is a carrot to get players exploring the world and drawing them deeper. In contrast, Bungie looks to use gear in destiny as a carrot get players to explore the world and play together. Both games use investment as a tool to get the player to interact with the world in more meaningful ways (one is in terms of plot, the other in terms of social play). Destiny is riffing off the idea a bit differently, and we are still missing lots of important detail on how the individual systems work. Hell, maybe Destinies systems *Won't* work; there's a lot we don't know there. Even so, your praise of Dues Ex clearly demonstrates that even for you, player investment systems can add tremendous value to a game. This all makes your blanket opposition to them curious, which leads me to believe either you don't understand the implications of your own arguments... or you just don't believe them.

"Players spend so long [playing]...for new gear, new guns, and upgrades."

Disagree. I don't care about "stuff." I care about story.