Does Destiny need a "campaign"? (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, October 20, 2017, 12:56 (2615 days ago) @ Cody Miller

In a lot of ways, Destiny 2’s campaign pretty much is “just” a short series of adventures set one after the other. I guess I’m a bit confused as what would really change. Already, some of the story mission like the one with the tank had us travel through the open world to launch. More of that? Or more elaborate events in the open world that bring us from plot point to plot point?

(emphasis mine)

Yeah, more stuff like that is what I had in mind. Destiny has all these different systems in place (strikes, patrols, adventures, public events) and some of the most exciting and unpredictable moments happen when those systems crash into each other and overlap. I think having more instances of that, and more different combinations, is a good direction for Destiny to lean, as it is really the thing that makes Destiny unique. And a good way to achieve that is to keep as many players engaged with public instances as possible, including the "story" focused missions.

But now you have to put back in the grind in order to keep people playing and the spaces filled. It doesn't work dude. You have to stretch things out and make a grind for people to spend the time required in the world for this to work. It's one of those things that sounds good, but isn't practical. it has to be a grind, because you can't make content as fast as people play it. It's the biggest reason why MMOs do not work as games and have low fun per second.

Wrong. It doesn't have to be a grind, it can be challenge.
Warframe does a great job of this with stuff like:

• Alerts that have guaranteed drops,
  
• Nightmare modifiers with guaranteed exclusive loot,
  
• Sorties that put specific restrictions on you against high level missions/enemies,
  
• Vault runs that require your team to apply different debuffs.
  
• Different factions that can come after your teammates at any time (many with exclusive loot).
  
• Limited time Tactical Alerts that throw a wrench into the game worlds (such as unique enemies that you have to find using only clues and communication with the community),
  
• And periodic events that require you to use uncommon mechanics or tools in your arsenal.

Destiny could implement any one of these things into the game in order to keep people coming back without resorting to grinding. Stuff like the Nightfall and the "End the Arms Dealer" mission are great examples of something that you can replay because of challenge (and that starts you off in a public area, and requires you to travel via sparrow to even begin).

There's tons of ways that you can give people incentive to hop back on without simply resorting to RNG grind (unless "replaying content at all = grinding" to you).