Earning loot, rewards (Destiny)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, January 03, 2018, 18:14 (2459 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

My biggest issue is the integration of loot and rewards.

I can see the argument that the current set up is actually more player-friendly. You earn XP for literally everything, which will give you bright engrams, which you turn in for loot. Cool, cool, I can see why people like that.

I'm of the mind that in makes all of that cool shit feel less cool. It takes the joke of "your gear will tell your story" and makes it even less true. Now it literally doesn't matter what you do, everyone's getting the same shit from doing whatever random stuff they want.

Again, I can see the argument for that being a good thing. But I also see why it makes people think the actual activities you do feel superfluous. I'm the big proponent of "play for fun, see loot as a bonus," but I'm starting to really miss the way D1 worked in a lot of ways. I liked doing the Black Spindle mission for both the gun and the ship. Those were two things I could look at and feel good about accomplishing something cool. The closest thing to that in D2 was the Nightfall tier Arms Dealer strike for that exotic shotgun. That's honestly still the most fun I've had in D2. Korny, kupkake, and I ran that thing like five times, getting better every single run until we finally beat it with a bunch of time left on the clock. It's a shame I hate that shotgun (and I havne't finished the rest of the quest), but that still feels like a real reward for doing something fun and cool.

And it doesn't even have to be on that scale. I've talked about this particular example a few times before, but I still like the emblem you get in the Taken King for activating the two terminals in the Cabal ship and fighting the Ultra Knight in the room that opens up. That was a neat little secret with a fun little challenge that rewards you with an emblem. That's way more fun that getting random cosmetics from Bright Engrams, or even from Cayde's chests, which honestly has to be the lamest "activity" to ever be in Destiny so far.

I play Destiny for fun, and neat rewards will never make me play if I'm not having fun. Bu they go a long way towards pushing me towards specific activities and make me look back more fondly on the time I spend playing, at least in some instances.

The Eververse almost completely negates that side of the game for me. I don't hate it, and I won't quit playing over it, but I still think it sucks.