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Josh Hamrick translated (Destiny)

by Korny @, Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Saturday, January 20, 2018, 21:36 (2258 days ago) @ Kahzgul

I was gonna write something here, but then it just got bitter and sad instead of biting and witty. Josh said pretty much nothing. We learned his timeline is long and bends towards vagueness. Season 3 was mentioned as when you can expect the first changes (and we JUST started season 2 with CoO), and "end of the year" was mentioned as when we can expect the first of the other changes, with more after that. WHAT? It's January 2018 and the sandbox team is basically telling us to play a different game until 2019 but then please come back to us we'll treat you better this time, baby, we promise.

This is so depressing. Someone please light a fire under these guys. If I were in charge, I'd make the following changes:

- Small, incremental, weekly balance adjustments.

I remember them talking about how wonderful Destiny 2 was since they'd be able to provide more frequent tweaks, even on a per-weapon basis! And we've seen absolutely none of that. Even Prometheus Lens took them a week to tweak, and has yet to be fixed over a month later.

- A dedicated community communicating person for just the sandbox team.

Remember waaaaay back when I asked for a bi-weekly stream where they communicate immediate and distant goals, and show players something of substance? Yeah, that is still something that would go a long way towards them actually communicating more like they said they would.

- A literal list of goals that is specific and updated daily with progress.

Vagueness is terrible (Is that going to be one of my new trademarks when addressing Bungie? I feel like it has to be pointed out to them every single time they "communicate"). You can say "we plan to make changes before the end of the year", but that doesn't give us anything to look forward to. It doesn't show us any progress. How many of these changes will come when the things that they are tied to become irrelevant? How many of these wonderful changes will be locked behind DLC?
If you add Strike-specific loot, will Vanilla players have access to it, like you've implied, or are you loopholing it into your "what you own" chart as DLC?

Communicate!
This weekly update was the weakest in a while. Saying "Hey guys, remember these promises that we made? Read them again! We're communicating!"


And Bungie, if your game's backend doesn't support updates of this frequency, you need to write a new backend for Destiny 3,

I've seen another developer completely overhaul their game's backend to make updates, overhauls, and general changes easier. They didn't charge players for it, nor did they lock it behind DLC. Improving on your engine and platforms should be a process, not a "we'll change things in the sequel" deal.

because this is the kind of attention an investment game needs. I know that's asking a lot, but then again, you keep asking us to wait around for you to get your shit together after you've taken our money and, frankly, I'm not impressed.

I want to break down the entirety of what Hamrick said, because it is almost comical. Let's keep in mind what his letter is pitched as:

A lot of the feedback we have been receiving is centered on weapons and abilities. The feel of Destiny 2 and what makes a Guardian a Guardian. We’re taking the feedback to heart and Sandbox Design Lead Josh Hamrick has some thoughts of what the Sandbox team has planned.

Let's see how they're going to elaborate on these requested changes. What can we look forward to?

As with any plans, the first items on the list are the clearest and well defined.

Alright, let's hear it. Clearest, and well-defined!

For most of these, we are already hard at work and making good progress on them.

Is that their version of a drumroll? Well, let's see the reveal!

The Exotic pass is moving forward nicely with Jon Weisnewski at the helm.

... Okay? What does that mean, and why is it relevant? How is this clear or "well-defined" in any way?

The team has also been talking about things we want to see in the next balance pass, coming to you in Season 3, for the last several weeks.

This tells us nothing about what changes we can expect. It tells us nothing except that we won't be seeing any balance changes this season, so... nothing to look forward to?

Also, Grant MacKay has put together a really exciting plan for Mods 2.0 that will open their requirements up significantly allowing them to be more potent in ways that you’ll end up feeling directly in your ability uptime and therefore total power output.

Telling us that you now have a plan, when you had already told us that you had a plan... what is this supposed to convey?

The rest of the crew you ask? Oh, they’re just hard at work on super exciting new content to put smiles on all your faces before the year is out... And that’s just the beginning.

"Clear and well-defined", huh? They could be talking about DLC, or Eververse content, or events, or texture tweaks, or QoL improvements, or literally anything. "People are working." ... That's communication?

Items further down the list need more planning or more time to actually implement... Most need both.

Deer Lorde.

On top of that, some need groundwork that we will be laying with earlier changes.

Like what? Can you specify a single thing? One single thing?

In all these cases though, the team is already discussing and planning for them in one way or another.

...

As usual, we are excited to work on building something that you'll love and that feels great to play… Because Sandbox loves you.

I know he doesn't mean to come off as patronizing. I will assume that he and his team are genuinely excited to be in the position that they are in. Surely.

2018 is shaping up to be a huge year for all of us and there is plenty of Sandbox improvements and changes coming your way. As we move closer to realizing all of the new efforts being made, we’ll continue to show up here to share many more details about how it’s all shaping up and how it will all work.

"We'll communicate more. Later."

We expect you to keep showing up and sharing your feedback and passion for the game.

Buddy, you have fewer people showing up every week, especially when you guys continue to make the same mistakes time and time again. Poor communication is one of them. A 2 1/2 paragraph statement that gives us zero new information, that is pitched as having it is poor communication.

They really need a new community manager over there. I respect Cozmo and DeeJ, but man. dmg04 blew them out of the water with decent Updates. Cozmo especially has some of the weakest updates over there, which is weird, since he's supposed to be the guy who understands the community best.

I don't know. I'm almost drained of my disappointment, and joining cheapLEY in apathy.

And no, Kermit, this has nothing to do with playing the game itself.


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