We, all of us, color the past with our present. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, March 22, 2018, 18:15 (2515 days ago) @ Claude Errera

There are Destiny fans... but not a lot of Bungie fans

I think a big part of what you’re touching on here is that both Bungie and the Bungie community are going through major transition period.

What does it mean to be a “Bungie fan”?

I first became a Bungie fan because of Halo. I adored that game and the rest of the franchise. But Bungie doesn’t make Halo anymore, so that’s gotta go from the list.

The next thing I fell in love with about Bungie was the people. Getting to know the team, their personalities, and how they worked together was inspirational to me. But 99% of those people are gone now, and I haven’t had as much opportunity to get to know the team that’s there now.

But I didn’t just love the people, I loved the whole culture that the team presented, both in terms of how they worked internally, and how they communicated with the fans. But that was a long time ago. Bungie isn’t the underdog, the “little studio that could” anymore. They’re the 800lb gorilla, with a team of over 700 developers, a $500 million 10-year deal with Activision, and 2 support studios. Of course the culture has changed. It would be impossible for it not to change.

So what do I mean when I say “I’m a Bungie fan”? What can I say that applies to Bungie today just as much as it applied to Bungie 10 years ago?

Well I can point to specifics. I love that they swing for the fences. There’s no question that Destiny is doing things that have never been done before. Even with all the bumps in the road, the game has taken off in a way that can’t be denied.

I also love some of the incredible talent and artistry evident in bungie’s work today. Their art and audio teams are stellar!

What becomes apparent to me when I follow this train of thought is that in my heart, I just can’t connect Bungie today with Bungie of the past because I can’t convince myself that it’s the same thing anymore. It’s like that joke about the old hammer.: “I’ve had this hammer for 30 years... I’ve replaced the handle 3 times and the head twice, but this baby has never failed me!” I feel like my relationship with Bungie today is a new one, because in the vast majority of ways I can relate to, they are a new Bungie. And, I can’t stress this enough, I’m ok with that :) But that “what have you done for me lately” attitude that you point out... I see it too, and I wonder if it’s a symptom of this new relationship on a large scale, filtered through the usual levels of not-so-thoughtful online discourse. I think some Destiny and Bungie fans are less willing to extend the benefit of the doubt because they don’t feel like they really know Bungie anymore.

That’s all just my own personal musings. I certainly don’t have the same in-depth, long term perspective on the Bungie community that you or many others around here have. I just have this red flag that goes up in my brain every time this topic comes up, because I see certain trains of thought that I think are ultimately bad for the community. I think this is where Mig and I often fail to see eye to eye. Any time I hear something along the lines of “Bungie hasn’t changed, the community has” in combination with “I wish the community would go back to the way it used to be”, that red flag in my brain pops up. Because I think Bungie has changed just as much as the community has (I’m not attaching any positive or negative values to that change... I’m just noting change). So I think it’s literally impossible for the community to “go back” without acknowledging that Bungie would also need to “go back”. And even then, I think “going back” is the wrong thing to hope for. I believe that both the community and Bungie are in the process of figuring out what the nature of our relationship can and should be as we go forward. And I think there have been some mistakes on both sides. So I try to call out those mistakes as I see them (in addition to calling out the good stuff) because I want us all (devs and fans) to be able to get passed this point of transition that is so problematic at the moment and move into a place where trust and respect can flow more freely in all directions.