Niobe Labs Puzzle (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, January 09, 2019, 08:18 (1927 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by Korny, Wednesday, January 09, 2019, 08:42

So, I'm having mixed feelings about how this has played out.

Initially, I'm disappointed. I've never thought these sorts of puzzles (the original Sleeper Simulant, Outbreak Prime, etc) are that cool. I understand that tons of people like them, and I am glad stuff like it exists. But it always ends up feeling less cool in practice than it does on paper--a small subset of the community solves the puzzle and everyone else just follows a guide.

As weird as it may sound, I'd be much more excited and into this (even though I still wouldn't participate) if Niobe Labs hadn't been an announced thing on the roadmap. If it had just dropped secretly today, waiting for someone to find it and start the puzzle, it would feel so much better.

The thing about this event is that it was made specifically for the streamers (Bungie even went so far as to link directly to their partnered streams ahead of time) this is their event... But then they made the event incredibly boring to watch, and nigh-impossible to figure out, so progress and excitment came to a screeching halt, as nobody knows what to do, and no team even wants to bother trying to do this, since the "pros" can't figure it out. It's been nearly 24 hours, with much of that just watching people shoot at symbols for a few minutes, then start over.

All for the sake of trickling out content and making streamable events.

Oddly enough, Forbes has the best take on this whole event so far:

“Community interaction” has been relegated to stream viewers shouting suggestion at creators in Twitch chat only to be told “we’ve already tried that” on repeat a thousand times.

This isn’t even a debate between casual vs. hardcore players at this point or what’s endgame content or not. This is just not a good way to roll out stuff. I do not mind the week to week schedule which stretches out releases over the course of a season as it’s a reason to look forward to each new development. But it’s something else entirely when you keep slamming into these gates time and time again, and fool me three times, which is what we’re at now, and I don’t blame those who are ready to walk away entirely. This is just not how anyone wants to see new content released, even most of the ultra-elite this is supposedly being crafted for.

I have no idea how long it will take to solve Niobe Labs, but when it happens, it’s going to be less of a “woo hoo, congrats!’ moment than it is a “good lord finally what the hell” one instead.

Even Bungie's had to step in with hints. And the ultimate prize? Probably just another Forge.