I miss... this.

I don’t know how, but last week I found myself scrolling back through my DBO post history, looking for nothing in particular. I forgot how much of a stats nerd I was; it feels like every third post was part of a debate about the merits of Outlaw vs Spray ’n’ Play, or High Impact vs Low Impact snipers.

Destiny was a game that I cared way too much about, for something that seemed to try and push me away with all it’s pavlovian investment systems and downright terrible narrative content.

There was a thread posted recently about how 7 years have passed since D1 launched, which was a shock;

I remember taking the day off work to go pick up my PS4 Destiny launch bundle, burning through all of Earth, the Moon, and the start of Venus... then lying awake at night wondering if I’d just wasted $500 on a new console, to play a game that seemed to only purportedly be designed from the studio that had created Halo. My disappointment was considerable.

So why did I keep playing? Why did I keep playing Destiny over and over for the period of over three years on a near daily basis?

Because of all of you.

I can’t thank Claude enough for creating HBO and DBO and thereby giving me a place to find friends (and foes!) for that period of my life. A place to discuss what we love so much about raiding or, as I said before, to argue about the finer points of balance, be it regarding a Titan’s shoulder charge, or whether we should have numbers instead of bars to display gear stats. I can theoretically do that anywhere on the internet, but here it felt like I was doing it with people I knew, not just shouting fruitlessly at the anonymous void. And I knew later that night or the next day I’d be running raids or strikes or crucible with those same people.

And the darn thing is I didn’t really grasp that until I was reading back through those old posts. When I decided to put my foot down and not engage in Destiny’s sequel, I wasn’t just putting a wall between myself and Destiny, I was handicapping my ability to maintain the relationships I’d built up over those two years here on this little corner of the internet.

It was never really about Destiny, it was just about having a common experience to reflect on with the people here.

So yeah, I really miss playing and regularly interacting with DBO folks. And I started thinking about what I could do to fix that… and the only answer that makes sense that I haven’t already tried is playing Destiny 2.

I don’t want to grind, level-up, or bang my head against the crucible for some gun that’ll probably get nerfed inside 6 weeks- I did more than my fair share of that the last time around. From what I’ve heard, Destiny 2 hasn’t improved much in that regard, and I could see it being easy to get caught in that cycle again.

But.

Making new friends and meaningful relationships is hard (for me). It was shortsighted of me to purposefully cut off (hyperbole) the ones I’d made here, it’s already too easy to lose friends because of circumstances that are out of our control.

So last week I messaged Kermit, and asked if he’d be open to running me through D2’s new light experience and help me find my feet.

It was fun to catch up with him, while hastily equipping every new blue or purple item that dropped. (I guess decrypting engrams isn’t a thing anymore? What does Rahool even do all day now?)

Despite Kermit’s patient explanations, I found the sheer number of systems and currencies overwhelming. Though, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering the game’s had a four-year headstart on me. I might make another post at some point about the “onboarding” experience.

Regardless, It’s been too long since I played with many of you, and I’d like to remedy that. If you see me online and are willing to help carry a confused, ~1200 light newbie through unfamiliar strikes or a nightfall, shoot me an invite.

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I was genuinely glad when I saw you playing the other day. We can run through VoG again, now! I’ll happily play with you when I see you around.

I won’t pretend it’s perfect, but D2 is in a pretty great spot right now in terms of not having to chase specific shit and power level, especially if just hanging out with friends is the thing you’re after.

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Thoroughly enjoyed catching up the other night. You likely picked the worst possible person to explain the systems. My answer to a lot of questions was, "I dunno." Where do you get such and such resource? I dunno, despite the fact that I have thousands.

The bad part of the evening was the hearing the references to events in content that has been taken away. Boo!

If I didn't say this plainly, Destiny is still a grind, but getting your light level raid worthy is a lot easier. (Grandmaster nightfall, not so much.) There are still go-to endgame weapons, but there are reasonable substitutes for most things (and with your skill, it won't be an issue for raiding).

This community is definitely a big part of why I still play (meanwhile my stack of games I want to play has grown immensely). Looking forward to doing Vault with you again. Hit me up any time.

As I told you, would also love to go through Deep Stone Crypt with you, but I realize that that costs $$$.

Kermit

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It absolutely is the people.

And fwiw, I feel very similar to you.

Heck, I don't play Destiny anymore (or plan to any time soon) but I do still lurk and occasionally post here from time to time. I still recognize most of the names here (and hope they recognize me too!)

There were a lot of things I liked about the game (still have some cosplay and prop stuff to make from it!) but ultimately not enough to keep me playing the way I want. That is totally ok. Halo kinda cooled off for me too.

I'm in my early\mid thirties now. I don't have the free time I did in my late teens and mid twenties. In an alternate universe Destiny could have been the formative game of my youth.

I took a look at my xbox friends list recently and I know I'm not alone when I see pretty much the majority of people are streaming netflix rather than playing something lol.

That said, things come and go in cycles. My career is in a great place. I can work anywhere I want now. Got a house. There's a new Halo around the corner. I can throw LAN parties again (and I will!). Guess where I'm gonna post to invite people when I'm ready for that?

Right here ;)

I dunno where you are these days, but one thing I've personally done is made an effort to stay plugged into this community and I'm really happy (truly) that I've been able to maintain those connections. I see some of these folks at least once a year and I think that is pretty amazing. Even this year I was able to see friends.

While gaming probably won't consume my life like it did for a period there, I'm very much looking forward to having quality experiences over quantity. It's as good once as it ever was.

(The internet I grew up with simply doesn't exist anymore. What Claude cultivated with HBO and beyond is just beautiful and very, very special, and will keep my coming back)

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I took a look at my xbox friends list recently and I know I'm not alone when I see pretty much the majority of people are streaming netflix rather than playing something lol.

I wonder if this is because of the high time demand games impose. I feel like it’s only getting worse with games being longer and longer. Like, some games are longer than some entire TV SERIES. Developers seem keen on making longer experiences for value and player retention, but it would be interesting if this actually drove people away.

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I took a look at my xbox friends list recently and I know I'm not alone when I see pretty much the majority of people are streaming netflix rather than playing something lol.

I wonder if this is because of the high time demand games impose. I feel like it’s only getting worse with games being longer and longer. Like, some games are longer than some entire TV SERIES. Developers seem keen on making longer experiences for value and player retention, but it would be interesting if this actually drove people away.

That's definitely a factor for me. I have other things to do!

Speaking of TV series, did you see this?

https://twitter.com/HBO/status/1442292912541376512?s=20

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Many shared sentiments. I haven't played Destiny since before Rise of Iron and my life and me as a person has changed pretty dramatically since then. And now the isolation of the last year and a half has really had me reminiscing of what brought us all together years ago and all the fun we had, and I miss it so much!

Recently unemployed and thought "Ah, I finally have time to try Destiny 2 and play through a Bungie campaign!" And then I found out the campaign was... gone. Didn't know you could do that, hah! I may try to get back into it at some point to reconnect with B.Orgers, but I should probably be saving my money right now.

Anyway, I cant wait till we can get an excuse to see one another again in person (or finally meet for the first time) at a con or LAN party or something. I know gaming trends have moved on from that, but damn I think it be fun going full nostalgia with any of this crew! When I was younger I couldn't afford the travel for a lot of the invites and festivities and I was also dealing with a lot of anxiety and panic attacks that made me self-isolate (before it was cool). I have a lot of that shit figured out now, and would love another chance one day. Here's to reconnecting!

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Recently unemployed and thought "Ah, I finally have time to try Destiny 2 and play through a Bungie campaign!" And then I found out the campaign was... gone. Didn't know you could do that, hah! I may try to get back into it at some point to reconnect with B.Orgers, but I should probably be saving my money right now.

Some of it remains…

https://destiny.bungie.org/galleries/des2nycutscenes/

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Recently unemployed and thought "Ah, I finally have time to try Destiny 2 and play through a Bungie campaign!" And then I found out the campaign was... gone. Didn't know you could do that, hah! I may try to get back into it at some point to reconnect with B.Orgers, but I should probably be saving my money right now.

Forsaken is still there and it’s a great campaign. I don’t think it really needs the context of the Red War, although the fact that Destiny has become so messy in its story content is unfortunate. I will buy you a copy if you’d really like to play.

Anyway, I cant wait till we can get an excuse to see one another again in person (or finally meet for the first time) at a con or LAN party or something. I know gaming trends have moved on from that, but damn I think it be fun going full nostalgia with any of this crew! When I was younger I couldn't afford the travel for a lot of the invites and festivities and I was also dealing with a lot of anxiety and panic attacks that made me self-isolate (before it was cool). I have a lot of that shit figured out now, and would love another chance one day. Here's to reconnecting!

I had fun at that KC meetup a few years ago. I missed the grand LANs of old, and those days are probably over, but I’m looking forward to another meetup at some point.

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Recently unemployed and thought "Ah, I finally have time to try Destiny 2 and play through a Bungie campaign!" And then I found out the campaign was... gone. Didn't know you could do that, hah! I may try to get back into it at some point to reconnect with B.Orgers, but I should probably be saving my money right now.

Forsaken is still there and it’s a great campaign. I don’t think it really needs the context of the Red War, although the fact that Destiny has become so messy in its story content is unfortunate. I will buy you a copy if you’d really like to play.

Anyway, I cant wait till we can get an excuse to see one another again in person (or finally meet for the first time) at a con or LAN party or something. I know gaming trends have moved on from that, but damn I think it be fun going full nostalgia with any of this crew! When I was younger I couldn't afford the travel for a lot of the invites and festivities and I was also dealing with a lot of anxiety and panic attacks that made me self-isolate (before it was cool). I have a lot of that shit figured out now, and would love another chance one day. Here's to reconnecting!

I had fun at that KC meetup a few years ago. I missed the grand LANs of old, and those days are probably over, but I’m looking forward to another meetup at some point.

Me, too. PAX can be fun, but a LAN meet up is a different kind of fun. I miss it.

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Me, too. PAX can be fun, but a LAN meet up is a different kind of fun. I miss it.

Well, I'm always down and my original Xbox and 360 still work and are LAN-ready! :D

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Me, too. PAX can be fun, but a LAN meet up is a different kind of fun. I miss it.

Well, I'm always down and my original Xbox and 360 still work and are LAN-ready! :D

Mine, too!

Halo, OG graphics.

Kerm

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Forsaken is still there and it’s a great campaign. I don’t think it really needs the context of the Red War, although the fact that Destiny has become so messy in its story content is unfortunate. I will buy you a copy if you’d really like to play.

I was going to say this too, it turns out in retrospect that the Red War is the least consequential thing to happen in the Destiny universe. Actually the only playable content that's "missing" from the game that really factors into how things are moving now are the Mara visits from Forsaken (which were mostly just foreshadowing of things that have now happened) and the Season of Arrivals content (although Prophecy is still in-game). And maybe some of the Calus stuff, but that's always been more supported by lore pages.

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That's actually really sweet, and heartwarming!

Honestly, the community is what keeps the Destiny system going. I've certainly missed it.

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