Interesting. (Destiny)

by EffortlessFury , Sunday, December 10, 2023, 11:06 (352 days ago) @ Cody Miller

But you're right, if one were to approach the game with as much of a classic, single-player, one-time game attitude and just look at updates as much faster, bite-sized releases than sequels tend to be, it's suddenly the best shit ever, IMO. As I've said before, it feels like the fulfillment of the promise of episodic narrative; the ability to partake in an on-going story that updates several times a year rather than having to wait years for a chunked release.

Critical Mass.

I think we've seen in general how frequent 'bite sized' releases are lacking. Look at Destiny. What are the most highly praised parts of the game? The big expansions. Taken King. Forsaken. Witch Queen.

It's because when you drop little pieces at once, there isn't that critical mass for that cohesive experience. If I'm telling you a joke, and that joke requires 60 seconds of setup for the punchline, then I can't tell you the joke in 6 separate ten second chunks. It doesn't work like that.

Does this argument also apply to television? It's not like they've chunked out one episode across multiple updates. Each release tells a relatively self-contained part of the story, with a "to be continued" to varying degrees depending on where in the major patch cycle you are.

Yes, but that's the key. Each episode is supposed to stand on its own. You're given a complete story, that is part of a larger one.

You see this fail with lots of streaming shows. They drop all episodes at once, and it's pretty insufferable because it's expected to be binged, and each episode is just full of filler and not really a complete experience on its own.

But what's required for critical mass in 22 or 44 minutes of TV is vastly different than in a video game, because video games contain what TV does and more.

Okay but each patch has hours of story. I think it clears the bar, for the most part. Additionally, it's not like the game is asking you (like Destiny) to play repetitive content in order to keep your account "relevant." If you walk away for a patch or two and come back to play a larger mass of content, difficulty does not constantly raise, so your account state has not changed relative to the rest of the game. So it's essentially just like television.

Honestly, Cody, it's very hard to explain all of the elements of the game necessary to convey how it sums up to be different than many of its peers. All I can say is that it is the only service based game, from the classic MMOs to the modern looter shooter, to make me continually log in every day, even if only for a few minutes, and to continuously satisfy me in both amounts of gameplay and amounts of story delivered. And all of it for free. Yes, the game will underserve anyone looking for a game that can provide continuous play like Destiny, Warframe, or a classic MMO, because it releases finite content. A world that can only be explored once, stories than can only be played once. Then it says, "hey if you want, you can log on for 15 minutes a day tops to keep building new characters, improving old ones, and getting some daily free currency, but otherwise, go play something else or touch some grass."