Bungie's reveal: a disservice to Destiny

by kapowaz, Monday, February 18, 2013, 23:39 (4295 days ago) @ Claude Errera

Not sure if you were here in the really early days of Halo - but this is how Bungie operates. We knew almost nothing - and in fact, by the time it actually launched, what we DID know in those early days was all wrong.

I wasn't on HBO back around the time of the Macworld demo, but I do remember it well (and for oddly different reasons: I was always very interested in Apple's keynotes, so it was just weird coincidence that Jason Jones happened to present there). But this is the first time since then that Bungie has done a completely greenfield presentation. Times have certainly changed, and I'm sure Bungie think about how to do a reveal differently, but the Halo reveal gave us several minutes of in-engine footage. A lot changed subsequently, but it's a lot easier to pin down a game when you can see something moving in-engine like that. (Although I'm still sad we never got to get Covenant to surrender by holding a gun to their head).

Not sure why this is doing the game a disservice - it's absolutely the first time they've talked about it, but it won't be the last.

Bungie's reveal doesn't exist in a vacuum. As you mention, the previous leaks led people to draw some conclusions about the nature of the game which have now apparently turned out to be false, and yet … they're still not clarifying certain points related to the gameplay mechanics. Lots of the press coverage makes unsubtle reference to the fact journalists asked for clarification there, but Bungie wouldn't comment. I find it odd that press would be invited to an event and then when they ask questions most of them Bungie aren't prepared to be drawn on (in fact, my experience of the tech industry is that this usually happens only when a company starts to court the press before they're really ready to).

If you're going with the assertion that first impressions are everything... well, Bungie has ALWAYS disagreed with that.

I'm not sure where you got that from. My own opinions and impressions were absent from the original post above. I'm curious but I also feel I don't know enough to conclude anything, yet. Knowing nearly nothing about gameplay mechanics for a game tends to inhibit that.

Six months ago, people screamed that the leaked contract proved that Destiny would be a subscription-based MMO, and that they were walking away and not coming back. Bungie kept their mouths shut, and let that rumor fester. It got blown out of the water on Wednesday - and for folks who are actually paying attention, just that little fact should be enough to make them think twice about assumptions and what it means when they're not refuted by the company.

I would comprehensively disagree that they blew it out of the water; they said ‘It's not an MMO’, and yet almost every article written about it centred on the word. In fact if you read Eurogamer's preview you'd be forgiven for thinking they had said the game was an MMO. And this is from people who were at the press event! This is probably my central issue with how they've approached the reveal: this very important distinction about how the game works is still a source of contention and speculation, and Bungie have done very little (besides the refutation) to guide people in the direction of what it actually is. The impression I've formed is of an action game with MMO-like gameplay, but rather than large realm-based populations it uses matchmaking and (say, Xbox Live) friends-based party to populate the gameworld. But maybe that's wrong, too? I've more questions than answers at this point.