How much endgame content was there in Halo? (Destiny)

by kapowaz, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 15:09 (3559 days ago) @ Kermit

I realized reading this that I have no idea what people mean when they say endgame content. What is that, and why do we think that Destiny will have it? Why do we think that this will be part of the DLC? I hear Deej talk about how they have more stories to tell, and they hope to get to tell them, and so when I think of DLC, that's what I think of. Not new games per se, but new stories or perhaps a continuation of certain stories but nothing I would call an endgame. But again, I don't think that word means to me what it means to others in this conversation.

Typically, for MMOs (and certain other games, like Diablo III to an extent), playing the game has two distinct phases: there's levelling up, where you complete quests and progress through the different areas of the game world; and then there's endgame, which is the phase once you hit the level cap.

In both phases you're usually upgrading your gear as you go, but usually far more frequently during the levelling phase than in endgame. You're also typically learning a character class's abilities and making talent choices as you go; these choices are usually done once you get to the level cap, with no new abilities to unlock. Once you're in endgame, you have the ability to change your talent choices, but no new choices are unlocked over time. Also, gear acquisition slows down and becomes more meaningful; rather than earning a shiny new piece of armour or weapon every few hours you may not get a single new item (that's an upgrade) for days of play, but when you do it'll be something very fancy.

Once you consider that you're not upgrading your gear regularly, or gaining new abilities, endgame has to offer variety and interest in some other way, or players will burn out (or get bored) and stop playing. A game like Destiny relies on there being a thriving ecosystem of players in order for it to function (otherwise matchmaking times grow, and it has a detrimental effect on the remaining players), so ‘running out of things to do’ is anathema to that.

But it's a careful juggling act: you can't make this content too easy to work through quickly, or that burnout/boredom will happen sooner. This is part of why I think Cody (and some others) may be misjudging the steepness of the grinding process (particularly when we only reached level 8, and there are bound to be plentiful rewards for missions between then and the level cap). You need the goals to be attainable, but the timeframe has to be drawn out to an extent.

In other MMOs, endgame content is regularly refreshed. World of Warcraft releases new expansions roughly every 2 years, which increase the level cap and introduce new areas to explore, and raids/dungeons to fight through. These are paid updates at roughly the same cost as the original game, so I'd say they're most analogous to a full Destiny title release (i.e. Destiny 2 would be the first ‘expansion’ to the franchise). They also tend to release 3-4 major content patches per expansion, roughly 3-6 months apart. These introduce new items and dungeons/raids within the existing level cap, at staggered intervals; they help progress the storyline, but also give players new goals to achieve. I suspect the Destiny ‘comet’ DLC packages will be equivalent to these, although unlike WoW they won't be free.

Ultimately, whilst most Destiny players will spend a substantial period of time levelling up, they're going to spend far more time at the level cap, on endgame content. So the game will live or die depending on the quality and quantity of that content.

PvP is another matter of course, although I suspect that each Destiny DLC will also unlock more multiplayer maps, so that will serve as a way to encourage PvP-focused players to buy the DLC. Plus game modes like Iron Banner will continue to reward players with the best gear, and so in order to keep improving your gear you'll need to have access to the latest DLC PvE content too…