Friends only?

I better start spamming you lot with requests. Destiny is big enough that I MIGHT have 6 friends on one platform for it, but at the same time? No. Maybe this is not for me, like Raids in WoW.

Though from Payday and Legendary Halo runs of the past, countless failure punctuated by bittersweet victories does do it for me. Would like to have a go or two at them.

Or maybe I have nothing to worry about. The crowds will scream for MM, and given Bungie's Microsofting on quite a few points just from Alpha/Beta it will probably end up in the game.

(Bungie is probably right on this though I am annoyed about the increased barrier for entry. I can imagine the extra work, maintenance and known/unknown social and technical consequences for the rest of the MM environment if raids had a hopper, not trying to sound entitled here.)

The way he described it made it seem to me like they're the normal story missions, but a certain one is selected to give more XP than normal. Could use some clarification, though.

In a nutshell, that's some of the philosophy that was driving raid design as we were building the first raid in Destiny.

This indicates a plurality of raids, yes?

I definitely think there will be more than one, but there may only be one at launch.

I think Bungie needs to be careful about the terminology they're using to describe two separate concepts: that of the level of your player and the level of some content that player can participate in. In a couple of points in this article Luke uses the two terms interchangeably and I think it's a bit confusing:

So if you're a fresh level 20 you can play the Nightfall daily activity at level 22 and it's going to be hard.

I can work out what he's driving at (the content is aimed at a level 22 player) but I'm wondering if they wouldn't be better off using relative terms to describe the difficulty of content? I'm thinking the standard normal, heroic, legendary progression would work here — attempting content aimed at your level is normal, 2 or 3 levels above yours is heroic, and 4 or more is legendary.

The beta did exactly that. When you changed difficulty levels on the story mission it would tell you relatively how hard it was for your character. The alpha I believe calculated your weapon effectiveness also, so I'm not sure if that's factored in.

…I just think it was awkward language. I'm sure this isn't as big a problem as I was initially thinking.

Sounds way too hard for me. Maybe something easier like: Halo 2 Legendary All Jackal Snipers All The Time + Swat + Iron + Grunt Birthday Party Mode? ;)

I think I remember that game-type in Halo as well... ;)

I think Raids sound incredibly fun, but also incredible difficult!

Well played, GrimIII. Well played

Raids sound awesome, but the lack of matchmaking does concern me. I'm rarely playing at times when my friends are online... certainly not for 2-3 hours straight. I understand Bungie's stance that raids require communication and are best experienced with friends, but I'd much prefer they give me the choice. As it stands, with no matchmaking support, I'll likely never get to try any of the raids unless I attempt them solo.

Aw. While it might not be possible to just log in and pick up a group, I'm sure it won't be too difficult to coordinate with 5 other players a little in advance.

What I'm most curious about regarding Raids is if 6 players is really mandatory, or if you can make do with just 5 or maybe even 4. Obviously it would be harder, but just wondering if the experience has a little flexibility or if there is something dumb like 6 pressure plates and everyone has to stand on one to open the next door.