I can't believe I'm reading these words. (Destiny)

by DEEP_NNN, Sunday, August 10, 2014, 21:03 (3566 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I can't speak for others, but when I found the only penalty for playing poorly was a longer respawn and a longer walk, I realized that none of my actions mattered and I had no personal investment. There was no drama because there was no conflict because I was always going to win as long as I had more time, which I always did.

I had this covered a year and a half ago :-p

http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=7153

So, when you undertake a challenge in a video game, and you realize punishment exists for failure, then something is now on the line! This enhances the moment to moment pleasure of playing, through tension.

Thinking about punishment enhances the now by increasing tension. Thinking about reward devalues the now since you realize the now is only a stepping stone to get what you really want.

Time as a punishment, is still putting an investment on the line. Running out of lives or running out of (personal)time can have exactly the same result. Failure.

If I go into a Strike or Raid with my buddies, there isn't a guarantee we will succeed. No matter how often we iterate through respawning near or far from the activity, eventually we will run out of time. Some games use deaths limits as the final trigger for failure but restarting is always an option and therefore time is the final penalty.

The 30 second respawn can incur additional penalties that seem to be missing from the discussion. At times you do have to fight your way back to the Boss. I found it to be quite motivating by encouraging me to play smarter against the Boss.

The quality of time spent pummelling enemies is important and hopefully Bungie will have done its job in that area.