Aspiring Raiders Wanted (Destiny)

by RC , UK, Monday, August 25, 2014, 13:53 (3542 days ago)

Hello, my name is RC and I am an Aspiring Raider. I am not a Raider yet; I still have to find a full fireteam(s), find our way in, figure out the right tactics, and acquire the skills and teamwork we need for success. Then, only then, will we become Raiders.

Are you, also, an Aspiring Raider?

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I give Bungie quite a lot of credit already, and I'm gonna give Bungie the benefit of the doubt on the Raid(s) too. Ultimately, I think the lack of matchmaking for the Raid will be a good thing. Why? Because it gives players something to aspire to and it keeps the experience high quality.

Let me take you through my line of thought here:

If the standard story/campaign mode is difficult by default, that can turn a lot players off early on. Before they really get to grips with the game. Which is bad for getting people into coop and competitive modes. It also has people turning their games back in, or feeling short-changed at the full price they paid for access. So Console games' default difficulty is much lower than arcade games.

Of course there are difficulty levels, and I love them (LASO FTW). But at the same time, a lot of players feel it's boring to do the 'same' content over again, but now it's a bit harder to kill the bad guys.

So there is the Raid out there waiting for them. That gives them 'new' content to try and get through, but at a much higher difficulty level. They'll have had a chance to get all their powers and get better with them, get a load of weapons and find ones they like, get familiar with the basics of enemies etc. THEN, they are shown a big, scary cliff face and dared to try climbing it.

If it could be done with any less than 6 players, it would necessarily be easier. Even with player-count scaling, people would try it at the lowest number of players they could get away with, no matter what incentives where there (e.g. better rewards with more players). And they wouldn't experience the 'best' way to play it.

They would try, and fail, and try and fail. Maybe they give up, maybe they eventually succeed and they're 'done' with it. That just sabotages the pool of players interested in teaming up for the 'proper' 6-player version.

Matchmaking, too, would necessitate making it easier since randoms wouldn't be able to prepare weapons/armour/classes in advance or coordinate their roles. If there was a higher difficulty that people could enable in a custom raid, that was the proper difficulty, the existence of an MM version would still reduce the available player base.

Alternatively, if they kept the difficulty high, the best you'd get out of MM would be the names of a group of players you could then back-out of the raid with, start coordinating with, and then go in again.

Naturally, you'll also need mics to coordinate properly - with all the potential pitfalls that carries in MM. People seeking others out through their social networks or on coordination sites, to take on some grand challenge together, are much less likely to be douches (one would imagine).

Main point
So, rather than creating an experience for as many players as possible, they put in a bunch of barriers that will lead to a higher quality experience (they hope). Fewer players will get to experience part of it, overall, but more players will get a better (or the best) experience than if they'd tried to make 'the content' more widely available.

ASIDE:
The choice to make Destiny 'always-on' can be viewed in a similar way. Fewer players can experience the game at all. However, every single player that does will be able to receive game updates, will get used to the idea of other players in their game world, have other players for Public Events, and can then jump into coop and competitive with no additional set-up.

The Raid(s) will of course, be something that a lot of players want to do, because as I've already said it'll be 'new' content they haven't 'completed' before. Some will aspire to it and they'll overcome the obstacles before them - sometimes leading them out of their comfort zones.

I, for example, am a classic solo-player, lone-wolf-ish archetype: campaigns are my main staple, and though I play a fair bit of competitive MP and co-op, it's rarely with pre-formed teams.

But, hell yeah, I want to do the Raid. I want 5 other people to come crush it with me. It's gonna be good. Bonds will be forged. Memories made. There will be frustration, but I feel like it's gonna be worth it :)

Still, it's entirely possible that Bungie will eventually cave to pressure and institute Matchmaking and player-count balancing and reduce the difficulty. But a part of me hopes not. Because then players would have less telling them there might just be better gaming experiences out there.

Aspire to be more, Guardians. Aspire to be Raiders.