Two Things (Destiny)

by rliebherr , St. Louis, Missouri, Friday, September 26, 2014, 07:00 (3947 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by rliebherr, Friday, September 26, 2014, 07:03

I think it can be boiled down to two core ideas:

Replayability =/= New Content

Replayability and new content are two separate ideas that seem to be getting confused in this title. It appears that Bungie had an idea with Halo that we played it over and over again because the skulls, commendations, and armor pieces are what hooked us (after Halo 2). They took that model and designed an entire game around it. The loot was never supposed to be a reward you got for being proficient in the game, it is supposed to be a reward you earn for replaying your favorite aspects of the game. You get marks and rep by playing Destiny how you want to play (PvE or PvP, strikes, missions, patrols) and you buy the reward you want. However, replayability does not equal new content, and running the same strikes and missions ad nausea does not a great game make. A fun game, certainly. The RNG loot was supposed to be a way for you to keep getting (not earning) gear for playing what you want. Instead of modifying existing missions, I think they should have new missions, strikes, patrols, Raids, etc., with those modifiers as the core experience. Scrap the level of the content all together. Add new content that is more difficult. Change the boss mechanics of the new content. I thought this is what the Queen's Wrath event would be. Instead, we got more modified existing missions.

Destiny is not an MMO

A problem was born the first time someone referred to Destiny as an MMO. I can clearly see why we never heard Bungie say "Destiny is an MMO." Shared World Shooter is exactly what it is. When reviewed in the context of a shooter, it is truly magnificent. When reviewed in the context of an MMO, it is terrible. When reviewed in the context of an MMOFPS, it's just okay.

I have a picture in my head of the development team sitting in a conference room after the "Destiny is an MMOFPS" isea took off. The entire team is groaning, and screaming "It's not an MMO! We've never said it's an MMO!" The MMO moniker creates entirely new expectations that are outside the scope of the vision of Destiny.

Put plainly, and perhaps in an unsatisfying manner, the expecations a lot of people had about Destiny were not realized. It's not MMO enough, or it's too MMO for a FPS. I don't know what the middle ground is, or if there is one.

I don't know how you reconcile these two items. I don't know how you make Destiny better, without changing the vision for the game. Is it possible that Bungie's ideas on what brought us back to H3, Reach, and ODST were wrong?

I'm having fun with this game, despite these two things. I have noticed; however, it has been easier for me to not play in the last few days. Perhaps I played too much, too fast in the hope that I was "missing something" regarding content. I think I'm starting to see that I was not.