Mailsack March 1, 2013

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Saturday, March 02, 2013, 19:14 (4285 days ago) @ Xenos

This is going to be a long one.

Duardo: What's the scariest part about creating a new universe?
The best sci-fi/fantasy blows people’s minds, while still resonating with them on a deeper, universally relatable level. The entire team at Bungie has spent years figuring out how to best marry these two ideals into one wholly compelling experience. It’s been daunting, to say the least. But releasing it to the wild – that is the terrifying part. --Dave Mongan, Senior Writer

sci-fi/fantasy... I can't honestly say I'm surprised or enthusiastic :/

tyalka93: How much backstory and lore can we expect in Destiny?
Prior to joining the writing team on Destiny, Eric Raab painstakingly helped guide the Halo fiction as part of an external team at Tor Books. He has a wealth of experience curating deep volumes of fiction for other franchises and a stable of supremely talented authors, as well. When we asked him your question, we expected a digital tome overflowing with carefully wrought prose. Instead, he wrote the following.

Generations worth. Good luck uncovering it all. --Eric Raab, Managing Editor

well that's good, or at least it sounds good-- that applies to several other answers so I'll skip those

Dark Delta 6: What is your favorite alien in Destiny?
There are many to choose from. Let’s learn about the preferred targets of our panel.

snip

I fell in love with the Fallen all the way back in 2009. Partly because there’s just something wonderful about the idea of a nomadic race of once noble houses now scattered to the solar winds. Partly because there’s something primordial and instantly terrifying about squaring off against an unpredictable Fallen Captain, his tattered crimson cape draped over a set of four splayed and angular arms that bristle with sleek firepower. That said, now that all of the enemy combatant races have been fleshed out more deeply, I’m harder pressed to call out a single enemy as a frontrunner. It’s become too difficult to play favorites. The amount of visual variety has become mind boggling, and our writers have been in overdrive to give each race rich and meaningful motivations that don’t just create distinctions between enemy races, but within them. --Urk, Classified

That does sound good. Also now we know the concepts for at least some of the factions go back to 2009-- that makes sense given the "Destiny awaits" poster giving an impression of the Traveler, but they could've come up with that really early; now we know the game's story was at least partly figured out then. I wonder if there were any other hints about Destiny in ODST or Reach.... We still don't understand the circular code things on a bunch of things in Reach or the dot signs in ODST (I'm kind of disappointed the geomantic figure stuff didn't relate to them at all), and I think some of the license plate numbers in ODST still don't have anything definite associated with them....

ll ManBean ll: What's Bungie's favorite thing to do in Destiny?
With so many things to do, we’ll need our panelists to scratch the surface.

snip

I just go out to kill stuff for the shiny loot. --Ben Thompson, Engineer

I don't think I like the sound of that.

Sit on the Shores of Time on Venus and watch other Guardians run through, leaving behind a body count. --Nate Hawbaker, Associate Technical Artist

This actually has me kind of intrigued.

Dramatic entrances. --Josh Markham, Associate Artist

hmm...

Camp out in the social areas helping people get to their next destination. --Kevin Hart, Associate Artist

I'm not sure if I like this response or not. Helping people can be nice but it can also be one of the most difficult and frustrating things you'll ever do.

Madness: Is everything in Destiny made so "lone wolves" like me can enjoy the game as much as the guys who like to play cooperatively?
You won’t be required to partner with strangers to achieve your goals in Destiny. You’ll have all the freedom you need to blaze your own trail.

That's good to hear (er, read).

LLamuh: Will competitive gamers have a home in Destiny?
Yes. The most competitive guys at our studio are having a damn good time playing Destiny. --Josh Hamrick, Senior Designer

hmm :/
I'm not exactly convinced of anything. I remember a lot of Bungie not being great at games even their own, but that might be outdated now. I know they're not the best at finding glitches, bugs, exploits, etc. IDK, maybe I'm being paranoid.

Mandroid: Will there be grinding? I hate having to grind for stuff.
Destiny is an action game, so you’ll grind your enemies into dust.

Do you notice how he didn't say no? :\