I don't think Destiny is a fun universe (Destiny)

by BeingU, Monday, December 01, 2014, 22:31 (3882 days ago) @ scarab

How stuff works is exactly not the point with Mythic Sci-Fi.

Have you ever enjoyed ancient mythological stories, or rich fantasy epics like Tolkien's, or even the classic Star Wars? The thing in common between them is the crafting of stories with epic overarching themes, emotions and metaphors about the struggles of humanity through the ages.

Destiny is shooting for some variation on that, set in space.

The need to make things more "realistic" or gritty or explain how things work... it's not the style of story that Bungie is telling. Staten wasn't even trying to give things a pseudo-scientific explanation. It's not necessary to tell the story.

Maybe you prefer Star Trek with it's "techno babble", or more "hard" sci-fi works that stick closer to the laws of physics. But this isn't a story about a rational science-based world, it's a fantasy world where things are freer to be anything you could imagine them to be.

"How does a machine feed on a soul? What is a soul?"

At least for now, Bungie is leaving these things open for interpretation. To provoke imagination and discussion. What do you think a soul is, in a world where we have Exos and Warmind AIs and dead bodies brought back to life by some strange Sphere from Mars? Clearly, in this world there's either very strong technology or very strong magic that can manipulate souls. Isn't it interesting that Destiny is steeped in religious language, where giant aliens and machines are referred to as demons and gods?

I'm not sure if Bungie is going somewhere specific with this, but I definitely wouldn't want them to trot out some midichlorean-based explanation of how all this stuff works.