Isn't it great that there are other things to do in life? (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, January 12, 2015, 16:27 (3414 days ago) @ scarab

[snip]
Hell, they committed when I KNEW it was bad. And If I could tell, without having played a second of the game, then surely someone at Bungie thought "Gee, making your level progression depend on RNG is not such a good idea.

You can use RNG to control progress because you can set targets of what proportion of your population attain a given level then adjust probabilities accordingly. A small proportion of players will do amazingly well and that will be an encouragement and a goad to get other players sinking time into the game.

Why do you need to control progression? That's the bullshit I'm talking about. I should control the progression. My ability to play and master the game. Nothing more. And when I master it and conquer everything, then yahoo. So what? All the bad parts of the game are there precisely because the idea of someone beating the game in a few days is the end of the world. All you are doing is wasting the player's time. I cannot get that this isn't self evident:

Don't time gate anything. Don't place level or experience gates on anything. The only gate should be my understanding of the game. Really simple rule, and breaking it makes players frustrated and it makes your game suck.

Bungie still gets to gate progress but nobody is obliged to put in more hours than they want.

Bungie's job is to throw us into a world with challenges and things to see, and LET US DO THEM AT OUR OWN PACE AND IN OUR OWN WAY. Gated and padded progress is what makes MMOs so bad, and such a waste of time.