Repercussions

by Beorn , <End of Failed Timeline>, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 15:50 (4266 days ago) @ yakaman

Think about the pressure if you had the one and only Thorn. People would be outright stalking you to put it up for a challenge. But Bungie seems to be trying to unite/unify/heal the online community, not drive it into a frenzy of envy and grief.

Still, it's fun to think about.

I think your point about Bungie wanting to unite/unify the online community is a good observation. While making the high-value weapons "losable" would seriously raise the stakes of multiplayer combat, I don't think it'd be a good idea if they're trying to make the game inclusive and appealing to a wide audience.

When I started playing World of Warcraft (about 8 months after its initial launch), I was afraid that I'd lose all my awesome stuff when another player killed me. It took a bit of playing before I realized what the whole item-binding concept was about and how it worked. In many ways I was relieved, but there was definitely part of me that was sort of interested in the idea of permanent repercussions for losing a fight. However, after being "ganked" for the 100th time in Stranglethorn Vale I was quite happy with the mechanics as they were; my character would have been walking around in his loin cloth, armed only with a banana peel.

It's really difficult to imagine how they're going to implement these systems without knowing much about the game or the mechanics, but speculating is fun!