Decoupling player appearance from progression

by kapowaz, Friday, March 29, 2013, 18:35 (4256 days ago)

Having finally watched the GDC video in its entirety I've got a better idea of how Bungie intends the armour system to work - at least aesthetically, but it also raises more questions about empowering players to make choices about how they'll look in-game.

It took until midway through World of Warcraft's third expansion before they introduced the concept of ‘transmogrification’; allowing players to give any piece of armour the appearance of any other piece of the same kind that the player already owns. Within weeks of the feature being released the cities were filled with players dressed in ‘old’ armour sets from previous expansions, long-since rendered obsolete but still obviously cherished for how they look.

I'm also reminded of the armour progression system in Reach; for me, no helmet looked better than the Mark V(B) you started with. The question is: will I be compelled to abandon the items I own that I like the appearance of in favour of statistically-superior but (potentially) less appealing replacements? If so, will this not suppress the concept of player actualisation and customisation? Maybe Bungie are already considering this; I certainly hope so, as I've learned over the years that players can become very attached to their virtual representations. If it's not a part of Destiny's first instalment then I hope it doesn't take as long as it took Blizzard to empower players to show off their style.