Destiny Podcast Version 0

by Miguel Chavez, Friday, May 03, 2013, 04:40 (4005 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

Thanks for that. Some interesting arguments on pretty weighty topics in there (the extent of publisher influence, ramifications of always-online, etc.).

As Cody said right at the end, it only really got interesting when I came on board. ;-) Before that it was like being forced to attend an economics lecture and two TA's were debating supply-side vs kenyesian.

Yeah, the reveal so far has been sparse, but as you guys mentioned: the big Halo reveals (from Macworld, to E3 2001, to New Mombasa) were all total manufactured bullshit. I'd rather get a small trickle of real, genuine glimpses at things they're currently working on than another fake showstopper.

You can claim the Halo reveals were fake at their core, but what they were *not* was imprecise setters of 'tone'. A bunch of screenshots, a few seconds of people running around, doesn't compare to seeing MC walking past injured soldiers as they say "Shit, it's the Chief!" and then later dual-wielding SMGs as he mows down a bunch of grunts {*paraphrasing/abridging of course}. Or the early MC where he's tapping on some panel, he alerts a bunch of elites, then hops in a warthog, at the end hijacking a banshee and flying past the Bungie flag. You got to see the coolness of the engine handling inside/outside environments seamlessly, of how the warthog handled driving across hilly terrain, and how the energy sword is badass, etc. The Destiny reveal, even when adding the Sony circus show, has yet to show *anything* even close to the same. It amazes me the level of fanatacism over interviews and basically concept art. CONCEPT ART!? If that's all it takes to get a boner, the world of gamers should be DDOSing deviantart.com 24/7, for crap's sake. And then to have FAN BASED CONCEPT ART BASED ON CONCEPT ART!? Is it any wonder my penis has shriveled to the size of a pea?

Personally, everything Bungie has revealed about Destiny so far has been right up my alley and I kind of just trust them to make a pretty fun game after spending the last ten years hanging around here. I tend to be more interested in speculation about Destiny's story and gameplay possibilities, so most of the time I was feeling like Blackstar at 42:13, but it was definitely a fascinating discussion.

I'm the opposite re: what has been revealed and it being 'acceptable' and it does not compute in my mind the level of acceptance from the diehards. But maybe that's where I'm mentally wired wrong = the more intelligent and rational I find my game dev - the more I put them up on a pedestal - the *less* I'm willing to get excited about on just *faith*. Bungie *already* had me interested with barely anything to go on, for the last 4-5 years as I knew they must be up to something. On Feb 17, I was looking for something more concrete than Jason Jones looking out of his element and talking awkwardly into a camera. The man's a game dev god, they should show him some fucking respect... but this all dovetails into my theory that Bungie is trying to wear a suit to this new party of the big players when they'd rather come in ripped jeans, a plaid shirt, and a bandana head wrap. Fuck, they'd probably just skip the party in the first place - they're too cool for that shit.

re: speculation, I can speculate too, and I did in this podcast. Of course it had to come in the last 5-8 minutes of the MP3 before the connection died! Real time weather/environment engine? How cool if it factors into our gameplay in 'real world' ways never before seen? Night time raids are de rigeur, but attacking that camp that's facing west is perfect during sunset (assuming earth-equivalent pole/solar orbit) as the sun is to our backs and in their eyes, messing up their optics. Or how about a cloak device that works *best* when the sun, at noon, is directly over head? With only a 5 minute window of cloaking perfection? Or under cover of a ferocious thunderstorm is best time to raid that camp with the metal rooftops so all the clattering covers your heavy boot footsteps? NOW THAT'S A FUCKING REVOLUTIONARY GAME! The fact that I have to battle to get this emotionally satisfying thought out while I'm surrounded by two game nerds as they try to inject 'oh, but how would that work if I'm in Hong Kong and my BFF is in London?? DERP!?" and is any surprise now that my crotch looks like a bird's nest with two eggs and a worm looking to leave?

I give Bungie props for peeking out of their comfort zone during this whole new marketing mission of theirs. The post-mortem on all this (the real post-mortem, not any manufactured spin) will be very interesting to read about in a few years.

The bottom line is I'm looking forward to hearing about/seeing this game. It hasn't happened yet. I'm a patient man though, I ain't going anywhere.

Looking forward to future podcasts from you guys.

I notice I reveal my hand in that podcast re: April 1.

- M