Sure, I can go and create these other characters again just to have something I could actually do by myself, but I really don't enjoy them. If I did, I wouldn't have deleted them in the first place (that, and yes, they felt like an obligation to me. I'm getting better at that, but I'm not the only one who has posted here lately about Destiny play ending up a tiny bit unhealthy at times).

Sorry - didn't mean to imply this was a weakness on your part. The fact that you RECOGNIZED that having them meant having an obligation to maintain them puts you in a better position than someone who feels that way, is bitter about the time constraints, but can't seem to step off the treadmill. ;)

Turns out the ability to have multiple characters, but not feel obligated to keep those multiple characters on the cutting edge, is not a universally-held one.

Also this:

I think the problem that I'm having is that so much of the House of Wolves requires a party, and I'm not sure when I'll be playing so organizing stuff hasn't been happening. Creating a new character gives me something to do that I can do alone.

I thought you meant that was what was tempting you. My confusion was why it would be a temptation thing rather than just having them all to begin with (especially since you actually already want to).

Guess it wasn't worded clearly, so I'll try again:

The content I want to play, I haven't been able to play because it can't be played solo and I've been a mess with scheduling things lately.

Sure, I can go and create these other characters again just to have something I could actually do by myself, but I really don't enjoy them. If I did, I wouldn't have deleted them in the first place (that, and yes, they felt like an obligation to me. I'm getting better at that, but I'm not the only one who has posted here lately about Destiny play ending up a tiny bit unhealthy at times).

I kind of understand that. I used to have self-control issues too and gaming too much is one of the things that made me put a damper on what I do, and I still game too much sometimes.

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This is true, and is exactly why I ascended my Shadow Price. Show me a new AR that can match Shadow Price's stats AND have 42 rounds per mag, and I'll show you my surprised face.

You are not correct. The old perks are not still there. You cannot get them on new legendariles. You cannot get field scout on a scout rifle anymore. You cannot get send it on a hand cannon anymore.

I'd like to see a citation on that. I've gotten plenty of old perks on new weapons. I know certain perks won't show up on just any weapon, but I'm pretty sure that's always been the case.

Nope. It was mostly not about that but why waste an opportunity to derail a thread with theory discussion?

You're right, otherwise people might think you don't have a one-track mind and don't want to insert yourself into every discussion ever.

Yes. That would be awesome. As some have noted giving people a way to turn OFF matchmaking is too dangerous. It risk depriving match made activities like Strikes of the amount of players needed to function smoothly and quickly. But, an option to turn it ON when you are stuck, a Distress Beacon or whatever, could led Destiny a social feel it doesn't always have. I've been save by random Guardians during hard public events and have saved others, but the ability to have some influence and not rely on random luck is a pretty cool idea. And on the other end I could choose (and be rewarded for) helping a fellow Guardian out of a jam.

Heh. I'm kinda excited by this even though we have no real idea whatsoever of its even possible. :)

The more I think about it, the more I like it, too! Well, Veegie reads us. There's hope.

I can't think of any technical reason that it wouldn't be possible. There might be reasons that Bungie would need to trade-off other things to do it (either due to limited computing resources, or development time, or whatever). But other than having to give up other features, I don't think there's any reason it's not doable - I mean, it would only use technologies that already exist.

I have never used it because I don't like people, but it exists. The question is, is it possible to implement with Destiny's set up? It sure would be swell! Even if it was a ping all friends playing this game right now button, so we see "Funkmon needs help on *mission or whatever*" pop up at the bottom line contacting Destiny servers is on, that would be swell. My primary motivator for playing this game is friends anyway, I'd help whenever I could.

I'd take this option, too, but for making Destiny more like how it was initially described, I like the active in-game option best. Of course, they first need to solve the problem of you not being able to join the person standing beside you in the Cosmodrome without going to orbit.

I suppose it just depends who you play with. I happen to have a group of about 4 people (including myself) who I used to run Mass Effect 3 with constantly. When Destiny first started out, I would often have situations where the 3 of them would be on before me and get together, and I'd be the odd man out. Of course, since then a couple of them have stopped playing Destiny frequently, and I've started playing with other people from DBO a lot more, so it's not as much of an issue.

Interesting. I've always seen Destiny as a three player game with a pair of modes that allow (Crucible) or need (Raids) six players. Oddly, I've recently found it far easier to gather six for a raid that three for a PoE run... I think it's because PoE requires "too large" of a time commitment.

What do you want to see happen to help you play with your friends again? Up PoE to six players? More Raids? A six player ToO variant?

You know, I hadn't really thought about it. I guess the main problem is that the strike playlists and crucible used to be my go-to activities if I couldn't form a party, but now both feel very tired and boring, so I have zero desire to do them. Then, the one activity that I do enjoy (ToO) requires top tier gear to be truly competitive, and I need to farm etheric light for that, but because I'm basically locked out of PoE parties during the week (and because they take so damn long AND because I just don't really like PoE that much) I feel like I have these chores to do in order to be able to play the fun stuff on the weekends.

So the problem isn't necessarily that I can't form a party, now that I think about it more, but is more that I need to form a party for activities that aren't fun for me in order to deliver top tier performance on the weekends for the activity that is fun. And I hate feeling like I'm gimping my team because my gear isn't good enough (see my older posts on CE hardmode at level 31 because I could only ever get 2 pieces of CE armor to drop).

I guess that if I really want to ToO, I'll buckle down and schedule something for PoE to get some etheric light. But damn, I just don't have fun doing PoE at all. FPS bullet hell is not my cup of tea. At this point, I think I'll probably play some other game that's fun all of the time instead of Destiny, which is only fun a portion of the time.

I think a lot of people struggle with the idea that a gaming session is something worth planning and scheduling, like it is going to a show or any number of other enjoyable social activities. I've said before that some of non-DBO friends don't seem to get it, responding to attempts to plan things with "Yeah, I might be on then." I understand adult responsibilities, but for activities that require a certain headcount, that means you don't usually get to do that activity unless you can commit to the thing ahead of time. Expecting it to work out any other way strikes me as almost childishly naive.

As a married guy without kids yet, a hundred times this. I think the problem many of us still face is that gaming is not seen by others as a social activity with the same social consequences for canceling.

Take these two conversations:

Other people - "Hey, want to grab lunch with us?"
Earendil - "I'd love to, but I'm grabbing a drink with my brother"

Other people - "Hey, want to grab lunch with us?"
Earendil - "I'd love to, but I'm playing video games with my brother"

Perhaps you and I can see those as equal social responsibilities, but many people do not. They don't understand why you can't just not play video games and accept their invitation. They may respect the fact that you game, the same way they respect that you watch TV. But like TV, it's not (often) seen as a social activity that is a valid excuse for not hanging out. To my Wife's credit, she is slowly coming around to the idea. She still has a hard time responding to other couples when they ask us to do something, and her response has to be "We can't, my husband is busy gaming tonight".

The game lacks solo content and it seems to not be on Bungie's radar at all

I understand this. But at the same time, Bungie has stated over and over again, that they made this game to play with friends. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have more solo content, but I also understand that Bungie would have to put resources into that instead of a really awesome raid or multiplayer maps.

It's a trade off and Bungie at least has a clear goal in mind.

They made a game to play with 5 friends, and then HoW turned it into a game with 2 friends. The result is that the first 3 members of my core group of gaming friends log on and form a fireteam. Then someone else logs on, sees the fireteam is full, and logs off. Repeat 2 more times. Since I don't get finished putting my kid to bed until 8 pm at the earliest, I'm now stuck on the outside every night, which means solo play. And the game I used to play with my friends is now a game where I listen to my friends play in chat while I sit on the sidelines, and that sucks. It really, really sucks.

Does it really, really suck when your friends don't magically show up at the same restaurant you decided to go at the last minute? And hey, if you have or had five friends who were consistently there whenever you logged on ready to raid, you're ahead of me and most other people. I'm a bit incredulous that you're stuck on the outside EVERY night or that finding two people to play with is harder than five, but okay.

I think a lot of people struggle with the idea that a gaming session is something worth planning and scheduling, like it is going to a show or any number of other enjoyable social activities. I've said before that some of non-DBO friends don't seem to get it, responding to attempts to plan things with "Yeah, I might be on then." I understand adult responsibilities, but for activities that require a certain headcount, that means you don't usually get to do that activity unless you can commit to the thing ahead of time. Expecting it to work out any other way strikes me as almost childishly naive.

As for myself, I don't assume I'm going to be able to do anything in Destiny that requires other players unless I've planned it ahead (usually using the Fireteam builder) and even then, it's not a sure thing. My alternative strategy for three-man activities is to send messages to people not in a raid (or arena) 10 to 15 minutes before I'm ready to start. For strikes that can work, but common sense dictates it wouldn't be as effective for more time-intensive activities.

Kermit

Kermit, the restaurant example is insulting and I'm guessing you knew it when you wrote it. Of course you don't go to a restaurant expecting your friends to just be there, even if that restaurant is Cheers and your friend is Norm.

There's nothing last minute about my game time. I'm on by 8:30 pm, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But of the four active players in my old raid group, that's the latest log on time. The other three guys have a party up by 6:00, usually. Now maybe I'm weird in that I really only game with people with whom I'm also friends in real life (or friends of friends), but I like that I actually know all of these guys and we all hang out together on the outside as well. I don't want to play with randoms; I want to play with my friends.

Back in the days of raids as endgame, it was reliable that there would be 6 of us online, so "casually" forming two 3-man groups was no big deal. HoW shook up this dynamic and I've clearly had trouble adjusting from the old methods that the earlier Destiny endgame ingrained into me.

Nowadays, I really don't enjoy most of Destiny, so anything that's a solo activity means that I'm logging off to play something else instead. Even PoE I'm not really a fan of. ToO I've been really, really enjoying (and scheduling a team for), but to be maximally competitive at ToO I need to get Etheric Light, which means PoE, which takes so long that my group only gets 1 done per night, and since I'm the last one online I'm the odd man out.

I'm not about to start neglecting my kid in order to be online earlier, so HoW has lost its shine for me and the problem is that it lacks compelling single-player or matchmade activities for me. I'm not saying this is THE problem with HoW that everyone should agree with me on, or that this isn't a problem that Destiny always had, but I stand by my statement that a lack of solo endgame is my biggest gripe with HoW.

I want to play with my friends, but I can't most nights, and playing alone just is boring to me.

Does it really, really suck when your friends don't magically show up at the same restaurant you decided to go at the last minute? And hey, if you have or had five friends who were consistently there whenever you logged on ready to raid, you're ahead of me and most other people. I'm a bit incredulous that you're stuck on the outside EVERY night or that finding two people to play with is harder than five, but okay.

It might a psychological thing. He mentioned people seeing full fireteams and logging off. That doesn't surprise me. Meanwhile, I've seen people sit in a partly-full co-op or multiplayer lobby waiting for the last person or two to join for an hour before.

I think a lot of people struggle with the idea that a gaming session is something worth planning and scheduling, like it is going to a show or any number of other enjoyable social activities. I've said before that some of non-DBO friends don't seem to get it, responding to attempts to plan things with "Yeah, I might be on then." I understand adult responsibilities, but for activities that require a certain headcount, that means you don't usually get to do that activity unless you can commit to the thing ahead of time.

Who wants to do that though? I'll do it, there's years of evidence to back that up, but it would be nice to not have to. Scheduling things and gathering people is work, or at the very least it's boring, and games are supposed to let you get away from work and have fun. It's not just responsibilities either, people might not want to be obligated to do your thing instead of some other leisure activity they might feel like doing at that time.

I had already beaten the game before I ever realized that Big circle missions were "main 'story'" and small circles were "side missions." The game never explained that, either.

And I just learned this now from you ;-)

Then again, Cody only learned that you could stand on the pillars in the Vault of Glass and be relatively safe from the supplicants months after we got the Flawless Raider trophy and he had run VoG at least 40-50 times.

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