Horrible interview. Here's my takeaway in TL;DR form... (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Thursday, July 09, 2015, 19:50 (3662 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Interviewer: Even though people play Destiny for hundreds of hours, everyone complains about it.
Luke: We are fully in touch with people's complaints.

Except, he didn't say that in the least. At one point he said: "I would say we are absolutely proud of what we’ve accomplished with Destiny, and where we’re headed. I think we’re really bullish about the future. But at the same time we acknowledge some of the things that need to be better. And that’s what we’re trying to do. And I think the critics, and many players, call us on those things. And we’re totally trying to address those."

"And I think the critics, and many players, call us on those things. And we’re totally trying to address those."
Here's where he says it. He then goes on to totally deflect every question about those things that they're being called on. That's not how you totally try to address those, that's how you totally try not to address those. I included this quote to set up how blatantly he doesn't address the concerns right after he tells the interviewer that they're fully trying to address them.

Interviewer: Here's another complaint: The game introduces factions like the Awoken but never explains who they are or why they matter or any of that.
Luke: In 80 years, you'll remember the epic tale of how you got Gjallerhorn, but not who the Awoken are.

Yeah, that's one I wish he'd addressed better. Destiny's story, so far, hasn't been told in the same way but we still know a lot. And it does seem that they are trying to do more in-game story stuff with TTK. Bungie, so far, hasn't really admitted that the story needed a lot more, but they have spoken about it in an "around the edges" kind of way.

I didn't add my own real commentary here, but the story of how I cheesed the VoG labyrinth chest for weeks on end and then finally got a Gjallerhorn from it isn't a good story. It's a crappy story. Sure, I'll remember it more than I remember who the Awoken are, but that's only because I have no idea who the Awoken are since the game never tells me. It's not possible for me to remember something that doesn't exist. The whole "Tell your own Legend" company line of Destiny, from the get-go, has just been totally lame to me. The story of my items are almost all "RNGeesus finally gave it to me" with the exception of "I bought it from Xur" and Thorn, which had a cool quest. I'm exaggerating a little, but really, the stories of how we got our loot just aren't that interesting in this game, and they're certainly a lot less interesting than the grimoire card backstories of... everything, but none of that is actually in the game (or even referenced in the game when it comes to the loot).

Interviewer: Why is there no plot in Destiny?
Luke: Mahyem is a good pvp mode.

No. That's completely ignoring what he actually said. Read the response again. It's not about Mayhem, it's about bringing more levity and story to the forefront of Destiny. He mentions story, he mentions Eris and Zavala. Only after he answers the question about the game taking itself too seriously while not having enough plot (again, the answer was TTK will have more levity and more plot) does he talk about how Mayhem is the gameplay version of that where not every mode has to be super competitive and can instead be crazy fun sometime too.

But levity isn't plot. It isn't storytelling. I can tell you a joke, but that's not the same thing as telling you a story. "Hey Eris, you're weird" has no beginning, middle, or end, no arc, no character development, none of that. Destiny is chock full of backstory, but has no actual, present story to speak of. Even when we have goals "You must kill Omnigul" there's only the action of it, with no set up for why we need to (she's "building an army" that we never see...) and no resolution after the fact (did killing her do *anything* to hurt Crota's cause? No idea; never mentioned again). The HoW quests are better with the chase for Skolas, but again we're thrust into it without any set-up (we never see the wolves escape, we don't understand why the queen is pissed at them, heck - we never even see the queen). There is action and resolution, with a degree of character thrown in, which is great, but then there's a huge leap in plot from "we've captured Skolas" to "you need to go into the prison of elders and kill Skolas." Didn't we just spend a bunch of time putting him in there? Why didn't we kill him instead of capturing him? What happened in the prison that has made it so we have to kill him? The game lacks lacks lacks when it comes to storytelling.

Interviewer: Destiny is really bad at things that Halo was good at, like the AI.
Luke: They're basically the same.

And they are. There's very little units in Halo do that they don't do in Destiny. And they do things in much the same way.

What Destiny lacks is some of the unit personality that Halo had. Units can be scared and run away in Destiny, they might even be more likely to do so or be triggered to do so when a leader unit is killed, but we don't see the obvious almost over-the-top reaction of the Grunts always running away when an Elite was killed. But put Elites, Brutes, Vandals, and Acolytes in the same room, swap their model and sounds for something generic, and give them the same gun and I think it would be at least somewhat difficult to tell who was who during most of a fight.

This is actually a good point. The thing that makes the AI in halo more memorable is that the units actually relate to each other. If there are two elites, one will likely flank you while the other provides covering fire. If one elite dies, the grunts might run away from fear. Brutes charge in and the grunts cheer. Maybe the actual gameplay isn't much different from Destiny's, but I get the feeling playing destiny that there's no tactical difference between fighting 1 thrall and 50 thralls or 1 goblin and 50 goblins or 4 vandals and a captain vs. 4 captains and a vandal. Every unit in Destiny always behaves the same regardless of what other units are around it, what happens to those units, what the terrain is, where you are, whether it's injured or not, etc etc etc..

They are also, as you say, utterly without personality, which is really disappointing after all of the fun stuff from Halo. "I get his helmet!" "No! He was my friend!" "The demon!" All fun lines that give me a sense of belonging in the world of Halo.

Anyway, I don't like that Luke said they're totally addressing the issues and then totally deflected when asked about those issues. He doesn't even cop to them. It gives me no hope for this xpac, and I'm worried about the future of Destiny.