You know Cody, I have a confession: (Destiny)

by nico, Thursday, July 30, 2015, 16:36 (3196 days ago) @ Cody Miller

I want you to know, I know EXACTLY how you feel. Your "battered spouse" analogy is perfect. I've been there, EXACTLY there.

You see, I used to play WoW.

Before you say Destiny isn't an MMORPGLMAOZ, it's not about that. It's not at all about that. Allow me to explain.

I played WoW in part because it was an activity to help sustain a long distance relationship (until we moved in together), but also in part because it was an addiction. I was one of three tanks for a 25-man raiding guild, and I would legitimize hours spent farming / gathering / raiding by saying I didn't want to let my fellow guild mates down. A good geared tank required fewer heals, blah blah blah.

But it was just a nasty addiction. I would lust after gear, and I would be sad when it didn't drop, and happy when it did.

World of Warcraft is a shitty game because the gameplay is shitty. It's also a shitty game because Blizzard tweaked weapon and armor balance EVERY WEEK. By the time I stopped, they still couldn't get PvE and PvP balance right, a fundamental flaw design from a company which at the time generated more income than the GNP of many smaller countries.

It's also a shitty game because you NEED gear to evolve. There's no "Stranger's Rifle" in WoW PVP -- if you don't meet gear thresholds, you're useless, and getting it takes time and luck.

It's a brilliant (and successful) franchise because of the carrot-and-the-stick element: you usually get the stick, rarely you get the carrot. Hours spent killing a boss, no drops, etc etc.

Bungie rightfully recognized the power of this carrot/stick paradigm to build Destiny. And I am in the position of having had so many scars from the WoW sticks that I stopped caring by the time I stopped playing.

It wasn't a big revelation or anything, one day, it just occurred to me that I was playing a game I didn't particularly like to chase after pixels.

I felt just like you, like a useless bunch of pixels owned hours a week of my life. I felt used and abused.

Unlike WoW's terrible gameplay, Destiny is fun to me -- it's reminiscent of Halo 3, and I love Halo 3.

I don't play Destiny for the drops, and I'm therefore not invested in the drops. To me, Destiny is like playing Halo 3, but with the chance at rewards. And of course, you get to kill your enemies, kill your friends, and kill your friends' enemies, so the social interaction is, like Halo 3, a big part of the fun factor for me.

If you don't obsess over the carrots, then the sticks can't hurt you.

I hope this can maybe make you rethink the way you look at Destiny.

Cheers,

-n