Gameinformer Article on the Story of Destiny (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 08:08 (3476 days ago) @ narcogen
edited by Kahzgul, Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 08:14

I wasn't as critical, but now that you mention it...

I think the article does a good of informing people that there's more to Destiny than they might have realized.

That is true. The narrative that "Destiny has no story" has already been out so long it is accepted fact, even among those still playing the game. I fear it is probably too late to reverse that for many, and to the extent that this article connects the dots on certain things that players might not have noticed, it is a good thing.

I think the author has overstated the degree to which everything presented within is accurate, and I'm also wondering why stuff like this doesn't just appear in a weekly update, and why nearly every damn thing we learn about Destiny comes from GameInformer, which is outright owned by a retailer. Surely digital sales are a large enough portion now that kowtowing to GameStop is no longer mandatory?

I just need to step in here. When we say that Destiny "has no story" what we mean is "the story in the actual game, Destiny, is really weak." On the internet, Destiny has a setting, and it has a backstory, and it has cannon and lore, but none of those things are a story.

EDIT: I just want to point out that I get that there's an overarching story of the universe of Destiny (not the game, but the setting) that has 9 more years to develop, and *that* story is certainly starting off well, as it includes all of the non-Destiny the game elements, which I find fascinating. BUT Destiny the game is sorely lacking in my esteem and has really done very, very little to further the overarching plot, especially when compared to the information in the grimoires etc..

/rant on.

In the actual game, we have a cutscene of some astronauts on mars looking at an orb and then it rains. Totally unexplained. Then you come back from the dead and are told everything will be explained later (it never is). You kill some guys because they're trying to kill you, and you get a ship because you need it apparently. When you meet the speaker, he tells you that he could tell you the stories, but he won't. And so on until the stranger tells you she doesn't have time to explain why she doesn't have time to explain. And so forth, and then you win in the Black Garden and you get a single mote of light and a gun. No explanation of what you did at all, really, and the effect of your actions on the game world is literally nil. Your character has learned basically nothing and been a mostly passive construct for the entire game. Even though it seemed like some major events took place, they either did so totally off camera or they actually had no real effect on the game world. No one grew, no lesson was learned, no moral was taught, not one of the characters developed in any meaningful way. Hence, no story.

Then the first expansion came, and that had a story! Crota is going to invade earth (instigating event!), you have to stop his invasion (rising action!) and then eventually go kill him (climax!). And then it ends. Halfway through what I would consider to be "the story." BUT, the Taken King is the falling action that results from your killing of Crota (Oryx invading is a direct result of your actions), and you have to deal with the consequences (presumably by killing Oryx), which would neatly end this particular thread of gameplay. Depending on the outcome of TTK and its effect on the game world (hopefully there is one), this could be a full and complete story.

Second expansion! HoW has a complete story within it. Take the backstory of Skolas from the grimoire and throw it out - sadly none of that is in the actual game. But the inciting event is Skolas' escape (happens off camera, but you hear about it at the start of the xpac missions). Then - rising action - you hunt him down. And capture him (climax!). Then he's thrown in prison (falling action), but eventually, when you've grown powerful enough, they need you to go and kill him for good (resolution). The falling action and resolution are not explained in terms of why those things are happening instead of you just killing him at the climax, which puts the end half of this closer to how the original game played (do these things and I refuse to explain why), but since you can see that they directly result from your own actions (and would not be possible had you not taken those earlier actions), their role in the narrative structure is clear. You could even say we earned the trust of the Queen and learned that she is a ruthless leader and capable ally, so there is both character development and a lesson learned.

So certainly the expansions are better about storytelling than the original game, but I find it disingenuous to claim that writings on the internet constitute story within the game. That's like saying Xmen 3 was a good movie because the comic books' Phoenix Saga was awesome, or like saying Dune the movie was good because Dune the book was awesome. They're different entities. Not wholly unrelated, but still distinct from one another. My knowledge of the history of House Atredes from reading the book does not somehow change the movie into a better story. Likewise, the existence of the Grimoire does not magically make the actual game of Destiny have a good story. It makes it have a good setting, and a good backstory, and good lore, but it does not change the actual story of the game, which is very, very weak.

/rant off