MEGA::Chapters 7 & 8 (Fan Creations)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Monday, September 07, 2015, 12:04 (3147 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

------- Chapter 7 :: How to take it to 11 -------

So check this idea out, possible required approvals be dammed because I don't know what they would be. Here is what would have been nice. What would I have said in this ever imaginary case if I had the power AKA the job to do so. Let's say It's late February and Bungie is having a crunch week. At this point there is now no chance of a raid in HoW. Prison of Elders is the thing.

I have a number of options. I can post on the Bungie Forms, I can post on Reddit, I can post on the Bungie Front Page, I can post on the Bungie Twitter, and I can even post to NeoGaf if I'm feeling sadistic. Depending on where I am to post what it is that I wish to say, the "Official Nature" of what is said will change due to where I have said it. Sort of. Posting on the front page for example has abit more prestige then, say, the reassesses of the Bungie forums. It's kind of the same thing yet location location location. Either way Kotaku will probably pick it up and let us know how awful we are. Fantastic.

In this case I choose to make a post on Reddit & Bungie Fourms. I don't post it to DBO because last time I did Miguel bit me, and now I can never see the moon again. That's also why I keep sending Vex to DBO headquarters.

Title: UPDATE ON HoW Raid.
Good evening Guardians! So throughout the months of our adventures in Destiny we here at Bungie have witnessed and been delighted at your enjoyment in the Raids. So naturally, as we have witnessed, you all are undoubtedly excited for the next adventure that awaits you in the House of Wolves. I post here today simply out of a courtesy for our fellow guardians.

As it currently stands, House of Wolves will not have a Raid, but do not despair! That which is taken is given back. Verity is the spice of life. You know... that old chest nut. In its place will be a wholly new round based activity. At this point it does not have an official name that I can present due to it being a work in progress. In fact all of this is a work in progress, and if something else happens during production that I feel is important for my fellow guardians, then I shall endeavor to let you know.

In till then,

JeeDurka

...Or something. So what would the result of this be? Well we can't know since you didn't and if you did I missed it. (If only there was someplace I could go)

So here is what I think the result would be. There would of course be those who would declare "No Raid No Play" and other sorts of extremes, can't be helped. Let's talk about the bulk of players.

What we had during the buildup to House of Wolves, even IF we hadn't had a leak claiming there would be a Raid, would have been people taking about the next Raid in the House of Wolves. We fans have a tendency to hype ourselves up, myself included, which is fantastic since its free and it makes it more likely that we will open our wallets. Yet what happens when the thing we have hoped for, the thing we are expecting is not there? When it turns out all our excitement and time we dedicated to Destinies repeatedly mentioned potential turns out to be moot. Destiny is always a game in progress, but we fans can't see that. Well... we can, but we can't. This is where I thought DeeJ, urk, and now Cosmo comes into the fold. What I did in this case above would have... probably I guess, I don't know... changed the flow of conversation, creating a possible win-win scenario. Generally speaking I would expect the response to be different variants of “Well it really royally sucks that there won't be a raid, but I look forward to or am curious about this new activity for PvE. I wonder if it has check points!"

Then you have people talking about "Oh what could it be", and whatever they talk about might be helpful for the future. You get to watch people throw out ideas and just be part of the community. You get to watch and react to what is being said. Furthermore it adds to your reputation as being Head Badass of the Community. You actually care... apparently. Perhaps that is what this post is ultimately all about.

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Oh... and one more thing.

I love what Epic has done communication wise with the Unreal 4 Engine. While I'm not expecting Bungie to put down all its plans on a public Trello board, I do think that as far as communication of Destiny is concerned, what Epic has done is a good starting point for your thoughts.

For example: Have you heard that Valus Ta'Aurc has too much heath? That -apparently- Blink is too awesome for people in PvP? That thorn as it currently is in House of Wolves is a real pain in the ass in PVP? HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW! I'm not talking about rabid fans, I'm taking about the weakest link. Support the weakest link if you can, and everything comes into place.

It was not by mistake in Chapter 5 as I mentioned what we fans loved about Halo, that I did not mention the old communication style of the Halo days. Does everyone here realize that Facebook started in 2004? That World of Warcraft launched in the US in 2004? Twitter in 2006? Halo 3 launched in 2007. In 2015, for better and for worse, we are truly in the age of Social Technologies. Shit, there is probably some freaking *actual* Star Trek tech in your pocket right now. I think I can say with some certainty, that a few million of the people playing Destiny right now don't have the same experience of Mig or Wu in just...waiting... for information. Everything is on. Data-data-data all the time. While Bungie has used all these social tools for its arsenal, I don't think Bungie has used its ability to be social to the best of their ability. Destiny is a social game. It has an advantage verses World of Warcraft because it is going head first into this age, with 10 years to its stead. That's 2024. 2024! How much do you think is going to change by then? Lawd have murcy. If that doesn't make you catch your breath a bit in the scope of possibilities, then I reckon that you aren't breathing. Instead of learning, "What's a Twitter?" or "What is a Smartphone?”, Destiny and Bungie can communicate in ways other (non-Facebook based) social game companies could not. Destiny is not the first social game, and arguably it is not the first social game by Bungie. Yet it is the first in challenging the scope of social game play and interaction for first person shooters. Bungie requires a different outlook in internal to external communication. Just so I can make you double take; I think Bungie needs to do this without falling back onto reliance of social media. Yes. I know that is counter... keep reading. Use them - obviously - by all means - but don't rely on them to get information out. I feel if Bungie relies on social media, Bungie won't keep trying to innovate how they communicate on Bungie.net. I believe Bungie can make something on their website that is more than just a static post. That can be updated over time as list or infographic. It's about presentation. Ease of access to information. A big button in the top of the front page that says WE HEAR YOU!

Here is an quick idea to get you started. In the Friday update have a section called "What the internet is saying", or some other fancy whoda-hada. In it have a summary of what we the-fans are-saying. This week... Oh you all think that Valus Ta'Aurc has too much heath. We have top men on it. TOP MEN. Downside of this is there is no stacking so if someone doesn't read it right there on that Friday Thursday it could be missed. Communicate that you hear us by telling us what we have been saying. Then after you do that... DO IT AGAIN. After all it's the internet, we all have an attention spans of like two... awww... a kitten.

Daaaaaaaaaw.

I hope I have helped you understand what I mean. Please! Help us Help you! Duh. Not everyone has the knowhow to help, but we do have the passion. After all - we're Bungie fans. ;)

------- Chapter 8 :: Activisions Bungie -------

There is a difference between videogames being art, and videogames being money. There is a difference between getting it right, and getting it done. With Destiny it has felt more and more like it was made for the latter and not the former. In consideration of this I looked into the possibilities of Activisions hand upon Destiny.

In actuality, one of the first things I found myself asking was – is it not Bungie? Did Bungie get their hands tied? I would have recommended that our dear pimps at sea do well to keep away from those dark waters due to all the horror stories I've heard about Activision. Yet what choice did they have?

So let us talk about the business of videogames for a bit, where again I am no expert, I just want to know everything... or something. My innocent concern stems from what happened to videogames when it met investors (who were to shelter them from first party developers of the 80’s and 90’s). For those of you who wonder why there are so many sequels now-a-days or, why there are so many "Super Awesome DUST COLLECTORS Editions", and even the shenanigans of "Pre-Ordering" I present to you an answer. This is also why the Double Fine KICKSTARTER was such a big deal at its time, since the Kickstarter aspect allows wholly original video game ideas to be funded that otherwise wouldn't have seen the light of day because it didn't seem "profitable". This is also true for the Indie scene in general, where original ideas like The Stanley Parable, which is an amazing game that I recommend to everyone out of concept alone, are able to be created. I digress though, since Destiny is no Indie its scope. No, what my concern about Activision and Bungie entrails is the requirements of Money & Time.

I can easily presume that Bungie signed a contract because the power bill of those servers doesn’t currently pay themselves. Bungie signed a contract because the fans have enough gosh darned subscriptions. Bungie signed a contract because those 500ish people have families and bills AKA subscriptions to pay. Bungie signed a contract because... what other option did they have? I guess they could have self-published, but *essh*, how much would that cost nowadays? I don't expect Jones would be up for boxing a few million copys this time, even if he does have experience with the process. As much as part of me hates it, the current climate of the industry that I can see required this. The scope of Destiny required this.

So what of this requirement? What of the result? How does this effect Bungie? How do you separate the choices of the monster from the choices of the man? Can you still even make that comparison? Bungie signed a contract with Activision while elsewhere Activision was trying to wrap up West and Zampel in court. Looking through the history of that case, I can't help but feel really unnerved. Will there be Déjà vu? I don’t expect to find out soon.

Of all these questions I ask here, the few answers that I have been able to surmise are from outdated sources. Since reading things on the internet is so up to interpretation, I would like to apologize to the key members and managers of Bungie, because I in my mostly inexperienced ignorance am trying to find answers where there are currently none. I second guess and speculate of you as I look outside in. Forgive me. I don't know you lot ...sadly, though I have met at least two of you recently, which will be important later on. Please know I'm attempting this desperation because I care, just in case that isn't obvious by now. ;)

I have gone through what was released of the Bungie and Activation Contract in 2013. For those of you who would like to read it in a broken down format and translated into actual English, you can also read it here at this link. Keep in mind that this contract could have been updated.

Much of this contract is fairly standard as far as I can tell. Who owns what, what is to be delivered, and of course Money Money Money. For those of you who, for SOME reason, have asked about whether or not "Destiny 2" is going to be on the "last gen" Xbox360 and Ps3, the answer here is a contractual no.

In reading this contract I don't see anything directly involving Activation forcing Bungies hand in game creation. That said, indirectly, the cliché standards of Time & Money are there. You do what you have to do to get the job done to deliver a product by the deadline. Thanks to E3 2015 this is interesting.

For example, It is mentioned here (IN A VIDEO I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND NOW >_<) that (at the very least) there has been work on the Taken King since at least October. This is interesting because this gives a flicker of what the production schedule looks like, though it doesn't show the ups, the downs, and the bugs.

Really the only thing I glimpse from this contract is that Bungie can't say "this DLC sucks" and then push back the date, because they have a schedule they must commit. Could this be why vanilla Destiny hardly had any taste at all?

I was hoping I could glimpse some sort of deeper incite from the contract, but my conclusions are SO inconclusive that my experience gives nothing more to say about it. I added it to this post that is already so big, because this is what did. In my process of being through, I do my utmost exhausting every option I have trying to answer questions that have been made behind doors, because... Bungie can't be this stupid. There has to be something we don't know.

What does it mean when the apparent TROLL makes more sense then what Bungie has given?

Chapter 8 cont’ :: Last minute addendum :: Saturday, September 05, 2015

Holy shit. Is it really as I feared?

The court filings say that O’Donnell believed he was preserving Bungie’s “creative process, artistic integrity, and reputation, keeping faith with fans, and protecting Bungie and its intellectual property from Activision’s encroachment into artistic decisions.” According to O’Donnell’s view, the “Band of Brothers” ethos that had inspired the group’s earlier work was being damaged by the Activision relationship.

Ryan and other Bungie management felt that his conduct “hurt the Bungie team, hurt the game, drove a negative online discussion, and violated Ryan’s instructions.” They also believed that O’Donnell was elevating his interest in publishing Music of the Spheres over the best interests of the company. Activision advised Bungie that O’Donnell’s conduct may constitute a breach of the parties’ contract.

Ship of Theseus? Sure. Now... who is the captain of this ship? Or is it... who funds the voyage?

See that line there at the end? Where it says "Activision advised Bungie that O’Donnell’s conduct may constitute a breach of the parties’ contract." That right there is the difference between videogames being art, and videogames being money. That set of words right there? Means no more Bungie, because there would be no Destiny. That's my interpretation. If your job is head of the studio, what do you do?

Keeping in mind the latest trailer... well. Uncensored Fuck. We are the fans, and I wonder if we like what we see.

Here is a look at some posts from H.B.O when Bungie joined Activision.

Bungie Partnering with Activision?!

Those of you upset about Activision

Bungie responds to Activision contract.

Anywho...

(ノಥ益ಥ)ノ彡┻━┻

This new data only compounds the end conclusion of this mega post. Moving along.

------- Click here for Chapters 9 - 10 -------