MEGA::Chapters 9 & 10 (Fan Creations)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Monday, September 07, 2015, 12:04 (3151 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

------- Chapter 9 :: Bungie Hates PVE -------

Behold! The snowball that bellowed into this mountain of words. Bungie hates PvE.

Yet, as mentioned, does Bungie really hate PVE? Well no. Of course not, don't be ridiculous. It's just that Destiny is so social, that it kind of... sort of... neglected a core audience. I find what it was that I saw, what the corners of my brain had concluded, was that everything was more like multiplayer then single player. I realized when I said PVE; I was expressing my preference when I think of PVE. The Lone Wolf play style. The OG of PVE. Playing Destiny by your self is a distinction crucial for my observation.

Within year one of Destiny everything is eventually geared, tailored and designed so that Destiny is to be played with others. That's not to infer that such a thing is bad, but a conclusion to build further thoughts from.

You see Destiny can have its bouts of fun, but not because of Destiny. Of what do I mean? Well a miserable experience can be tempered and ultimately changed into a better experience with friends, but a great experience can be made even greater with friends. The opposite can also be true, but in such a case it is less about the design of the game and more the people who you play with.

Only one of these things can Bungie do anything with. You make the game, and I'll make the friends. (<3 DBO)

Yet I digress though, since such an aspect involves other people, and my original point was about playing in Destiny as a Lone Wolf. I think it is due to the above aspect of playing with others that caused this Lone Wolf aspect to become over looked. Destiny silently requires you have others to play with to be fun. In this way everything is more like multiplayer then single player, because you "can't" play by yourself.

I know I know. You can play Destiny by yourself, but is it fun? Again and again? I'm not talking about day one, because there is only one day one. I'm talking about the game. How is the car after the new car smell is gone? Or better yet what is the difference between eating by yourself, and eating along with your friends? This is what I'm trying to express. This is Destinies flaw. Destinies strength is, because of course it is… its weakness.

After saying all this, my next point might seem a bit silly. In the event this lone wolf WANTS to play PVE with others, in certain cases it can be even harder to do than playing alone. Since Destiny is so social I have found myself in moments where I could not play what I wanted to play when I wanted to play it. When I was able to play it. Now Destiny is fighting me, and telling ME when I can play.

Oops.

Now since this game is going up against a Human, or whatever, we humans do what we do best. Shit on everything and adapt-the-fuck-around-it. Yet the thing is as far as this topic is concerned... We. Shouldn't. Have to. Thus I present a full confession. This is actually something that has greatly bothered me about an assortment of games since the very beginning of my tenure as a gamer. I personally feel that whenever the player has to go else ware to play the game, that such is a catastrophic game play flaw. Essentially it becomes a sort of showstopper, where I stop playing the game but to play the game. Does that make ANY SENSE at all? Now I have to go outside of the world to play in the world. If I have to go elsewhere to solve a problem, that is a problem. Period. In other words... this is all your fault Cody. :P

This sort of thing drives me... well... you know. Also the Grimore. *Aggravated SIGH*

(YOU HAVE PREPARED THE FOOD BUT YOU DON'T SERVE IT!?!)

On top of that, If for some reason a certain Bungie designer felt that this showstopper was a good idea, their idea instantly became moot. They would have given' up the ability to control an experience and left everything up to the RN-Jack-in-the-Box that is the internet. Why would Bungie give up that control? Why wouldn't they just, I don't know, actually design it. There are some fairly simple things that could have been done to achieve a similar effect, but in a way that involves the game world.

There have been times when I wanted to play a Nightfall or a Raid and I couldn't because I couldn't get people together because it was so short notice. So I would go to LFG and do it that way, which in some ways is worse since the range is now completely random. That's frustrating. One hour later I'm saying to myself, "Why am I not playing Destiny right now?". Bungie, if you want people to group up, then use actual gameplay to group people up. Didn't you have a system in Reach where you could customize the matchmaking? Look. I understand why you did it, I just disagree with how you did it.

Oh and one more thing. How many special events did PvP have in year one? How many special events did PvE have in year one? How many times were such things seen? Boom. I obviously just proved it. Next.

------- Chapter 10 :: The Tree of Ouroboros -------

Since Destiny is such an interlinked social game, it brings with it risks that few other games that I know of have had to deal with. The moment Destiny launched, it's tendrils of social aspect gave root. Destiny became this want of ecosystem and harmony. Systems within systems. As such blooms formed, something became more and more noticeable about Destinies structure. How... in the truest form of all things, everything effects everything else. As such, it also affected me.

With Destiny Year One I had to play to have fun, instead of wanting to play to have fun. Does that make sense? Perhaps I should put it another way.

As you start Destiny beneath the shadow of the wall, where at very beginning your entire spark is brought to light; you have the wilderness before you, the clothes on your back, and "the hovering exposition eyeball". As you venture forth into this new and strangely familiar world. We would find ourselves suddenly fighting many a foe. Of these foes, some would break at the crack of my weapon and some would just suck. Get it? Bullet sponges? Eh? Ah!? Meh. Anyway they really do suck. Word of reminder, the examples given herein are simplistic. Please bear with me.

So if there is apparently a problem with enemies not dying, how do we the players fix this? Upgradable weapons and armor of course. With upgradeable weapons we can kill the bullet sponge enemies faster. Oh! Look what they drop! More weapons & armor.

So now I am playing so that I can upgrade my weapons and armor so I can kill my foe quicker so that I can get more weapons and armor so I can kill my foe quicker so that I can get more weapons and armor and do the same thing. Again and again. Ugh.

Yet this lone monotony would be moot if those who we fought were worth the effort in year one. All Bungie did, that I can see, is seemingly attempt to cure the symptom not the disease. Why did a culture form around Gally? Why did people enjoy sitting back with Ice Breaker? Why would we gang up with shotguns? It is because of the foe we face.
Each class of foe has its unique flavor to be sure, but they have no or little character. The Year One foe is too much like a fun house duck with a target painted on it. They all just stand out in the open, sans a sniper shot. I'm trying to kill them and all they can do is stand around or come closer to me and get shot. Is that the best you can do Bungie?!

No. It isn't.

Just shooting a foe after a time is boring, and if our bullet sucking foe was fun would we want to end the fight as quick as we can? Yet if the foe isn't fun then why are we playing? Are we are playing so that we can kill it faster, and end the misery? Does that make any sense? I'm the crazy guy of the forums if you ignore Funkmon, and even I am going... WHAT?!?! Why are we even playing this?

We are playing Destiny because our friends are playing Destiny and we enjoy playing Destiny with our friends. That was what Halo multiplayer from the VERY beginning was all about. That is where the fun lies. We made our fun, and we did it with our friends. That is why, I think, for the last year people playing Destiny have been going "This game sucks but I can't stop playing."

Yet what can happen when you do stop playing? I'm probably going to stop in the coming months days, so this was particularly important for me to think about. I found that unlike other games, the longer someone doesn't play Destiny, the more that person loses.

So what does that mean? Well check this out.

Bungie has the Player in this so called living world. It's really not so much alive and in fact it's really kind of stale. Pretty? Yea! The day changes too, and that is cool. In the end though, Destiny is just an online interface to the core systems of the game. While I'm not playing, others… like my friends, are. Go figure. Yet this aspect is important. If you don't play then you can't "keep up". Even if you don’t care, keep up is one big ol' grind. It’s you in relation verses the other players who are gaining in light and PvE foes who are gaining in light. Everything is based off the strength of your light AKA experience and the weapons which you have. I wonder why everyone wants wanted Gally? It's not just because it blows-shit-up nice.

It's a mixed bag, but it's a side effect of being social. Bungie went down this road and now has to balance the sociology of it all.

But wait wait wait wait wait! This deal just keeps getting better!

Behold! The coming of year two Destiny! ... and Fallout 4. Now Bungie is going to have to deal with Mirrors Edge Catalyst. To Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. TO Fallout 4. And Fallout 4. Bungie is going to have to deal with Starwars : Battlefront for which I pray hasn't been TOTTALY faked, the AA is just too good to be true. Oh and even Halo 5, which is implementing something I have always wanted to play. Also Fallout 4. That's not all the games... but it's a few of the highlights of late 2015. It's because of these few games that I have listed that I'm probably not going to play Destiny. Why bother playing Destiny? It's not like I can just jump in and play as I wish. Destiny is a social game.

Let's say because of the aforementioned games, like say... Fallout 4. Let's say I don't play Destiny for the rest of my life because filppen' Fallout 4. Let us also say 6 months (ha!) because I can't see that far into the future. Destiny during that time will change, and I do not criticize the change its self. During that time based on the DLCs of the past year there will be escalation. Light in whatever form it takes gets higher. Weapons get larger crit. There will also be changes that I'll have to go out of my way to find out. What has been nerfed and buffed and so forth. I'll have to figure out how to play right, because Bungie wants us to keep changing out weapons.
Perhaps this is lazy of me, but in my down time I would rather not have to research a game. I want to sit down and just play. Boom. Off I go.

Second star to the right… and straight on till morning.

------- Click here for Chapters 11 - 13 -------