On Time-Sensitive Activities and Available Game Time (Destiny)

by Beorn , <End of Failed Timeline>, Wednesday, October 07, 2015, 20:38 (3431 days ago)

TL;DR: Time-sensitive events in Destiny create great experiences but inherently filter out some of the player base because not everyone can play at the same time.

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I have a complicated relationship with the activities in Destiny that happen at a specific time (Xûr, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, the new "enhanced" Dailies, today's First Firewall mission, etc.). Why they can be really great (and where their intent lies) is that limiting the time window for these events creates a focusing lens for the player base. When everyone has to get together and do something all at the same time, it helps spur a sense of community and gives the feeling of common accomplishment; it's a cool thing.

Except when you travel for long blocks of time for work and can't take your main console with you, leaving your Guardian stuck out in the cold (which is the boat I'm in right now). Bungie tweeted the following in response to a fan who was concerned about time-sensitive events:

These event[s] will be recurring. Please don't feel like you need to rearrange your calendar to play.

This tweet was meant to be reassuring, but some players are invariably going to end up having repeat conflicts with these events unless they do rearrange their calendars to partake in the event. Take me for instance: if Xenos's guess is correct and The First Firewall only makes itself seen on the first Armsday of the month (or on the 7th of each month, as Mariachi suggested), then the earliest I think I can get my hands on Sleeper Simulant is mid-December. Mid. December.

Obviously events that happen more regularly, like Trials on its weekly schedule, are easier to skip, but the ones on longer (or unknown!) cycles are more frustrating to miss out on. I don't remember my what last run at the Iron Banner was, but I think I've only purchased a single Etheric Light from Lord Saladin. Same thing goes for the Paradox mission from yesterday, although I expect that to be back a little more regularly (although the chance of a repeat goes down every time new missions become available!).

I've been trying to assess my feelings on this but I haven't come to a strong conclusion yet. There's certainly a bit of "keeping up with the Joneses" at play here,* but I think what I dislike most is not being able to game on my own time and feel like my time matters as much as those with more flexible schedules. The nature of my professional work means that I usually play games in bursts (between projects) and sometimes forego the console for weeks at a time. Having to mesh that with the Bungie's pre-determined schedule for events in-game can be frustrating. I am well aware that there are others here with even more demanding schedules than I have, so please don't take this as a "woe is I" post. It's just something I've been thinking about this week and felt like writing about it might help me sort things out. :)

At least I know what I'll be getting myself for Christmas:

* I am to some degree a "completionist" and part of me likes having cool, special things that are harder to come by. I think a lot of the discontent people have with Destiny revolves around feeling "slighted" by luck-of-the-draw, myself included. This is something I've been trying to work on personally ever since my struggles with finding Gjallarhorn hit a peak earlier this year; for the last few months I've been trying to find the "awesome" in what I do have and just enjoy when new stuff shows up.