Sorry for the late reply. (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Friday, October 09, 2015, 15:13 (3569 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

When you play match made gametypes, does playing with randoms make the experience more enjoyable, or does it just make it possible?

I've often wished Nightfalls had matchmaking, but I'm now starting to think that what I really want is for the Nightfalls to scale so I could more realistically run them solo if none of my friends are around.

I guess in my head, I'm still "playing alone" when I do a match made activity... There are just these other people involved who tend to detract more often than add anything meaningful to the experience. I think, in those cases, I'd rather be really alone and just have the mission or strike scale to suit 1 player rather than 3.

To answer your question, I'd say both, and sometimes one or the other. Depends on the mode.

Higher difficulty PoE is more about just making it possible. I like the arena mode a lot but I approach it more like a marathon, like an arcade game. I'd do it alone if I could, but the way it's built makes it hard to do solo (even though you can technically try).

With Strikes, and Patrols, and what I'd call more story-based, 'adventurous' activities, I actually find random Guardians joining me more immersive and exciting than when I'm doing them solo. I always thought Halo campaigns were the funnest when I was fighting alongside the AI marines in epic battles. Destiny doesn't have that exactly but the random, matchmade Guardians who fill that void are essentially sentient, high-skilled marines in comparison. This means I have a partner to work with as well as a chance to observe their own cool gameplay moments. Sometimes particular challenges or incidents combined with an emote can lead to a funny moment. It's a Noble team that's helpful ALL the time rather than on occasion. :)

Sure, all of this can be taken to a greater impact with a real, personalized team, but, for someone like me, that has its own cost and I'm not always in the mood to combine true socializing and gaming. This isn't a sardonic hatred for humans or something. Even when I'm having a blast with friends or family, it wears me out and once my super meter is depleted, I have to take a break and recharge. Games often fulfill that recharging space. Every day after middle and high school, I'd go home and play a video game for an hour and afterwards, I could be sociable and inviting again because I had that zone-out meditation.

Destiny's matchmaking gives me a happy medium in that respect. In a perfect world I'd love for every activity to have solo, fireteam, and matchmaking avenues, and scale down or up in difficulty accordingly, but the production cost and the constraints of the matchmaking candidate pool limit that, not to mention the difficulty of making that work with a designer's intentions like in a Raid where it is built and optimized for teamwork (and while I don't Raid often, I love that that kind of gameplay exists as an option).

The games you and Cody are describing sound cool, but it wouldn't be something I play anywhere near as often as Destiny.

I'm not totally sure I would play it either, lol. I'm just letting my imagination wander :)

I think it would be a game I'd play when I was younger and when I had friends who could just stop by and play in the ocean of Silent Cartographer for 3 hours. :)