Not to be a downer but: Destiny, Fallout 4, and power creep (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Thursday, October 29, 2015, 05:10 (3409 days ago) @ red robber

First off, great commentary on your thoughts and the state of the game. I really understand where you are coming from, how Destiny can be a consuming game, and how having the best stuff can affect your experience.

Thanks. As I read your response (which I deeply appreciate), another fear sort of crystalized in my brain. I'm not worried at all about the Destiny community leaving me behind. Rather, I'm worried about my friends leaving me behind. There was a period in HoW where 2 of the 6 regularly raiding members of my PS4 crew stopped playing. The result was only 4 of us were online any given night, so if I logged on and the other 3 were already in a PoE or Trials, I knew I wasn't doing anything that night. It sucked and it sucked hard. Taking a break from Destiny for any reason feels like breaking up with my pals. They will, simply out of necessity, find someone to replace me for raids and other activities. Which means that, when I eventually return, I'll be behind them in progression and I'll be out of the loop when it comes to forming fireteams.

That, far more than light level or weapon availability, is the real danger in time off, as far as I see it. I apologize that I hadn't realized this was the true boogeyman I was seeing under the bed during my first post.

My personal experience is that no weapon or armor has ever really changed the way I experience Destiny or has felt required to be competitive in either PvE or PvP. Having said that, I'm not in the top 1% of players in skill where these small differences matter most. I would also think that 1%ers play enough to get those items in most cases and play frequently enough to access those activities that lead to those rewards. I'm not everyone, and I can see how a person would feel left out and behind because they didn't stay in the loop.

I'm in the unfortunate position of not being in the 1% of skill, but being in the 0.1% of competitiveness. Serious FoMO (Fear of Missing Out).

I don't believe it will be detrimental to the Destiny player base in the long run though. The same things that may run someone away, may also bring others in or cause some to play more. This weeks Festival of the Lost is a great example. Its really just for fun while being time limited. Folks who were going to abandon Destiny for Halo were probably brought back in at least for a bit to check out the cool experience. I personally have enjoyed this as much as anything in Destiny so far. The ambiance in the Tower is amazing right now. The candles, the howling and screaming. The silly masks and candy. How better to relax a player base who's getting stressed about Hard Mode Raids and upcoming Trials than with some goofy masks and silly quests.

To boil it down, power creep will really only affect the most Hardcore of players IMO. Hardcore casuals like me, nah.

I'm really enjoying TTK and everything that's come with it (sans Sunbreakers... grrr) but power creep affects us all. If the game gets back to a broken Thorn or Hawkmoon only type state again, even for 2 weeks without some attempt at a patch, I'll probably bow out, and it probably won't be gracefully. Sunbreakers already make me not even want to bother with Trials this time around, simply from having faced a 3 sunbreaker team in elimination a few weeks ago.