On a related note, Waypoint put up a podcast yesterday that's basically all about Destiny.

A few key takeaways for me:

- Patrick's assertion that Activision, not Bungie, is in charge of all of Destiny's marketing and thus should not be considered an accurate representation of the tone of the game is a good point to keep in mind (and something that has been brought up here in this discussion). Austin's counter is equally valid; that the reception to Fillion's role in TTK was so well received, that there's a chance Bungie could be leaning even harder on him for Des2ny, potentially throwing off the balance that was struck with TTK.

- Austin made a great point when he said he wants more "character" in the game, and character does not just mean "funny". His comments regarding the compelling nature of the grimoire and how absent it is from the actual game is a well known sentiment around here, but he articulates it very well.

- Patrick's point about the impenetrable barrier that is Destiny's loot system is an important one, I think. He's completely right when he says that the complicated and grindy nature of Destiny's progression causes all but the most hardcore players to bounce off of the game, and thus miss out on the best content.

On a related note, Waypoint put up a podcast yesterday that's basically all about Destiny. It's Austin Walker and Patrick Klepek, both formerly of Giant Bomb, along with Danielle Riendeau and Rob Zacny, and I thought it was a really interesting listen.

Austin has a reputation of being pretty hard on games in general, even when they're good. He is very much interested in games that have a point, have a message or at least a story to tell, so he leans pretty hard on the "the grimoire is so good, we need to see more of it in the game" angle. And not just in the literal sense of, "I shouldn't have to leave the game to read the grimoire," but more in the "The actual game should tell stories this good," sense.

Patrick throws out an interesting idea about raid matchmaking that I think could be neat. Basically, he only finally did a raid by finding a Sherpa group, and he proposed making that an actual thing from within the game. Let players sign up in some manner to become Sherpas and get rewards for doing so. I'm not sure how it would or could be implemented, but I think it's at least an idea worth exploring. Incentivize players to help other players to complete the raid, which would at least help to discourage the LFG "Gjallarhorn required" attitude. I would like to see some neat community building frameworks within the game, but I'm not sure what they would be.

It's an interesting 40 minute listen, if you have the time.

We here at DBO expressed a wide range of reactions to the trailer, mostly positive.

Uh, it seems the response here was mostly mixed, at least to me.

Well I haven't done an official count, but I got the sense that most of the people posting here enjoyed it. I personally think it's absolutely terrible, but I seem to be in the minority.

We here at DBO expressed a wide range of reactions to the trailer, mostly positive.

Uh, it seems the response here was mostly mixed, at least to me.

The first comment from several of them was that the tone of the trailer was "strange". One of them said something along the lines of "Why is the trailer trying to be funny? I don't remember Destiny being funny". They never steered into the question of whether or not they wanted Destiny 2 to be funny.

The next issue they all latched on to was Nathon Fillion. They couldn't remember if he was even in Destiny, or if he was added later in one of the expansions. "Was he one of the guys that sells you stuff?" was as close as one of them came. One of the other hosts said "no he was one of the main guys", but thought he was only added in TTK or something.

They also mention a few tweets that had been posted by Jeff Gertsman (of Giant Bomb), who said something along the lines of "if you are trying to position yourself as the 'funny' loot-based shooter, aren't you just lining up behind Borderlands?".

I find stuff like this interesting because I like to see the difference in reactions between the "hardcore fans" (us) vs gamers at large. Again, these are all people who played the original game, but didn't stick with it as we did. We here at DBO expressed a wide range of reactions to the trailer, mostly positive. The GB guys mostly flipped between confused and dismissive in their reactions, which I think is a somewhat natural reaction for people in their positions, given how little the trailer shows of the game itself. I suspect next week's Bombcast will examine the trailer in a bit more depth, as both Jeff Gertsman and Brad Shoemaker are more familiar and invested in Destiny than any of the guys on the Beastcast. I did find the mention of Borderlands interesting. Is Bungie trying to position Destiny 2 as a game that draws on some of Borderlands' appeal?

*** Everything in quotes is a paraphrase, based on my memory. So take it all with a HUGE grain of salt :) ***

Come on guys...appreciate the juxtaposition. How lame would it be if it were just Zavala up there giving his "4th quarter, 2 outs, down by a goal" speech. Zavala is the vehicle for dire circumstance and driving a story line. Cayde is the vehicle for fun and player engagement.

And it seems that everyone is forgetting that this video was promotional! I could be wrong about this (I was wrong once) but I thought there was a Bungie Vidoc years ago where one of the devs said something like "If everyone hates it you messed up and if everyone loves it you messed up. If you can find that perfect mixture of praise and complaint, you nailed it." Well, whoever said it...this trailer did exactly that. It's created excitement, conversation, debate, praise and complaint.

They nailed it imo.

Oh, I thought it was funny, I loved the trailer. I really enjoyed watching Zavala give a good motivational speech while the charismatic Cayde is bombing it. I was just voicing concerns I have about a beloved character being flanderized. Please don't ruin Cayde, I love him just how he is! That's all.

None of the people that Cayde is talking to are willing to engage, except for when loot is promised.

I actually really liked this. It seems that some folks assume that because some ancient human/awoken/exo was resurrected by their ghost that automatically makes them good people willing to sacrifice everything for others. It makes more sense to me that there would be elements of the Guardian forces who are self serving, small minded, or even cowards.

I like to think of Cayde's scene as being less general humor and more deliberate story-telling. Cayde calls them a "bunch of dirty misfits." I think it would be cool if there was an actual reason behind him using those words. Maybe Cayde and Ikora went to rally the dregs of Guardian society. The one's who aren't noble, or self-sacrificing, the one's who maybe skipped out a little on that last big battle.

Conjecture perhaps, but if you look at the two crowds body language you can perhaps glean some insight. Zavalas group are all mostly standing, many of them wear helmets and have weapons drawn. Conversely Ikora and Cayde's group are just as likely to be sitting, several of them don't have a helmet in sight, and the majority, while armed, are keeping their weapons stowed rather than held at the ready. Instead of earnest expressions of interest or concern, they've got arms crossed and even show genuine reactions of fear at Cayde's threat of death.

Hell, you can even interpret Ikora's behavior as somewhat un-trusting. Given that she never puts her shotgun away. Given that she's the leader of the Hidden (I think?), it makes sense to me that she doesn't quite want to lower her guard around these less than reputable Guardians.

I could certainly see such a group as that being more driven by the promise of rewards rather than calls to altruism.

At least that was my take on the scenario.

PS: I also think Bungie is trying to tell us that in Destiny 2 we might be able to fight and stuff without helmets on. Neat idea to me.

Compass
Dental floss
Metal snare wire

And I'm sure there's other little odds and ends I'm forgetting. Not to mention the bag itself. But I'm with you, Blue. All of that together save the bow is still cheaper than that super deluxe edition. :/

If you keep playing up a character's traits, then you have to always one up it to make it still have impact. Otherwise you just get used to it and it's a new base line. You see this all the time in TV shows where in the later seasons characters are just hyper eggagerated versions of their season one selves.

Great point. Compare Cayde's dialogue in vanilla Destiny, to TTK, to RoI, to these trailers. There's a very clear ramp-up in the level of sarcasm and his whole "shtick". Personally, I think they hit a good spot with TTK. I find the most recent Cayde stuff obnoxious, even in tiny doses.

Seriously, the Flanderization has happened SO EXTREMELY FAST for Cayde. I hope they were just hamming it up for the trailer, but I fear that, because people loved the character so much in TTK, they're overdoing & over using the Cayde shtick and ruining the character.

Sadly I'm betting on the latter.

I've kind of just accepted that Bungie isn't the go to for story anymore. At this point even Quantic Dream is better. But Quantic Dream doesn't have amazing co-op raids.

If some aliens hit earth and eliminate all the servers here, my backups will be worth shit too, no matter where they are on earth.

If you backup your stuff on the cloud, it will be above the Earth.

And it seems that everyone is forgetting that this video was promotional! I could be wrong about this (I was wrong once) but I thought there was a Bungie Vidoc years ago where one of the devs said something like "If everyone hates it you messed up and if everyone loves it you messed up. If you can find that perfect mixture of praise and complaint, you nailed it." Well, whoever said it...this trailer did exactly that. It's created excitement, conversation, debate, praise and complaint.

They nailed it imo.

- MacGyver10

If you keep playing up a character's traits, then you have to always one up it to make it still have impact. Otherwise you just get used to it and it's a new base line. You see this all the time in TV shows where in the later seasons characters are just hyper eggagerated versions of their season one selves.

Great point. Compare Cayde's dialogue in vanilla Destiny, to TTK, to RoI, to these trailers. There's a very clear ramp-up in the level of sarcasm and his whole "shtick". Personally, I think they hit a good spot with TTK. I find the most recent Cayde stuff obnoxious, even in tiny doses.

Seriously, the Flanderization has happened SO EXTREMELY FAST for Cayde. I hope they were just hamming it up for the trailer, but I fear that, because people loved the character so much in TTK, they're overdoing & over using the Cayde shtick and ruining the character.

Are these the same days that had Breaking Benjamin on the soundtrack, Master Chief on Mountain Dews, and ads before movies featuring the Chief standing in front of a giant explosion? :p

Ah, this was BEFORE that! :-)

... am I the only one who actually liked the Halo 2 soundtrack? Yes, even the licensed music, lol

No. I liked that Breaking Benjamin song alright, and I love the Incubus stuff. It's better than the trash generic metal they replaced it with for Anniversery. I still can't play that Banshee section with the new music and feel good about it.

They replaced it? Augh.