How hasn't that rumor died by now?

Misconception.

Destiny didn't cost 500m to create- it's what Activision forecasts that will be invested in the franchise as a whole, not just the one game. They are looking at the cost of the supposed 10 year lifecycle this IP will have.

Also the PVE mode in Destiny is a lot more varied than Halo's Campaigns, I'm guessing.

I've seen so many games suffer from not having customs; Battlefield 3 being my favorite example. I purchased the game on Xbox 360 and thought it was one of the dumbest mistakes that they made (Along with the multitude of other things that negatively impacted the game).

The issue here is that if Bungie does not include custom games, people are going to cheat the system and try to do it anyway. They will go into matchmaking with a full party, and spend the whole match playing something like "The Floor is Lava" or something like that.

At that point, you have to wonder why they were't included in the first place. I know this isn't Halo, but this is Bungie. And many Bungie games have allowed us to play the game how we want. So far, it seems that Destiny is kind of going away from that. Keep using all these terms that will resonate with their fans, but they aren't really showing it to us. They say the game is a social experience, but we can't talk to anyone in the game without going through a convoluted menu system and we can't play the game how we want with our friends. But I don't think the game will be sustained off matchmaking alone. I mean, even I got tired of Halo matchmaking, but there was something else I could always do instead. That seems less true with destiny. If you don't want matchmaking, you play campaign, if you don't campaign..... well I guess you can play another game.

Halo was always full of options. You could do campaign, multiplayer, custom games, forge a map, forge with friends for fun, watch saved films, do glitches. You always had something to do. With Destiny, I feel like Bungie is just trying to tell us what is fun about the game and only offering that (and to be honest, offering even less than that).

So I can't say I'm happy to hear this. All i can hope is to see custom games added in a future update.

I DO understand why some people want them. That specific paragraph you highlighted was why I personally don't care too much whether they're included or not. It helps that I never expected them either and have am trying to enter Destiny without viewing it as a sequel to Halo. There are many versus modes in games I own that I've never given time to or even looked to see what options come with them. :)

Hopefully it means they want to do it really, really well.
I just hope that by launching without it, they don't inadvertently [or intentionally] kill it's presence in the conciousness of the player base, meaning that when it hopefully does launch, people ignore it because they're set in their Destiny ways.

For me, customs isn't a big deal as I'm not a 'versus' or competitive player. I have a feeling it will be a nice addition down the road, though, simply so that I can sit around and explore the multiplayer maps without being murdered. But there's going to be plenty more stuff I'd rather do first, though...

There's this odd outcry here regarding competitive play and it's sort of a joke. You're not misunderstanding it, don't get me wrong. But when I look at what customs has largely done for Halo in a world with Forge, competitive hasn't really been it. H3's community maps were largely horrible. A lot of the fun and awesome stuff came out of the fun and zany things that customs allowed, generally not on a competitive level. The same applies to Reach.

Even Halo 2 used customs with honor system rules to create gametypes like Zombies. I really think customs not being included is a stupid design decision, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend like this is some horrible doom that has befallen an alleged hardcore or competitive crowd in a game that I don't view as largely competitive to begin with, as well as knowing that customs in Halo games were generally anything but hardcore or competitive to the vast majority of players. I agree with you, there's plenty more stuff I'd rather do first, and that's why I can be patient and wait for customs (and pray they don't take a century to implement it).

Disable character progression in custom games. Job done.

That was my first thought, however then you have other players surpassing you because they play Matchmaking. Since the game is ultimately going to revolve around gear, and gear is gotten with crucible marks and stuff, then playing custom games essentially puts you "behind".

Flawed system. Don't you just love player investment?

I'm confused and think I'm misunderstanding you. Wouldn't it be the same as simply not playing (i.e. doing anything else in your life) from the perspective of character/gear growth? Does that mean every minute I don't play, I'm "behind"?

It also means every minute I sit on the cliffs of Old Russia looking at the Moon and aurora, I'm "behind"...

That's why gear and leveling is a fun a mini-game, and it it's good way to find yourself lead into new activities, but it's the activities themselves, exploring, blasting, etc. that the game revolves around, for me. Gear is just a metaphorical map beacon from that perspective.

For me, customs isn't a big deal as I'm not a 'versus' or competitive player. I have a feeling it will be a nice addition down the road, though, simply so that I can sit around and explore the multiplayer maps without being murdered. But there's going to be plenty more stuff I'd rather do first, though...

Still, I don't see why they couldn't work with the leveling turned off.

Some early reviews of Titanfall slammed it for not have this option (it was added in post launch). I think it's a great way to compliment matchmaking. Allowing people to scope out maps and practice jumps or just screw around.

In a game like destiny you have to balance it with progression but that doesn't seem that hard (to my ignorant self). Maybe it is a big internal debate but I'm willing to bet if it doesn't launch with it that there will be enough demand by the players to get it in pretty quickly.

Or better yet, being able to walk into the next room and slap him round the head for it, if you're playing in a LAN.

That was my first thought, however then you have other players surpassing you because they play Matchmaking. Since the game is ultimately going to revolve around gear, and gear is gotten with crucible marks and stuff, then playing custom games essentially puts you "behind".

That seems kind of ridiculous to me. Obviously if you're playing custom games that's separate to matchmaking. Having an issue with that would be like complaining that your Golf handicap doesn't improve by playing mini golf at your local Putt-Putt Super-Mega-Fun-House(TM)

Of course, someone is bound to throw a tantrum over it. They're probably already lining up over at B.net.

Destiny keeps getting called a "social experience", but without custom games, competitive multiplayer is just an endless conveyor-belt of strangers. What's social about that?

I had fun killing strangers with friends, but you make a good point. It was also a lot of fun killing friends with friends the odd times our groups got split across teams in the beta. :)

Disable character progression in custom games. Job done.

That was my first thought, however then you have other players surpassing you because they play Matchmaking. Since the game is ultimately going to revolve around gear, and gear is gotten with crucible marks and stuff, then playing custom games essentially puts you "behind".

Flawed system. Don't you just love player investment?

Customs would ideally provide the options we see in Crucible where the individuals who have higher gear or who have played longer are largely made irrelevant by standardizing stats (give or take impact and a few others). If someone wants a custom like Iron Banner, then maybe that's an option.

It's like you said in your initial post about how customs should have never been off the table. This seems like a no brainer, but Bungie did what they somehow thought was best. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a 343 and blow up on them and take a decade to implement.

I was talking to Pete and he brought up a good point about customs. People want to be able to practice and explore maps out of matchmaking. Or play with large parties (no guarantee that would ever work in Destiny). The fact that they cut off this avenue of gameplay is really questionable. I just hope they figure it out and get it implemented soon.

Disable character progression in custom games. Job done.

That was my first thought, however then you have other players surpassing you because they play Matchmaking. Since the game is ultimately going to revolve around gear, and gear is gotten with crucible marks and stuff, then playing custom games essentially puts you "behind".

Flawed system. Don't you just love player investment?