Twilight Gap
Member
Destiny is a beautiful game with polished gameplay to match. Yet its puzzling, shortsighted and often contradictory design decisions often hold it back from reaching its potential. In the month since launch, it's seen weekly updates; however, despite Bungie's insistence on listening to feedback, they seem unsure of where they want to take it. Let's take a look:
Week 1: Destiny saw a rather smooth launch, reaching $325 million in sales for the first 5 days and averaging 3.2 million players since. However, some of those players either have to wait a while to connect or are still experiencing connection problems. Fortunately, Bungie has been steadily improving its netcode stability and connection issues. Big props to their network team for being consistent.
The gameplay has also seen its share of issues. Many problems carried over from the alpha and beta, such as overpowered multiplayer weapons, audio glitches, and hit detection delay, as was well as an outstanding lack of social features. Players also became aware of the true final boss - RNG and its messiah Master Rahool, aka the Cryptarch. His deceptively calm demeanor and sarcastic tone quickly became a source of frustration, to the point where he manifested a personality in a game completely devoid of any characters.
Week 2: Destiny's Raid opened the following week, sending the community scrambling to reach level 26 to try their hand at it. It wasn't long before it was conquered and strategies were set, but we learned that Master Rahool had his hand in this jar as well. Rewards for completing Destiny's most difficult content were earned no more than any other random drop in the game, leaving many frustrated. The Vault ofGlass already came with a somewhat steep barrier for entry, but players discovered the real struggle was keeping your coveted exotic hidden while everyone else scored ascendant shards from that loot chest.
Week 3: The Queen's Wrath began on the 23rd of September and ran until the 6th of October. It was Destiny's first "event" and was designed to help players gear up for the raid with guaranteed legendary armor. Although it didn't introduce new locations to the game, players appreciated this means of progression, especially since duplicate sets would break down into those suddenly necessary ascendant shards required for upgrading gear. Unfortunately, Bungie didn't anticipate the surge of the "rare" items, so they removed them from the queen materials a mere 2 days later. The queen's wrath was demoted to a princess tantrum and became irrelevant to many players for the remainder of her stay. Unless you really liked the color magenta.
It's also worth mentioning that on the same day we waved goodbye to the Loot Cave of Wonders. Destiny's most social activity was put on trial, leaving a hole in many of our hearts (no pun intended). Guardians have searched far and wide for a replacement, but as they say you never forget your first (you can patch the second though). Those of you still experiencing withdrawals and flashbacks as you wander the Skywatch may find solace in this virtual replacement.
Week 4: The 1st of October, otherwise known as "After Cryptarch", marked the announcement of the highly anticipated loot patch. This sought to provide clarity to the decrpytion process of the loot system and shift around the importance of some items. But it hasn't been all celebrations since. Legendary packages from leveling up the Cryptarch still often turn into blue items, and your legendary items now have a penchant for turning into those glorious ascendant materials.
If you were relying on random loot to progress before or after this patch, it may please you to know it's not the main method of leveling up in Destiny. You can grind reputation to buy gear from the factions so that you can level up to 29. Raid Armor will carry you to the max level of 30, so you go to a website to find players for a raid and... wait, I guess you're still depending on random loot to hit 30 since you can either get two of the same piece in a raid or no raid gear at all after half a dozen runs. RNG is still the final boss.
Some even became followers of this false deity, submitting their Guardian's souls to the random-but-not-random loot system. Their bodies are now lifeless husks as they AFK in strikes and crucible playlists. Boasting their thickest rubberbands and sturdiest ethernet cables, they've parked themselves firmly at their spawns, often successfully earning the most powerful gear by giving the least amount of effort required. Instead of dropping into a strike and marching steadfast onto the horizon to throw bullets at a boss, players turn the opposite direction to make sure their teammates haven't traded their souls to the darkness for exotic weapons.
The last change of note lowered the weighting of the larger maps in the game. A change we deserved, but not the one we needed right now. Elaborating, many maps still feature ridiculously unbalanced and longstanding spawn and objective placement issues, leaving players to wonder when Destiny's multiplayer is to sort itself out.
Week 5: First available in the beta, the Iron Banner Tournament returned on the 7th of this month and ended yesterday on the 14th. Whereas some stats are normalized in normal PvP to preserve a "level playing field", Iron Banner enables level advantages where your gear and weapons matter. Or not. Iron Banner's differences, while subtle, once again left players confused, and many are no longer optimistic for the next "events". If anything, Iron Banner compounded the quitting and AFKing problems already present in PvP. Bungie attempted to offer some clarity at least...
Looks like PvP players are still waiting.
Week 6: Yesterday ushered in a patch that would attempt to balance the playing field in Crucible and rid Destiny's raid of some rotten cheese. But did it?
It may be too early to call, but for now it seems we've simply traded one villain for another. The balance of power in multiplayer has simply moved on to another host, while other much sought after weapons now cower in a corner, nerfed to oblivion and no longer a fitting token of Destiny's end-game content. No, instead here's some more ascendant materials and an armor shader you've already gotten 3 times. But that's what happens when you exploit the bosses, right? Well, the bandages added to parts of the raid haven't done much to deter players from finding othercheese methods strategies to tip the fight in their favor either. Believe or it not, it's actually spawned its own economy reminiscent of loot cave days. While this update is more direct than past ones, it also is a great example of trimming the weeds instead of digging out the roots.
I've largely enjoyed the game since first playing it in June, so it's frustrating to have to relearn it every week. These updates tend to take a step forward in one direction and then often immediately take a step back. I've come to expect more both in consistency and clarity, but i feel that their responses aren't very encouraging. I still continue to play and offer my feedback, but between excessive timegates and things players look forward to being changed as soon as they're available, it's tough. Destiny is the first game I want to play that doesn't want me to play it.
What do you expect from Bungie and from this game going forward? Do you think they'll be able to eventually weed out these issues, refocus their vision for the game and steer it in a successful direction? Or will the darkness continue to claw at the servers and unleash the ark of errors on us for all eternity?
edit: links of note
Interview with Lead Designer Luke Smith: http://tmi.kotaku.com/q-a-the-lead-designer-of-destinys-vault-of-glass-1647227058
Guardian Radio Podcast with Community Manager DeeJ: http://theguardiansofdestiny.com/2014/10/14/guardian-radio-episode-82/
Week 1: Destiny saw a rather smooth launch, reaching $325 million in sales for the first 5 days and averaging 3.2 million players since. However, some of those players either have to wait a while to connect or are still experiencing connection problems. Fortunately, Bungie has been steadily improving its netcode stability and connection issues. Big props to their network team for being consistent.
The gameplay has also seen its share of issues. Many problems carried over from the alpha and beta, such as overpowered multiplayer weapons, audio glitches, and hit detection delay, as was well as an outstanding lack of social features. Players also became aware of the true final boss - RNG and its messiah Master Rahool, aka the Cryptarch. His deceptively calm demeanor and sarcastic tone quickly became a source of frustration, to the point where he manifested a personality in a game completely devoid of any characters.
Week 2: Destiny's Raid opened the following week, sending the community scrambling to reach level 26 to try their hand at it. It wasn't long before it was conquered and strategies were set, but we learned that Master Rahool had his hand in this jar as well. Rewards for completing Destiny's most difficult content were earned no more than any other random drop in the game, leaving many frustrated. The Vault of
Week 3: The Queen's Wrath began on the 23rd of September and ran until the 6th of October. It was Destiny's first "event" and was designed to help players gear up for the raid with guaranteed legendary armor. Although it didn't introduce new locations to the game, players appreciated this means of progression, especially since duplicate sets would break down into those suddenly necessary ascendant shards required for upgrading gear. Unfortunately, Bungie didn't anticipate the surge of the "rare" items, so they removed them from the queen materials a mere 2 days later. The queen's wrath was demoted to a princess tantrum and became irrelevant to many players for the remainder of her stay. Unless you really liked the color magenta.
It's also worth mentioning that on the same day we waved goodbye to the Loot Cave of Wonders. Destiny's most social activity was put on trial, leaving a hole in many of our hearts (no pun intended). Guardians have searched far and wide for a replacement, but as they say you never forget your first (you can patch the second though). Those of you still experiencing withdrawals and flashbacks as you wander the Skywatch may find solace in this virtual replacement.
Week 4: The 1st of October, otherwise known as "After Cryptarch", marked the announcement of the highly anticipated loot patch. This sought to provide clarity to the decrpytion process of the loot system and shift around the importance of some items. But it hasn't been all celebrations since. Legendary packages from leveling up the Cryptarch still often turn into blue items, and your legendary items now have a penchant for turning into those glorious ascendant materials.
If you were relying on random loot to progress before or after this patch, it may please you to know it's not the main method of leveling up in Destiny. You can grind reputation to buy gear from the factions so that you can level up to 29. Raid Armor will carry you to the max level of 30, so you go to a website to find players for a raid and... wait, I guess you're still depending on random loot to hit 30 since you can either get two of the same piece in a raid or no raid gear at all after half a dozen runs. RNG is still the final boss.
Some even became followers of this false deity, submitting their Guardian's souls to the random-but-not-random loot system. Their bodies are now lifeless husks as they AFK in strikes and crucible playlists. Boasting their thickest rubberbands and sturdiest ethernet cables, they've parked themselves firmly at their spawns, often successfully earning the most powerful gear by giving the least amount of effort required. Instead of dropping into a strike and marching steadfast onto the horizon to throw bullets at a boss, players turn the opposite direction to make sure their teammates haven't traded their souls to the darkness for exotic weapons.
The last change of note lowered the weighting of the larger maps in the game. A change we deserved, but not the one we needed right now. Elaborating, many maps still feature ridiculously unbalanced and longstanding spawn and objective placement issues, leaving players to wonder when Destiny's multiplayer is to sort itself out.
Week 5: First available in the beta, the Iron Banner Tournament returned on the 7th of this month and ended yesterday on the 14th. Whereas some stats are normalized in normal PvP to preserve a "level playing field", Iron Banner enables level advantages where your gear and weapons matter. Or not. Iron Banner's differences, while subtle, once again left players confused, and many are no longer optimistic for the next "events". If anything, Iron Banner compounded the quitting and AFKing problems already present in PvP. Bungie attempted to offer some clarity at least...
Looks like PvP players are still waiting.
Week 6: Yesterday ushered in a patch that would attempt to balance the playing field in Crucible and rid Destiny's raid of some rotten cheese. But did it?
It may be too early to call, but for now it seems we've simply traded one villain for another. The balance of power in multiplayer has simply moved on to another host, while other much sought after weapons now cower in a corner, nerfed to oblivion and no longer a fitting token of Destiny's end-game content. No, instead here's some more ascendant materials and an armor shader you've already gotten 3 times. But that's what happens when you exploit the bosses, right? Well, the bandages added to parts of the raid haven't done much to deter players from finding other
I've largely enjoyed the game since first playing it in June, so it's frustrating to have to relearn it every week. These updates tend to take a step forward in one direction and then often immediately take a step back. I've come to expect more both in consistency and clarity, but i feel that their responses aren't very encouraging. I still continue to play and offer my feedback, but between excessive timegates and things players look forward to being changed as soon as they're available, it's tough. Destiny is the first game I want to play that doesn't want me to play it.
What do you expect from Bungie and from this game going forward? Do you think they'll be able to eventually weed out these issues, refocus their vision for the game and steer it in a successful direction? Or will the darkness continue to claw at the servers and unleash the ark of errors on us for all eternity?
edit: links of note
Interview with Lead Designer Luke Smith: http://tmi.kotaku.com/q-a-the-lead-designer-of-destinys-vault-of-glass-1647227058
Guardian Radio Podcast with Community Manager DeeJ: http://theguardiansofdestiny.com/2014/10/14/guardian-radio-episode-82/
