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[Confused Cheeseburger]

I'm in the crowd of people who thought there would be many planets and you could freely explore huge areas on those planets. Hell, I even thought you could fly your ship, instead it's just a glorified loading screen.

Playing through the beta I had little hype or expectations but while walking through Old Russia I keep thinking that the area was so good looking that it would be impossible to have whole worlds with this much attention to detail but I just ignored it thinking that the beta is just a very small slice.

Nope. My fears were correct. The beta is about 20% of the game and that brought my hype levels back down to almost zero. I tried the PVP and didn't enjoy it but was enjoying the single player and was looking forward to the much bigger planets in the final release. In a week I went from "not buying" to "day one" back to "eh, maybe on sale."

One thing is for sure. This whole game, from start to finish, has had the poorest messaging, communication and marketing I've seen in quite some time from a game. From Bungie never telling us honestly what kind of game it is (is it like Borderlands? WoW? CoD? Is it an open world? Is it an MMO? What?!) to not showing or telling about the Xbox One version and what's included with it, to now not even being honest about the amount of content.

Spoiler

But then again Bungie was owned by Microsoft so they have experience with fucked up messaging and PR

End Rant

The beta isn't 20% of the game though, that's just speculative especially considering that it added a fairly small amount to the alpha which was 10% as noted by a bungie dev. I agreeto some extent about the messaging tho. But think about it this way, how could they explain it? It is a game designed to be a pretty ambitious effort as far as genre blending goes. You can really only sell a vision and provide examples for so much. The beta has people who have logged well over 20 hours, Destiny isn't a game that benefits from elevator pitch. If they call it an MMO, people will wonder why they're isn't more mmo scale. If they bill it solely as an FPS, people might come to it expecting a solely new-gen halo. They're messaging has to be vague to give Destiny a better chance of discovery and unjaded perception.It's exactly why the Beta did so much for the game with a lot of people, because a string of stage demos wouldn't quite do it.

 

[Jarmel]

That $500M is a 10-year-plan, not for the first game. Get your facts straight.

A good chunk of it is going just towards the first game though.

 

[EL CUCO]

Yeah! You should kill one of their devs, too! That will teach them to poison your expectations with their lies!

I might be a monster, but I'm not a murderer. Sheesh

 

[orthodoxy1095]

A good chunk of it is going just towards the first game though.

Citation needed please.

 

[Avinexus]

Why wouldn't he be serious? Vast majority of people in the beta thread love the game.

This thread is ridiculous.

The beta thread is a big circle jerk of people that got angry anytime someone came and posted about not liking the game. I was only reading that thread for a few days and saw it multiple times.

 

[Garland7G]

I still can't get over we can fly our spaceship. Honestly what is the point. I could even understand if they made the loading for each level a little shorter or gave some kind of support bonus, but no, just a pretty picture.

They said no ship flying very early on, not sure where you got that impression.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

A good chunk of it is going just towards the first game though.

I bet most (maybe not most but a good chunk) of that money never actually went into the development of the game itself.

 

[Yasir]

I'll wait till the game comes out before I judge its content.

 

[unbias]

That $500M is a 10-year-plan, not for the first game. Get your facts straight.

Umm, duh? Still the amount invested has expectations. Most mmo's put up huge amounts of money and expect a long term investment from the public, that doesnt mean you dont expect a large amount of content from money being thrown around like that. Your "get the facts straight" statement really doesn't make sense with what I said. That is a lot of investment in an IP that is new, so yes there is high expectations from me with numbers like that.

 

[Norns]

A good chunk of it is going just towards the first game though.

Please fill us in with your insider knowledge of Bungie's financials!

 

[David___]

A good chunk of it is going just towards the first game though.

The first game costed around $150m. That's the actual dev time and marketing iirc

 

[Karl Hawk]

The beta thread is a big circle jerk of people that got angry anytime someone came and posted about not liking the game. I was only reading that thread for a few days and saw it multiple times.

As long you posted legitimate criticism about the beta, you're cool with us.

Drive-by posts like ''I don't understand the hype'' doesn't help.

 

[Gaz_RB]

I'll wait till the game comes out before I judge its content.

I think everyone should be taking this approach.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

Bungie better start talking soon, and non of that fancy space lingo they like to pull to fluff things up.

I want to KNOW WTF this game has for me, or I'm pulling out of the pre-order and burning my moon wizard shirt!

then do it. They don't owe you anytihng, you act like you've never seen the lead up to a bungie game before. Like rockstar, bungie is all about anticipation and mystery. Considering what they have set in regards to planets being the size of reach, i still believe this makes more sense than ever in light of the 1 zone per planet. 3-5 zones the size of the entirety of reach? Sounds pretty good imo. But yes, if you are displeased it's understandable in a sense, but try not to sound so knee-jerky.

 

[jett]

The beta thread is a big circle jerk of people that got angry anytime someone came and posted about not liking the game. I was only reading that thread for a few days and saw it multiple times.

You're trying too hard to hate on this game.

 

[boredofcanada]

I think everyone should be taking this approach.

But Neogaf

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Okay, look. Let's use that complete Venus map as a base to try and nail this thing down. If there are 5 playable locations (Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus, Reef), each of which having 7 story missions, 2 strikes, and a raid (again, JUST going off that Venus map here. This is likely to be wildly optimistic), we're looking at 35 story missions, 12 strikes, and 6 raids. Let's continue to be generous and put the times at 20 minutes for each story mission, 45 for each strike, and 90 for each raid. That totals to juuuuuust under 30 hours, at the absolute most; if the other zones are less populated than Venus, or one of them is indeed just another social area, it's going to be considerably less.

That's pretty respectable for a shooter. Unfortunately, Destiny has been billed as also being an RPG, and a 30 hour RPG just barely clears the threshold of miserable disappointment. Explore mode can pad the numbers a little, but unless the release explore maps are considerably more fleshed out (more secrets, more interesting missions, more events), Destiny is looking like it's going to feature a loooooooot of grinding at release. I think it's fair for people to be apprehensive about that, especially in light of the story they presented in the beta (still hope there's more to that at launch.)

This completely ignores the other half of the game - PVP, which is excellent and probably the main draw for me now having played it extensively in the beta.

 

[David___]

I think everyone should be taking this approach.

Overreacting is more fun though

 

[shinobi602]

Many keep citing "5 years", "hundreds of employees" for some reason. Creating a new IP from scratch, with a new engine, a new art style, etc takes some time.

Instead of having heart attacks, have some patience and judge the final, released product. Good grief.

 

[Icyflamez96]

I got home so I watched the stream myself... Holy god how a misunderstanding be made on such a mass scale is beyond me. Deej said that they are referring to the planets/moons as destinations... But no where did he say how many locations would be on each planet.

 

[Norns]

Many keep citing "5 years", "hundreds of employees" for some reason. Creating a new IP from scratch, with a new engine, a new art style, etc takes some time.

Instead of having heart attacks, have some patience and judge the final, released product. Good grief.

Get this sanity out of here!

 

[Jarmel]

Citation needed please.

http://www.develop-online.net/inter...lations-of-the-bungie-activision-deal/0117411

360 version of the first game, they had an allocated development budget of $140 million(with a couple of million for very early marketing included in that number). This was pre-delay and an old contract, in which I'm sure the budget has gone up.

The first game costed around $150m. That's the actual dev time and marketing iirc

Just the 360 version was around there and general marketing rule of thumb is for marketing costs to be equal to your production costs.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

I got home so I watched the stream myself... Holy god how a misunderstanding be made on such a mass scale is beyond me. Deej said that they are referring to the planets/moons as destinations... But no where did he say how many locations would be on each planet.

can you link me?

 

[Darkgran]

I'll wait till the game comes out before I judge its content.

Oh no you won't. You will make your judgment on facts that you don't have yet!!

 

[rac]

As long you posted legitimate criticism about the beta, you're cool with us.

Drive-by posts like ''I don't understand the hype'' doesn't help.

Except you yourself went into threads with valid criticism and your defense was basically anyone who has criticisms wasn't interested in the first place.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

More evidence that morons need to stop preordering games with vague ideas about what the content actually is

Or how about we just stop preordering period unless its some rare game that might not come in like CAVE shmups

 

[EL CUCO]

then do it. They don't owe you anytihng, you act like you've never seen the lead up to a bungie game before. Like rockstar, bungie is all about anticipation and mystery. Considering what they have set in regards to planets being the size of reach, i still believe this makes more sense than ever in light of the 1 zone per planet. 3-5 zones the size of the entirety of reach? Sounds pretty good imo. But yes, if you are displeased it's understandable in a sense, but try not to sound so knee-jerky.

Part of my post was in jest but you just convinced me to do it for real! "Bungie is all about anticipation and mystery" sounds like a great way to spin this.

 

[Twilight Gap]

The beta thread is a big circle jerk of people that got angry anytime someone came and posted about not liking the game. I was only reading that thread for a few days and saw it multiple times.

There are only a few members who do that. Most posters including me freely discuss the problems with the game and I personally don't take offense to somebody disliking it. I was a skeptic for the better half of this year.

But I disagree with the "not enough content" posts. If that database leak is anything to go by, the game is launching with around a dozen multiplayer maps with half as many game modes, several dozen story missions, a handful of strikes, a raid, and hundreds of weapons and abilities to collect and unlock along with social modes and exploration. These vary between levels as well. Even that is much more content than Bungie games have traditionally launched with, and the updates and expansions will be quicker and larger given the nature of the game. I don't deny some things can be more expansive or varied and I'll be the first to list a number of issues with the game, but I think those who are disappointed or worried that the game will be short lived are jumping the gun.

 

[Karl Hawk]

I got home so I watched the stream myself... Holy god how a misunderstanding be made on such a mass scale is beyond me. Deej said that they are referring to the planets/moons as destinations... But no where did he say how many locations would be on each planet.

Looks like my wait and see approach for this news was paid off

 

[unbias]

I think everyone should be taking this approach.

Does this mean the positivity as well or just the negativity? Having concerns about the game, mainly due to a lack of information this close to launch to such a large game, where content is a large factor to games like this is a legitimate cause for concern. Until the PR shows or tells us how much is being put into the game, wanting answers is more then fair.

 

[Trickytoon]

One thing is for sure. This whole game, from start to finish, has had the poorest messaging, communication and marketing I've seen in quite some time from a game.

I think the marketing and messaging is the one thing they got right - bear in mind that is all done to sell units, not to tell you the 'truth' about the game. Their messaging generated a lot of hype about the game prior to the beta, that the game doesn't match this isn't a deficiency of the messaging.

 

[Avinexus]

You're trying too hard to hate on this game.

Huh? The only thing I've ever said bad about the game was that the story missions were pretty bad. I'm not sure that should be considered "trying to hard to hate the game". Take your blinders off.

 

[Poodlestrike]

This completely ignores the other half of the game - PVP, which is excellent and probably the main draw for me now having played it extensively in the beta.

That was deliberate. PvP is a wildcard, since it can potentially provide infinite hours of unique content. I was just looking at it from a PvE story perspective; probably should have made that clearer.

 

[Xplatformer]

The beta thread is a big circle jerk of people that got angry anytime someone came and posted about not liking the game. I was only reading that thread for a few days and saw it multiple times.

Project for u sense you feel the positive opinions in that thread are the voice of a vocal few.

Google....Destiny Beta Impressions


Overwhelmingly positive.

 

[Facundo_Lopez]

I thought Chicago was confirmed?

Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhNkK4h1oVk#t=72 we were lied to if so, he says we can go to the mountains and such, you cannot.

Went from Day 1 to buy a sealed copy on Craigslist day 1 for 45$

man, the game was downgraded BIG TIME

look at the graphics! lighting, particles, sun rays. holy shit...

I wonder why they did such a big downgrade...

on top of that, one location per planet? so dissapointing... Please Bungie, don't destroy such an amazing potential.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Except you yourself went into threads with valid criticism and your defense was basically anyone who has criticisms wasn't interested in the first place.

Which I admit that was pretty bad on my part.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

Many keep citing "5 years", "hundreds of employees" for some reason. Creating a new IP from scratch, with a new engine, a new art style, etc takes some time.

Instead of having heart attacks, have some patience and judge the final, released product. Good grief.

Logic was lost on this thread a while back. Not to discount legitmate criticisms, which have been made imo, but there is some arm-chair dev/drive by confirmation bias/cynicism flying through here too crazily.

 

[Darkgran]

I got home so I watched the stream myself... Holy god how a misunderstanding be made on such a mass scale is beyond me. Deej said that they are referring to the planets/moons as destinations... But no where did he say how many locations would be on each planet.

You are correct. Too bad no one will read this and just assume the worst.

 

[Miggytronz]

People just need to calm down. Take a deep breathe.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Well guys, there's only one Halo.

There's 10 now actually.

 

[wsoxfan1214]

Wish I hadn't paid it off with credit because I'd be cancelling already.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Many keep citing "5 years", "hundreds of employees" for some reason. Creating a new IP from scratch, with a new engine, a new art style, etc takes some time.

Instead of having heart attacks, have some patience and judge the final, released product. Good grief.

Legitimate criticism was there and there. But frankly, I feel people are already assuming the worst.

 

[StoOgE]

Ya know,

This thread is probably why we don't get demos anymore.

The hype around building a game up is to make people want to play the game. Make people need to play this amazing game that they have seen videos of, read reviews, previews, live stage demos, etc.

I think the reality is after a weekend of playing a game a certain number of people are satiated. Or backlash begins.

it's almost impossible to bring back that early excitement for a game once it's gone. Look at any OT. The lead up to launch and just post launch is elation. About two weeks later it almost always starts to turn, even for the really really good games.

Honestly, if I were a publisher I wouldn't ever run a public beta. Extremely limited behind NDA beta is one thing.. but I don't know if I see the value in a release getting a general beta or a demo.

Unless it's a game that isn't getting much attention and you believe in the product. That's a bit different... but if you have a hype machine, maybe you shouldn't give a taste of the drug away for free.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

man, the game was downgraded BIG TIME

look at the graphics! lighting, particles, sun rays. holy shit...

I wonder why they did such a big downgrade...

on top of that, one location per planet? so dissapointing... Please Bungie, don't destroy such an amazing potential.

Have we not been looking at the same game? Destiny looks great atm.

 

[Interficium]

man, the game was downgraded BIG TIME

look at the graphics! lighting, particles, sun rays. holy shit...

I wonder why they did such a big downgrade...

The circle is complete.

 

[KAP151]

Wow, thats immensely disappointing.

I spent 15 minuted last night scouring earth for hidden stuff and pretty much covered everything barring areas with dudes that would 1-2 shot me.

Unless the other planets are MASSIVE, where the hell has all this time and money gone?

 

[MedIC86]

Damn some people in this thread, lets just wait for real official confirmation before getting all worked up. WoW also shipped with one raid...., sure that game was maybe bigger in area's but lets just wait and see.

 

[VanWinkle]

Many keep citing "5 years", "hundreds of employees" for some reason. Creating a new IP from scratch, with a new engine, a new art style, etc takes some time.

Instead of having heart attacks, have some patience and judge the final, released product. Good grief.

Well yeah, but people just expected there to be more than four unique locations to explore. I think it's a pretty disappointing amount for this type of game.

 

[HighResTomato]

There's 10 now actually.

And Destiny is #11

Spoiler

, I joke

 

[MustacheBandit_]

And this is what happens when they spend dev time on unneeded PvP mode. This went from day one to rental for me.