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[Nirolak]

TL;DR version:

Bungie put up a bunch of narrative job positions. One of them is for a Narrative Director for major releases, and another is for a Narrative Director for small, frequent updates in between the expansion packs.

The key quote here is:

As a [Live] Narrative Director, you will direct the storytelling efforts for regular, small-scale Destiny releases throughout the calendar year.

Whereas the other position lists:

As a Narrative Director, you will be responsible for directing the storytelling efforts for major Destiny releases.

There are three possible ways to interpret this:

Scenario 1.) They're bringing back DLC packs between expansion packs. I don't actually think they're doing this given the direction of the gaming industry, but it's certainly possible.
Scenario 2.) The free updates they do throughout the year (supported by microtransactions, and rumored to be more frequent and substantial by Shinobi) will have notably more narrative aspects than before. These positions include stuff like cutscene teams and etc, so this is presumably more expansive narrative content than what they have in the small updates now.
Scenario 3.) They're doing similar updates to what they do now, and it takes about 30 Bungie employees 2-4 months to write 30 lines of dialog. I'm going to guess this is not the correct answer, but who knows.

It's also worth noting that the narrative team sounds unusually large based on some of the wording in these jobs, which I guess makes sense when you have a 1000+ person development team. They're also hiring these people now which is kind of interesting given their release schedule.

Long version:

Here are the jobs and the highlights. It's kind of odd that they're hiring all of these positions now when the game is hypothetically launching in like 9-10 months, but hey whatever.

Head of Narrative Development: https://www.bungie.net/en/About/Careers/Detail/44854

Head of Narrative Development

Bungie is looking for an experienced Director of Development with a passion for the craft of storytelling to manage our studio’s growing Narrative Department, which is comprised of the following disciplines: Writing, Cinematics, Narrative Design, Localization, and Audio.

This role is a management position focused on mentoring Narrative Department team members; promoting and fostering excellence in the art of storytelling for games, and driving departmental recruitment and hiring strategy. You will also develop training processes and present growth opportunities for individual team members as well as oversee performance reviews. In addition, you will be a key member of Bungie’s leadership team, fostering consistent management practices and culture across the Studio.

With a focus on people, processes, and culture, this is a wonderful opportunity to build, develop, and motivate a talented team of storytellers while establishing new standards in narrative techniques.

Notes:
- The standout thing here is what the department is, and that it's actually an entire department now with a bunch of major senior job openings. Given that they're hiring all these roles, I'm guessing this is a relatively new or at least recently revamped department.

Senior Narrative Producer: https://www.bungie.net/en/About/Careers/Detail/45339

Senior Narrative Producer

Destiny tells a tale that unfolds over many years, over many epic adventures undertaken by the player. To keep us focused on the longer arc, we need a Senior Narrative Producer to oversee our story-telling efforts across the studio. The Senior Narrative Producer will be responsible for defining the high-level narrative schedule and scope for each Destiny release. They will support the creative leaders to actualize their story vision in the most expedient way possible. And they will drive processes to ensure the seamless, on-time delivery of all narrative disciplines (writing, cinematics, audio, localization) across Bungie's agile teams.

This position requires understanding and passion for game development with a particular expertise in storytelling. We need a leader to innovate on our processes at the same rate as we innovate on the game. We need a professional who is highly organized, has outstanding communication skills, has management experience, and has proven experience in team leadership.

Required Skills
- Experience managing a medium-sized group of producers on a shipped game title or equivalent product.

Notes:
- If we interpret "medium-sized group" as 5-10 people and assume a 1 producer per 10 staff member ratio, we'd get about 50-100 people. It's possible Bungie considers 3 people to be a medium sized group, and that they have one producer per every 5 employees, but I'm going to assume they're working under more standard conditions, or at least the conditions suggested by the credits listing for Destiny 1.

Narrative Director: https://www.bungie.net/en/About/Careers/Detail/44855

Narrative Director

Bungie is looking for a seasoned Narrative Director to help us tell the story of Destiny.

As a Narrative Director, you will be responsible for directing the storytelling efforts for major Destiny releases. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of interactive storytelling with strong organizational and leadership skills. You will work closely with the Game Director and Project Leads to define the high-level story vision and help align the various Narrative Department teams responsible for implementing that vision across the narrative channels.

With a focus on cross-departmental collaboration, this is a wonderful opportunity to work with and direct a talented team of storytellers and deliver compelling narratives in the Destiny universe.

Responsibilities:
- Identify opportunities to expand and deepen narrative channels.

Required Skills:
- Experience orchestrating high quality, large-scale narrative content across multiple story channels.
- Background in writing and a passion for storytelling in non-gaming media a plus.

Notes:
- So this job clearly lists that this is the position managing the plot for "major releases", which is presumably the base game and the expansion packs.
- It also uses the phrase "a narrative director" versus "the game director", so this is clearly a position that's replicated to multiple people. One of the other narrative directors is listed below, but they could have a lot of these for like transmedia or whatever.
- It refers to narrative channels a lot. Someone with more industry experience could probably clarify this, but I'd interpret their current "narrative channels" as "the website" and "the game." I'm guessing they're considering novels or shorts or something else as well.

Live Narrative Director: https://www.bungie.net/en/About/Careers/Detail/44856

Live Narrative Director

Bungie is looking for a seasoned Narrative Director to help us tell the ongoing Destiny story.

As a Narrative Director, you will direct the storytelling efforts for regular, small-scale Destiny releases throughout the calendar year. Our ideal candidate has a deep understanding of interactive storytelling with strong organizational and leadership skills as well as an ability to work with external partners. A proven record of prioritizing resources against creative goals in a fast-paced release environment is a must.

You will work closely with the Game Director and Project Leads to define the high-level story vision and ensure alignment of the various Narrative Department teams responsible for implementing that vision across various narrative channels.

With a focus on cross-departmental collaboration, this is a wonderful opportunity to work with and direct a talented team of storytellers while delivering compelling narratives in the Destiny universe.

Responsibilities:
- Develop and communicate a story vision that supports the Release Pillars through structure, character, and theme.
- Coordinate with Narrative Discipline Leads to ensure the content meets pre-established franchise narrative goals and supports the Release Pillars.
- Rapidly iterate on small-scale projects on a condensed timeline and ensure successful completion.
- Ensure narrative scope and schedules align with the production plan and are achievable.

Notes:
- Here's the position the thread is really about. As you can see, the most common themes here are "get lots of narrative content done quickly" and "make sure this ties into the plot of the current base game/expansion".
- It also is very particular that these are for frequent releases within a calendar year, so it's not referring to the expansions.
- Again, it's possible they need lots of people to have Cayde and Ghost talk at you with a handful of new dialog lines every 4-6 months, but I'm going to guess that the future will look more like MMO patches where there's new content with notable plotline development in updates.

 

[josecitoxnyo]

Time to page Jason to confirm all of this.

A small Destiny 2 leak/update, exactly what i wanted before 2017.

 

[DNAbro]

Cool, I was expecting/hoping for MMO type updates.

 

[ZeezbruhTV]

1,000 employees, we need more.

 

[duckroll]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

 

[HStallion]

Story Update 1.45: You are still the chosen one to save humanity yada yada yada now take out this raid boss.

 

[Diablohead]

I just hope Destiny 2 has a better pieced together story then vanilla Destiny had, it felt really unrewarding and i'm not on about loot.

 

[Kthulhu]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

If they're the people who made the story like it was in Destiny at launch, then I hope so. Most disappointing game I've ever played.

 

[Nirolak]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

Well, there are two possibilities:

1.) Your scenario.
2.) Since it's a comically large team, there are positions like Lead Narrative Director and Director of Narrative that the current staff work in.

Like Neil Thompson at BioWare was originally an Art Director, then a Director of Art, and now he's Director of Art & Animation.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Sign me up with better story! I really enjoyed vanilla ... until yeah.... the backstory of what all was promised to what happened.

Never came back to catch up with the expansion.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

TL;DR version:

Scenario 3.) They're doing similar updates to what they do now, and it takes about 30 Bungie employees 2-4 months to write 30 lines of dialog. I'm going to guess this is not the correct answer, but who knows.

How can this be true?

 

[Auctopus]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

From what we've heard about Destiny 2, I wouldn't be surprised if Bungie supported Destiny 1 for a little while after the release of Destiny 2. Who knows though?

I'd certainly appreciate a more robust narrative. Hell, I'd appreciate an in-game lore index.

How can this be true?

It's a joke on how each expansion has a pitiful amount of dialogue/VA.

 

[jschreier]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

A lot of people left Bungie this year.

 

[Nirolak]

How can this be true?

I was making a joke scenario that was obviously wrong haha. Sorry, those are three separate possibilities.

 

[duckroll]

Well, there are two possibilities:

1.) Your scenario.
2.) Since it's a comically large team, there are positions like Lead Narrative Director and Director of Narrative that the current staff work in.

Yeah actually after I posted that, I read the listings in depth and noticed something. The Head of Narrative is not the main writer, but a producer position for running this department lol. The Senior Narrative Producer position is also a management position. So it's possible the leads now will just transit to Lead Narrative Director roles without requiring them to handle management and production roles they might not be suited for?

A lot of people left Bungie this year.

Huh. Interesting.

 

[Nirolak]

Yeah actually after I posted that, I read the listings in depth and noticed something. The Head of Narrative is not the main writer, but a producer position for running this department lol. The Senior Narrative Producer position is also a management position. So it's possible the leads now will just transit to Lead Narrative Director roles without requiring them to handle management and production roles they might not be suited for?



Huh. Interesting.

It's most likely a mix of the two, yes. Some people left as Jason noted, but I suspect any who remain have simply been promoted or had their role made more specific since now the team is 1000+ people instead of 300-400 people.

 

[NeOak]

A lot of people left Bungie this year.

Anything you can share about what's happening?

 

[AHA-Lambda]

A lot of people left Bungie this year.

hmmm......

 

[Samurai G0SU]

A lot of people left Bungie this year.

Oh my. Do you know if these people are staying in the gaming business and if yes, any potential leads to where they are going?

 

[Orayn]

Scenario 2.) The free updates they do throughout the year (supported by microtransactions, and rumored to be more frequent and substantial by Shinobi) will have notably more narrative aspects than before. These positions include stuff like cutscene teams and etc, so this is presumably more expansive narrative content than what they have in the small updates now.

Hoping for this one. Destiny's format lends itself to Guild Wars 2 style updates.

 

[jschreier]

Anything you can share about what's happening?

My understanding is that after Destiny 1, Bungie put together a "story team" that was led by a director and producer and worked closely with other departments, like sound and cinematics (since one of the problems with D1's original story was that it was written in isolation). In April of this year, there was some political drama at Bungie and a large exodus, which included the heads of the story team. I assume this "narrative department" is just that same structure with a different name. Bungie is big on names.

 

[Nirolak]

My understanding is that after Destiny 1, Bungie put together a "story team" that was led by a director and producer and worked closely with other departments, like sound and cinematics (since one of the problems with D1's original story was that it was written in isolation). In April of this year, there was some political drama at Bungie and a large exodus, which included the heads of the story team. I assume this "narrative department" is just that same structure with a different name. Bungie is big on names.

I'm guessing this was around the same time that the game was rebooted and Luke Smith put in charge?

 

[jschreier]

I'm guessing this was around the same time that the game was rebooted and Luke Smith put in charge?

That's a good guess!

 

[Speely]

Interesting... I hope they are able to bring things together more and sooner in the dev process of Des2ny. Would love to see the franchise blossom.

Spoiler

Sorry I just said Des2ny

 

[StrongBlackVine]

I'm guessing this was around the same time that the game was rebooted and Luke Smith put in charge?

This seems awfully similar to the way the first game was scrapped and patched together. Hopefully the results are better this time. Rebooting a game less than 2 years from release is not a good sign though when I'm expecting a product with a lot more original content this time around.

 

[panama chief]

As long as the lore continues...I'm down for whatever they bring.

 

[Gator86]

Why are they even hiring for a head of Narrative for Destiny? Are they firing the people who are leading the narrative design now instead of letting them run the division?

Not to be glib, but hopefully. Even by video game standards, Destiny has never risen past shit plus the delightful persona of Nathan Fillion. They need to get someone with a modicum of talent in the story/world-building roles.

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

I'm guessing this was around the same time that the game was rebooted and Luke Smith put in charge?

That's a good guess!

Jesus... I can't even imagine the level of responsibility he now has for this franchise. Just crazy with the size of this new team.

 

[SLHellbound]

If it's scenario 2 I wont be playing much between major expansions. Their live updates pushed microtransactions more than actual content. A Taken King like expansion every 6 months would be ideal but would require a lot of planning from a long way out. Not sure if Bungie does long term planning years in advance. Their plans for Destiny seemed to have changed multiple times over the years.

 

[LycanXIII]

I'm not liking the sound of this if Destiny 2 is still planned for 2017.

 

[jschreier]

Not to be glib, but hopefully. Even by video game standards, Destiny has never risen past shit plus the delightful persona of Nathan Fillion. They need to get someone with a modicum of talent in the story/world-building roles.

Try to picture just how difficult it is to write a story that resonates with people when:
1) You're working with hundreds of other developers
2) Your dev tools are slow and inefficient
3) You have to work within the limitations of characters, settings, mechanics, and villains that are created by other people
4) You have very specific time and dialogue constraints
5) You need to write something impactful, yet pithy enough that it can be played over and over again without players getting bored
6) You have to crunch
7) You have to deal with the bazillion other moving parts and variables that make up game development

I'm sure that sometimes bad storytelling is the product of poor imagination and a lack of talent, but usually, video game writers have to deal with impossible circumstances.

 

[Deku Tree]

Just put Luke Smith in charge of the story please.

 

[EL CUCO]

This is sounding a whole lot like 2018 to me

 

[igordennis]

I already expect the story of destiny 2 to be garbage given all of what jason has said (and i couldn't care less about this, I'm sure that when this eventually launches and it is garbage there will be plenty of fun threads like Destiny 1 had though) , i just want bungie to nail everything else, especially crucible and a trials of osiris successor or iteration.

Pls no RNG on hand cannons Bungie for god's sake.

 

[wesleyshark]

As long as the lore continues...I'm down for whatever they bring.

Same. The lore is fantastic.

 

[Speely]

Try to picture just how difficult it is to write a story that resonates with people when:
1) You're working with hundreds of other developers
2) Your dev tools are slow and inefficient
3) You have to work within the limitations of characters, settings, mechanics, and villains that are created by other people
4) You have very specific time and dialogue constraints
5) You need to write something impactful, yet pithy enough that it can be played over and over again without players getting bored
6) You have to crunch
7) You have to deal with the bazillion other moving parts and variables that make up game development

I'm sure that sometimes bad storytelling is the product of poor imagination and a lack of talent, but usually, video game writers have to deal with impossible circumstances.

Amen. Not to mention:

8) Whatever it is you manage to squeeze into the project is subject to being crushed and sent back to the drawing board because a designer or producer doesn't think it feels right/sends the right message.

Edit: which is understandable and even a good check sometimes, but it certainly does not make the writing process any easier, and it's already a fickle fuck of a process.

 

[Deku Tree]

I already expect the story of destiny 2 to be garbage given all of what jason has said (and i couldn't care less about this, I'm sure that when this eventually launches and it is garbage there will be plenty of fun threads like Destiny 1 had though) , i just want bungie to nail everything else, especially crucible and a trials of osiris successor or iteration.

Pls no RNG on hand cannons Bungie for god's sake.

I know right.

Cool to hear about more frequent updates although we've heard about their new tools that would allow for more frequent updates in previous rumors. But I don't see The game getting delayed into 2018 because of the story. And I don't expect much from the story.

 

[Ace 8095]

This is really over 1000 people working on destiny?

 

[Trace]

I already expect the story of destiny 2 to be garbage given all of what jason has said (and i couldn't care less about this, I'm sure that when this eventually launches and it is garbage there will be plenty of fun threads like Destiny 1 had though) , i just want bungie to nail everything else, especially crucible and a trials of osiris successor or iteration.

Pls no RNG on hand cannons Bungie for god's sake.

Honestly if they fix PvP I'd be over the moon but I really doubt it. TTK is low as fuck with all the instakills, but if you remove those you end up with really high TTK with all the movement abilities and ways to escape. If they balanced for PvP and PvE separately they might be able to fix it, but who knows.

This is really over 1000 people working on destiny?

Yep. Destiny 2 is gonna be biblical.

 

[NeOak]

My understanding is that after Destiny 1, Bungie put together a "story team" that was led by a director and producer and worked closely with other departments, like sound and cinematics (since one of the problems with D1's original story was that it was written in isolation). In April of this year, there was some political drama at Bungie and a large exodus, which included the heads of the story team. I assume this "narrative department" is just that same structure with a different name. Bungie is big on names.

As always, thank you for sharing what you know.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Honestly if they fix PvP I'd be over the moon but I really doubt it. TTK is low as fuck with all the instakills, but if you remove those you end up with really high TTK with all the movement abilities and ways to escape. If they balanced for PvP and PvE separately they might be able to fix it, but who knows.



Yep. Destiny 2 is gonna be biblical.

We will see. It needs to launch with a ton of content.

 

[Trace]

We will see. It needs to launch with a ton of content.

I'm optimistic. Destiny 1 was a failure in a ton of ways but it remains my most played console game ever, and I really enjoy the moment to moment gameplay. If they can retain that and add substantially more content than Destiny 1 launched with, it'll sell like hotcakes. Well, more than the first sold.

 

[Obliterator]

Sounds great to me. I love Destiny 1 despite all its faults. The gameplay is just that good. One of the biggest issues though is, and has always been, just hitting a wall with no real path forward. It's a great game to rage for a month when new content hits but then just sort of sits there for the next 8 or 9 months waiting for another legit drop.

If they could keep smaller scale content drops coming at a good pace, say bi-monthly it would go a very long way.

 

[Dalek]

Jason do you still think Destiny 2 is heading for 2018? I seem to remember you speculated that before.

I don't know if I can take another year of content starved Destiny.

 

[Obliterator]

Jason do you still think Destiny 2 is heading for 2018? I seem to remember you speculated that before.

I don't know if I can take another year of content starved Destiny.

Not sure if I remember correctly but I don't think he's said 2018 is happening. Just that the game hitting in September 2017 might be a stretch. Guess that means could be a November / December release or maybe he really did mean not this year at all.

I'm not sure Activision would allow them to miss 2017 though.

 

[atpbx]

I'm guessing this was around the same time that the game was rebooted and Luke Smith put in charge?

Write the whole thing off if that's the case.


If they don't change the mentality at Bungievision then Destiny 2 will be more of the same butchered nonsense that Destiny was.

 

[jschreier]

Jason do you still think Destiny 2 is heading for 2018? I seem to remember you speculated that before.

I don't know if I can take another year of content starved Destiny.

No idea. Bungie's stock vesting schedule is tied to these game releases, so that would really suck for them. The extra year for D2 was bad enough already.

 

[Vilix]

Sounds loose.

 

[golem]

Lol I'll believe it when I see it.

#dontbelievebungieslies

 

[Obliterator]

No idea. Bungie's stock vesting schedule is tied to these game releases, so that would really suck for them. The extra year for D2 was bad enough already.

Yeah you would know better than I but I don't get the impression Activision would allow them to miss 2017. Destiny 2 just has such a large impact on their financials. It may come down to the wire and be a December release but I think Activision will be pushing it out the door one way or another.