This is technically feedback, but I'm also requesting to actually have a sit down with someone from Bungie, either Cozmo, DeeJ or hell, put Luke Smith on even. Whoever and how many people from Bungie is not a problem in the least, if you guys wanna come in as a group to discuss this I'm happy to oblige.
Simply put, I'm pushing a point here, and if you can manage to convince me otherwise? You're golden. Bungie has seen my other posts before, they know the kind of person I am at this point and they likewise know I'm very reasonable. I'm not going to bite your head off for disagreeing with me or whatever, but I'm also not exactly young and naive, either. I'm going to expect whoever is disagreeing with me to be able to defend their point, just like they would come to expect of me as well or anyone else for that matter.
That being said? I made a comment elsewhere which I've been told once again like before should be turned into its own post. It was in response to the subject regarding the price for the TTK Digital Download and the horrible reception it got from many players before. The video above that I'm using as the header for this post expands upon a point that I made a while ago that others have likewise put forward. But I think its important to add onto that, that this specific problem stems from an even greater issue altogether, one which was originally the hot topic of discussion back when the Dark Below first released.
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Honestly, we already know that Year 1 was nothing more than a giant ass Beta test, developer interviews have even attributed to this. There was LESS in the released game than there was for the Alpha Build for crying out loud. That being said, they still got to profit off of us and we basically spent $100 for an incomplete product that was not worth its price tag. The new $60 TTK Legendary Edition is what SHOULD have been sold a year ago to everyone, and to make matters worse, adding insult to injury is the total lack of compensation for this.
[b]"But you had a year's worth of great memories!"[/b]
No, there were folks who certainly did NOT have that kind of experience. It was a giant chore for many, and given that TTK is totally revamping said experience is further proof of such.
[b]"Well, there was plenty to do in the game."[/b]
No, wrong again. The majority of this game's playtime was attributed to grinding for weapons and armor, the bulk of which (Legendary Gear) is now apparently being frozen in time with no plans to further ascend it. So quite literally we spent all that money and all that time for nothing. Just a huge waste of time and energy.
[b]"But now you'll be ready for when you play TTK!"[/b]
It has already been confirmed that common GREEN weapons will end up replacing our Legendary ones in an hour or so after playing TTK. Likewise, new players are getting a so called Booster that lets them jump right into the new content from the get go. So no, there is literally no advantage or bright side to being a Year 1 player.
[b]"But you'll be able to use those weapons to buff the new ones!"[/b]
That's just insulting... We spend how many hours getting these weapons for the sake of straight up sacrificing them for new ones that it will take all of a few hours to obtain? Awesome, yeah I TOTALLY see how that magically makes everything better... (*Sarcasm*)
[b]"Well you can still use the old weapons for the old content?"[/b]
Are you stupid? You're introducing ALL of these new weapons that you KNOW people are going to be getting, you're not expanding player Vault Space, and you expect people to hold onto their old stuff that serves no purpose in the newer content for the game? Seriously? No, you are engineering the game to make all of our old stuff obsolete for no other reason than the Max Damage stat being higher which is -blam!-ing lazy as hell. So no, this is not an appropriate response.
[b]"You could always keep the old gear as trophies?"[/b]
Don't patronize us. We certainly don't deserve that. Keep them as a trophy how and for what? What reason would we want to keep them around for prosperity? To remind us of how we got dicked around for an entire year like a bunch of ignorant, hopeful assholes praying for the game to get better and instead of you improving it you're just outright recreating the entire thing from scratch and selling something completely different? Because that is what TTK is, that Legendary Edition is an entirely NEW Destiny game which seriously gives no concessions at all for the older players. A damn year long Beta Test where we served as guinea pigs for the purpose of making a perfected product.
[b]"Sorry, but this is how MMOs work."[/b]
Bungie has formally declared multiple times that Destiny is not an MMO. It is, above all first and foremost, a First Person Shooter. And like any other FPS game, players don't expect the weapons or armor that they spent the time to unlock and acquire to stop being relevant for the game's future content. If players in an FPS choose to replace their current gear loadout for something new, it is always because of choice and personal preference. Not because it is a decision being forced on them. "Max Damage" should not be a deciding factor for weapons that are of the same tier. (Meaning all Legendary and Exotic Weapons should always be on par with each other, the only defining difference being their various Weapon Stats such as Rate of Fire, Impact, Mag Size, etc. and Weapon Perks)
[b]"It might not be a straight up MMO, but it does have MMO qualities."[/b]
Good for them? I don't even know why that would be said, what the hell is your point? Destiny is NOT an MMO. FACT. I don't care what concepts they tried using or this whole Shared World Shooter notion, its not World of Warcraft. It will NEVER be World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG. It is an FPS game. Period.
[b]"Well I personally think it would be boring to use the same weapon for X number of years."[/b]
Personal Opinion. You can't speak for every single person and you can't design a game around such a bias perspective. Not EVERYONE feels the same way, and many would rather be given the choice instead.
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So here is what this ultimately boils down to. What do we get for being Year 1 players?
Emblem? There are so many others in the game that will swiftly replace this. Same applies for that Year 1 Triumphs emblem as well.
Shader? I don't know about you guys, but I'm rocking the "God of War" crimson shader for my Warlock... Not likely to change that, either.
Sparrow? Its a black version of the same exact thing that everyone else has and its not even as cool as the Time Breaker, sorry to say.
TTK Price Reduction? Considering the Digital Download is $40 for us, assuming no one was foolish enough to actually buy into that $20 cash grab of an apology from Activision (I'm not holding this whole pricing thing against Bungie. Activision handles all that nonsense and its what I've come to expect from the bastards who ruined Blizzard), no its really not any kind of deal for us. Especially when you compare it side by side with the TTK Legendary Edition that new players will have available to them which is basically cutting the cost of vanilla Destiny while at the same time including both Dark Below and House of Wolves for FREE... $40 is a bit much for Year 1 players, and its EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE for people in the UK.
That's pretty much it.
I'm trying really hard to find any kind of actual benefit for having been a Year 1 player, a "Founder" for the franchise. (Case in point, I still have that Founders Emblem, which I never used. Ever. Just sits there collecting dust. Which is likely how these two other emblems will turn out assuming I ever bother to motivate myself to actually kill Skolas)
In an attempt to justify all the time spent playing the game this past year, giving up other things so that I could stay at home and progress my character and get those other weapons I had on my want/need list? Put it this way, I stopped playing Destiny cold turkey not long after Dark Below came out. I just couldn't bring myself to keep playing, and its exactly for the same reason that myself and others have now.
Does Bungie actually respect time investment for this game? Seriously, we had quit, folks. And there were those who really just did not bother coming back to Destiny, even after House of Wolves dropped and heralded Etheric Light which magically made all of us happy again. Because we actually were under the impression that meant Bungie had heard us and had fixed their mistake. That they proved that player investment was important to them as well. And now they are repeating the Dark Below fiasco all over again? Really? Its a slap to the face, guys. It honestly is.
So please. Cozmo. DeeJ. Luke. Anyone or everyone from Bungie. I welcome you to discuss this with me. I'm not looking to bitch at you, I'm not looking to scream or throw chairs. As one of your players, this is a very important subject and myself along with MANY others need to know what is going on with this.
Convince me to stay. Convince me that everything is alright, and that its perfectly ok for me to once again feel like I can trust Bungie.
And no, honestly, the twitch streams aren't going to help any either. Not unless you're going to do some huge shocker that reveals old Year 1 Legendary Weapon and Armor actually continuing to be upgraded somehow to stay on par with the new stuff.
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I pre-ordered Destiny, digital guardian edition. Quit playing in October. Tried it again when HoW came out, still couldn't stick with it. I paid 89.99 for basically nothing. There is nothing Bungie can say that will convince me that being a year one player, that started with the Alpha version, that my purchase and time were worth it. All I can say is I'm glad I quit when I did. Now I can maybe pick up the real version of Destiny we were promised when it comes out THIS September...after the reviews.