Dated February 26, 2014. In a recent submission from Gamespot titled [b]Seven Facts About Destiny You Might Have Missed[/b], Shaun McInnis highlights a pretty interested quote about "balancing" that came out of the [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=11358]Bungie January Podcast:[/url] http://www.gamespot.com/articles/seven-facts-about-destiny-you-might-have-missed/1100-6417896/ [quote][b]Destiny will never reach a final level of balance[/b] "We have an evolving understanding of balance. In the past you might have characterized our idea of successful balance as getting it to the point where we could [stop working on the game] and it would be perfect. Nobody had to touch it anymore and it would just be a shining gem for all time. But the problem is, those games don't hold a community the same way as a living game like League of Legends or Dota 2. Those games can build these amazing communities around them because they're changing and evolving. There's a metagame that develops over time. The thing that was awesome before is not so awesome now. The thing that you didn't think about before is suddenly the best idea you ever had." "That kind of dynamic balance where the game is ebbing and flowing, changing and circulating, we understand that and want more of that now. We want to build a game that's always exciting and entertaining, and not just exciting and entertaining because it achieved a final singularity point." - Tyson Green, lead investment designer[/quote] Personally, I'm really excited by the notion of a meta game that ebbs and flows and changes over time. It means that the game would [potentially] never get stale. It would also empower us, the Bungie community, to keep the game moving forward. To adapt and change and constantly develop new strategies.... [quote][b]Everything in multiplayer is designed with a counter in mind[/b] "We definitely believe that something can be powerful as long as there's a way to deal with it. That's a hard balance to strike, but that's the reason we play the game every single day. We're constantly looking at these things to make sure there's no one thing that's so extremely powerful that no one is ever going to deal with it." "[For example], when you use your vertical movement modes, you're actually getting rid of your ability to be in combat for a short amount of time. So if you want to double-jump, if you want to glide, you're putting yourself in what we call weapon-down. You're making a tactical choice at that point. Like, I want to take the high road right now and get away from combat, but I can't just sit in the air and fire on people. That's now how it works." - Lars Bakken, lead multiplayer designer[/quote] So what are you guys thoughts? I know it is sort of a departure from Halo's very structured ideology but, unlike 343i and H4, this change comes very deliberately and thoughtfully. The sandbox is centered around it. Which is very encouraging. Since this game is very much so an ARPG shooter in spirit, it works well in context.