Dear Bungie,
Destiny simply isn't what I expected. I've had great respect for the work you guys do from the first time I played Halo with my friends, and I followed the Destiny buildup until its release with edge-of-my-seat anticipation. To me, there's no story more compelling than that of humanity's very survival, and no pursuit more noble than fighting for the preservation of our species. It's what drew me to Halo, and what drew me to Destiny. It's teams of artists such as yourselves, who recognize the inherent nobleness of this concept and seek to bring it to millions, that inspire me, that give me something to look forward to after a long day at the office, that offer me the chance to escape a reality where the difference I make is marginal at best, and enter a reality where I have the chance to make a difference that feels like it matters, if only for a couple of hours every night.
You brought me that sense of purpose and inspiration with Halo. But I don't feel this anymore. In Destiny, with a full loadout of legendary and exotic gear and having played through the full story, experiencing what the Crucible has to offer, battling my way through countless strike missions, finishing every bounty 100 times over, and exploring the complete extent of every map, I'm...bored. But it's worse than being bored. I don't feel anything. I've stuck with the game all these hours, whole days, desperately seeking to feel what I expected to when I first read about Destiny so many months ago. It isn't there.
Although I initially thought that the lack of story was the problem, I've come to realize that the lack of story is only the tip of the iceberg. It's the part that's visible, that every Guardian who's also searching for that sense of purpose and fulfillment in Destiny can readily point to and say "That must be it". And it's a very valid concern. But the core problem with Destiny runs much deeper. The core problem, as far as I see it, is that you're utterly alone in the game.
I'll attempt to expand as best I can. The reason the raid works so well (and is arguably the most successful part of the entire Destiny endeavor) is that it requires massive amounts of teamwork. It provides, upon beating Atheon, a sense of reward and togetherness that no other part of the game currently gives you as a player. I feel as though the team at Bungie would like to bring this experience to the wider majority of the game, but is confused as to how to do so, or is otherwise very conflicted as to how to go about doing so. I want to assure you that doing this would be exceptionally easy, and would make Destiny the game you want it to be and the game that we, the players, want it to be.
My suggestions operate on the assumption that most Destiny players care about the notion of fighting for humanity. It is the premise of the entire game, the reason anyone who enjoys PvE wanted to become a Guardian in the first place. With that in mind, Bungie needs to begin addressing the issue of feeling alone in the game by giving players a shared experience outside of the raid. Sure, if you have enough friends with the game, you can link up a fireteam and do some of the same 4 strikes (now a staggering 5 strikes for only $19.99 on Xbox) you've done 5,000 times over, but the only emotional appeal to this is that you're doing something with your friends for a while, until you get bored, and let me assure you, killing the Archon Priest for the zillionth time is boring - boring enough that the friends I used to play with have quit the game. I feel that many can relate to this situation. In order to make your players feel something deeper and continue to invest in Destiny, we need to be able to actually fight for the very survival of humanity.
Other people have left comments regarding this, and I'm mirroring their ideas and sentiments and not claiming them as my own, though I've had the very same thoughts as them for some time now. Bungie needs to actually put humanity on the brink. As Guardians, we need to be able to get an alert from The Tower while we're out collecting Spinmetal that The City is under a massive attack by The Fallen. We need to be able to see all the players around us disappear, heading to orbit just like we are, mashing our controllers to take us all back to defend The City. Upon arriving, we need to see droves upon droves of enemies marching to the walls, and have a way to get out in front of the walls to fight them in the plains before they reach the gates (troop transport ships on a loop that fly you over the city and drop you into battle, anyone?). We need to see dozens of other Guardians fighting tooth and nail to defend the last bastion of humanity alongside us, and we need this on at least a weekly basis. These kind of encounters can play out all over the solar system, and last a day at a time, giving many players the chance to enter the fight. Ground must be gained and lost, territories threatened, The City seen teetering on a precipice before you and your fellow Guardians prevail (or don't, which leads to many other, ridiculously interesting options for the game, and opportunities to fight for what is lost).
Again, I don't claim such ideas and sentiments as my own, but I wanted to articulate them here in the hopes that someone with a voice inside Bungie HQ might raise these ideas that I very much believe thousands of players yearn for. If ideas like this were baked into the game, this crippling sense of solitude that one often feels while playing would effectively disappear, because we'd all be fighting for something together - something tangible, that we could see and feel and believe in.
While you, Bungie, continue to release patches nerfing hard-earned exotic weapons, killing loot caves, restructuring the raid to prevent players from beating it with human ingenuity, and announcing DLC content that is quite honestly very lackluster and addresses none of the deep, even psychological ineptitudes within the Destiny universe, I assure you that even if the current numbers say otherwise, you are not building a 10 year franchise. Or a 5 year franchise. I'll be curious to know what those numbers reveal once other games are released through the holiday season. Somehow, I don't think they'll be very promising. Not considering what you gave us at launch, and how little you continue to give us. Destiny was a promise of something incredible that never was and still isn't. It could still become that, but my hope is waning, and that's a real shame, because this world you made for us, this repetitive, empty world - it's very pretty.
Thanks for your time. I hope I get the chance to thank you for your efforts in the future.
English
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COD exclusives were only for a month if I remember correctly. Never a full year, that's just ridiculous.
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Incredible post, everything summed up right there.
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agreed, we were doing the raid yesterday with the new unpushable Atheon, and it's no fun people don't have time in their lives to be spending ages on the last boss if you were guaranteed a definite armour reward for defeating him, then people would stick with it, but at the moment, the RNG isn't worth the effort
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Than again, you were probably doing him on hard (should be mentioned) considering your character levels.
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we were on normal, we were a bit crap to be honest, we'll get better at it though there were glitches as well though and a lot of lag that didn't help
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The glitches suck, for sure. We're you all (yes, all 6) going to the middle and hiding behind the relic cleanse shield?
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no, we were hiding behind the pillars at the back we were getting killed in the worlds we were teleported to though by the adds coming up the stairs i'm sure it'll just be a matter of practice
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Are you xbox1 I'd love to run the raid again.
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sorry no, ps4! cross platform play would be good, they probably won't do it though, too hard
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Blah, easier than it sounds. But then why would you need to buy both consoles? Load of b.s. if you ask me
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I did Atherton as well yesterday...maybe two days ago, and, yes, at first he was difficult. (We had three vog virgins) but at around the 4th attempt we killed him in 3 time stream runs.
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Really? My semi-experienced group yesterday must have really sucked then
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Xbone?
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Bro it's easy with a good crew. Max out a sniper and you guys should be able to do it in 2-3 teleports. I'm happy to help if you ever need a runner
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I prefer a maxed out lmg, criting for 1600 a shot with a 84 round belt. Phew!! Talk about devastation.
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Haha that is dirty. I get a little over 12-16k with a single shot of the ice breaker (weapons of light depending) and can get 7-9 shots off before he teleports usually. 100k minimum damage without losing ammo seems good to me... Plus I scrapped the Corrective Measure before realizing how handy it was for raiding lol
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Yep, love my ice breaker...But I'm not a good enough shot, can't usually hit the crits :/ Otherwise, I'd totally be there with ya
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The Hezen Vengence does 10k per shot :3 that's devastating
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This is probably the best forum post i have ever read. No trolling just pure fact and feeling from most of the Destiny community. The game is good, has potential ...bungie need to bring it..theve done it before with Halo..they can do it again. Thanks mate.
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These ideas would take a long time to implement not to mention the "scale" of these fights and the capability of the consoles. This game is basically screwed... when Halo:MCC comes out bungie will lose a lot of their xbox community.
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Agree with the scale of his grand idea. (As awesome as it is!) Pretty hard to just throw that into a game. However, adding things like horde mode survival would be easy, as would adding story mode levels into the strike playlist to add more variety. Add the epic and rage modifiers to any level and you have an entirely new challenge which would be cool. Especially with matchmaking. There's plenty of great big ideas that people have which do seem difficult to implement... But there are also so many smaller ones that could add depth to the game, if only the devs would listen to the community.
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Agreed. Well said. +1
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TwoBeersMears, I want to say thank you but it feels like the DLC for Destiny, that is to say, lackluster and falling short of the mark. I mean I love Destiny. But as you said it is losing the momentum it started with. But I have to say thank you for putting into words what we have all been thinking.
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Bump!