My Thoughts.

[Malok]

If you've looked at the gaming side of YouTube, you'll most likely have heard the news that Bungie has divorced itself from Activision. And, praise be to the Traveler, it is taking full rights to Destiny with it. According to some reports, Bungie employees were celebrating the news by literally popping bottles and cheering - and the Destiny community has been ecstatic over the change.

I find myself cautiously optimistic.

Destiny 2 is not Witcher 3. So while Bungie is embarking on a journey to become the next CD Projekt Red, their end product requires far more capital to maintain. Witcher 3 is a single player experience where maintenance doesn't need to occur on a regular basis. Destiny 2 is a diet MMO, which means servers, balance passes, tweaks, buffs, etc. all the time. We just don't know how much of the bill Activision was footing - so if Bungie is stepping out on its own, how is it going to pay for these things? Has it managed to secure enough capital through the latest DLCs to keep the game alive without cramming micro transactions everywhere? Or are we going to see practices that make Activision look saintlike?

I think most of the community is happy because we put the blame on Activision. We saw how they injected loot boxes into everything that moves and blamed every problem on them. But we just don't know who really was responsible - and we soon will.

But microtransactions aside, the next item of concern is content releases. As far as I can tell, Bungie has been struggling to keep up with Activision's demands for releases. They want regular DLCs - which has allowed travesties such as The Dark Below or Curse of Osiris to see the light of day. While I'm delighted to know Bungie can work at their own pace, I'm curious to see what sort of content releases we will be getting moving forward. Will we get the larger, Taken King/Forsaken releases annually? Will we get the current Annual Pass release? Will we be handed two garbage tier, tiny expansions like we did earlier this year?

All in all, I'm happy that Bungie is happy about the change. And I think that, more than likely, this is a positive turn of events more than anything. But it's the unknown that concerns me - will Bungie be the hero I remember from childhood or turn into a typical, AAA villain? Who knows?

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

 

[Allya Vi'Dreya]

I love how THIS is honestly what keeps you up at night.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

What if they get back together? Or did they Taylor Swift the divorce?

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

Destiny had many more problems than loot boxes and poorly timed DLC.

Destiny is, at its core at grind for shinies. Regardless of how much Activision may have pushed Bungie for more DLC's and may have caused the qaulity to faulter. The overall quality of Destiny is brought into question. Because, regardless of their seperation. Destiny at its core, is a shallow experience.

It's not particularly difficult, and both games [which at this point I've played a lot of 1 and a litle bit of 2] aren't good video games. The frankly insulting DLC's and their retail prices are just the icing on the cake of the already superficial bollox that makes up the Destiny experience.

The issues at hand:

• Bungie really isn't that innocent.
• Destiny is a pretty girl caked in makeup to look good, but underneath is the worst person [a overall statement on the points below].
• Unfulfilling gameplay
• Easy AI
• Laughable campaigns
• Unbalanced and meta-centric Multiplayer

​So let's start off with number one.

Bungie really isn't that innocent:
​You may not have been paying attention, but a lot of the original members of Bungie have left. Including the members most integral to Halo's success and quality, Joseph Staten and Marty. There is a reason that Marty sued Bungie [not activision] and won. Let's not forget that, Bungie has had equal ownership of all of the problems in Destiny. They had lied to us, over and over. Not activision. Bungie is still responsible for the bad practices within their studio.

Unfulfilling gameplay and Easy AI:
Whilst it might feel great in some sense, well its because its a power fantasy and its easy. A lot of the Destiny missions, have similar problems to the Halo 5 campaign, where a lot of the maps have piss poor design and are just one shooting gallery after the other. The supposed AI or enemies are laughable. One Elite in Halo Reach is a problem on Heroic difficulty. Where as, most enemies in Destiny are unengaging bullet sponges, but at least the Halo 2 Brutes could die with a headshot.

Destiny's enemies might have weakpoints but its not the same, it doesn't reward smart weapon choice or tactical thinking. It in truth, makes these things irrelevant because its a level based system. As long as you've spent long enough playing the game it doesn't matter how bad you are if you're a high enough level. This isn't how games should be. If you're bad, you get good or you suffer. You don't grind more.

Laughable campaigns:
​The music is great, but there is nothing of substance. You like Nathan Fillion cause its Nathan, not because of his robo-deadpool scoundrel caricature. The 'darkness' is boring, ambigious evil. Snore. Gimme a break Bungie, you made the Flood, what is this shite?

Unbalanced and meta-centric Multiplayer:
​All my friends who are bad at Halo play Destiny to feel better about themselves. Nuff said.

Kidding, but really - I've played Destiny a couple of times. And kind of like Call of Duty, its never required much thought nor much competitive play. The first one, was a crap game as its all about whatever gun is best each game. Quick kill times, and a high level of aim assist and magnetism makes the game easy for all, and thus there is a low skill gap. Which is bad. I haven't heard anything favourable about Destiny 2 either.

All in All:
​Destiny, regardless of Activsion will still be crap. Unless Bungie does a complete 180 and decides to make a game that actually rewards intelligence rather than time consumed. That's my two cents.

 

[Kev'vazulan]

[member=Tathra Khaeus] I agree with you - and people are missing a crucial part of what this whole agreement means. Sure, Activision doesn't own Bungie anymore, and the rights to the Destiny IP belongs to Bungie - but that does not mean they gave all of their shares in the IP to Bungie. They still have an impact on the game, whether you like it or not - Why do I say this?

Blizzard will still have Destiny 2 on their client, and Blizzard works in tandem with Activision, which everyone knows by now. This means that they will still be earning a profit out of Destiny, and that means the micro-transactions aren't going to disappear any time soon. If they weren't going to get a profit out of Destiny anymore, Activision wouldn't intend on keeping the game on the Blizzard client.

The current CEO of Bungie, retweeting these news (Yes, I'm Swedish)​

​

They aren't off the hook, so I don't have faith in the Destiny franchise. Maybe one of their future products, like "Matter", will do some justice for Bungie..

Maybe.

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

[member="Ryder Zeshatt"]

Good eye.

What your saying makes sense.

People who are hopeful for Destiny to be good again, or for Bungie to be good? Are either people who don't understand why it was bad or just straight up filthy casuals and their opinions don't matter.

​