Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

It was several years ago when I worked for Bungie - the entirety of Destiny at that point was sandbox and they'd just gotten scripting into it. Most of the studio was working on both Halo ODST, and Halo Reach, as well as continuing support of Halo 3.

Firstly - the company itself. Nothing bothers me more than to hear things like "Bungie just want your money and don't care". I would say literally every single employee of that studio bust their *** to create a great game - not just for you, but for themselves, and care about what they're doing.

Related to that "Activision has ruined Bungie": That's crap. Bungie are their own studio, and have successfully remained strong. Some decisions are out of their hands (exclusives), but the game itself and what goes into it is absolutely Bungie's choice.

Yes, there's a contract, but anyone who has read it knows one very important thing already: Destiny was slated in that contract to be a 2013 release... Bungie weren't happy with where things were, and decided on a 2014 release.

In releases long past (Halo 3, for example), I'd play with my employee friends for a few weeks and then they'd simply never come back to the title - they'd been working on it for too long and were frankly tired.

In Destiny, 3 months on, I regularly play with the same employees I played with in the Alpha - they are still playing Destiny, and continue to refine their ideas. Since they're playing with us, they can have better conversations about what may or may not need to change. And believe me, they are very much aware.

Having worked there, and knowing the caliber of people working there, I absolutely trust that Destiny will continue to improve. Additionally, while there have been a few high profile departures, Jason Jones (JJ) remains the heart and soul of Bungie, and he's actively involved.

The core gameplay of Destiny is shooting things, and Destiny's mechanics surrounding that are very polished and killing things is very fun. The raids (bugs notwithstanding) have been incredibly fun content to clear.

That being said, the game's story as we know it is weak. The lore is strong, but tied up in Grimoire cards (if you say the lore is weak, you NEED to read grimoire cards or posts like this (which sum up and/or cite the grimoire cards)). I'm sure Bungie are aware of that and are actively working on ways to improve the story being told as well as the storytelling within Destiny.

The Destiny we got was assuredly not the first game Bungie developed as Destiny. I've heard it told that there have been 5 or 6 "other games" created and scrapped to start over in the past 6 years. Features people questioned being absent (player customization, story) were likely present in those other iterations of Destiny.

The early 2013 footage was almost certainly another iteration as well. I've also heard that the Destiny which was released was developed over the course of a year. Since there are near 1000 employees and contractors at Bungie, it's certainly not inconceivable to release a quality title in that timeframe. The first Halo was essentially a 10 month development for the Xbox and done by a MUCH smaller team.

It's impressive to me that some of the features I enjoy the most, were actually very much at risk of not being included due to prioritization/allocation of resources (read also people to work on said features). Missions were apparently very last minute and tacked on - it's odd to me that apparently many people at Bungie were convinced we'd be replaying the story more than we'd be out exploring the world they created.

Guess it just shows that we're all human. Even those of us who really enjoy Destiny (I have 463 hours, 43 minutes, and 34 seconds of game time on the playstation) can acknowledge that there are some issues.

So I'm relatively certain that we will see improvements to story telling in the future as the game continues to evolve.

Before Destiny 2, I'm sure we'll have more DLC than just house of wolves. We will see game improvements (vault enlargement, for one) released without charge. I even believe (but don't know for certain) that we'll see content additions/improvements free of charge simply because Bungie really does care about we the players enjoying Destiny.

Story time
when I was working there I was part of a meeting about Saved Film rendering, and whether it was appropriate to charge players for something which should simply be provided to them. That's where the concept of Bungie Pro came from - and why everyone got "credits" towards rendering every month. People who work there passionately defend our wallets and unless there's been a massive culture shift - I'm certain that continues.

Bungie as a whole could communicate a bit better. That being said, the reason they won't is because in software development nothing is ready until it's done. It's not done until it's thoroughly tested. They cannot tell us "it'll be here in 2 weeks" unless it's already complete and waiting for deployment. Last minute issues can stop an entire patch if they're bad enough, and if you "promised" or communicated that something was coming and doesn't? You've lost your credibility.

For a while, I stubbornly insisted that Luke, and Max (Hoberman) did the job better. My stance today is that DeeJ is a tiny god among mortals.

Deej performs a thankless job. As community manager, he has the "pleasure" of listening to our feedback regardless of whether or not it's delivered politely. He goes out of his way to remind us that the way we feel is neither good nor bad - it simply is how we feel and he encourages us to feel however we feel and share it with him.

Yes, sometimes he has to deliver news to us that isn't what we want to hear, but at least he's here, reading this sub (and other, less-friendly places), and communicating to us what he's able.

TL;DR: Bungie are collectively aware that this game isn't what we, or they, want it to be... yet. My faith in the company comes from working there. It may take a while to hit stride, but I have complete confidence they will.

EDIT: since I'm saying it a lot elsewhere - there are other issues/opportunities within Destiny that trouble me. The lack of social tools don't bother me too much since I went into the game with my own set of friends, but acknowledge freely that in ensuring people aren't spammed by incessant babble (you know it's waiting for you in the tower fire team chat), there's not a lot of natural interaction aside from waves - and not a lot of motivation to interact with others unless you're seeking it. I also feel it should be addressed - but know it's going to be difficult. I truly hope that conversation is ongoing behind the scenes and will make a note to pry further.

With Matchmaking for raids not being a thing, I can only encourage everyone to keep making friends that you enjoy playing with and work towards getting your own raid group. While I've had some fun in LFG groups, the most fun I've had in Destiny by far is with my raid group - even when we've decided to just do crucible or Nightfalls.

Also, somewhere in this thread, I was "vouched for". I wrote this post to say what I said - I didn't do it for karma, notoriety, or because my gold ran out. Thank you for the front page, and for the gold, but it wasn't necessary. I only hoped to provide my own views for others to read.

I'm currently debating fully outing myself. My relative anonymity is my own, and while it makes things like "proof" of anything difficult, I'd like to think I've started to establish a track record of my own in this sub without having to provide proof of prior accomplishments/employers.

EDIT 2: While I wrote this for a myriad of reasons, it's worth noting that my personal opinion is such that some of our early feedback didn't come in time to greatly impact TDB, and our current feedback may not wholly influence the direction for HoW. I personally feel that what comes after HoW will be the best way to evaluate whether or not Destiny will be a long-term investment for you.

A game this size doesn't turn on a dime. There's a feedback loop which takes time to create changes in the content we play - some of which is developed as we dialog. Don't expect major changes for HoW based on something that we talk about, in, say February, or even right now.

mini Constantine from scribblenauts~