Since I feel very secure in knowing how publishers can market games to me, and how developers can gear design toward me, here's why Destiny was a slight disappointment for me, despite having a lot of positive aspects.
First of all, the lore and story was nearly incoherent. I had a vague idea of 'do thing or bad space beings do bad things,' but the story was too thin. The characters were even thinner. The game, for me, was nearly absent motivation.
That was doubly frustrating because the game's world seemed like a cool, fun place, but I couldn't really tell.
Word on the street is that Bungie gutted the narrative, but I don't think that's ever been confirmed. I could be wrong. By the time I heard it, I didn't really care why the narrative in the game was so bad, because I'd stopped playing.
Beyond that, I love it when publishers release storytelling material that's outside the game, like novels and comics. BioWare does it a lot, and it really enhances the experience for me. The Witcher, which was a series of novels before it was a game trilogy, fits this, too as Sapkowski's novels really enhanced my experience in the games.
But Destiny received none of this, and I never understood why. Activision is pretty much the embodiment of greed and monetizing the shit out of their properties, so I expected they'd pounce at the chance to make more off Destiny, but ... oh well.
Second, and this gripe isn't limited to Destiny at all, but the game really highlighted for me the need for the walls between PSN and Xbox Live (and Steam, for Destiny 2, where I'll be playing if I buy it) to come down. Players on both modern consoles and PC need to be able to freely play games together. It's utterly stupid that it hasn't happened yet, and there is no technical or technological reasons it can't happen.
If even fucking Squenix can make it happen with Final Fantasy XIV, then any developer/publisher can do it. Seriously.
If given the choice, I will always take the PC version, for a long list of reasons, but most of friends don't like playing on PC, which makes games like this nearly a non-starter for me. It'd be great if they could continue living like savage cavemen while I continue my life in the present day, but we could still play games together.
Third, I just have a really hard time playing and getting into console games. I have no desire to start a flame war here, but it comes to down to control over the experience, being able to play anywhere (whether anywhere in my house or anywhere in the world while traveling, or even at work while at lunch) any time, the mouse/keyboard combo, the upgraded visuals, never having to sweat backwards compatibility, and on and on. I play some console games, and I own both modern consoles, but they're more for A/V entertainment and for my kids to play games.
So, it's amazing to see the hype for Destiny 2. It became a favorite punching bag for the lemming locusts out there. Anything that be criticized, no matter how small, was dragged out and shat upon, en masse, by the negativity-obsessed so-called 'gamers.' It became fashionable to bitch about it.
Still, I know a lotta people that a) genuinely liked it, and b) genuinely tried really hard to like it. Bungie are good people, so I was glad to see fans actually like the game.
I liked a lot about Destiny. I thought, for a controller-only game, it controlled very, very well. I liked that Bungie attempted to do something different. I liked what I thought maybe the setting was (though I couldn't really tell.)
I'm glad people are giving them another chance, and I suspect that more people liked the first game than were willing to admit it, in order to look cool. I dunno.
Anyway, here's the new trailer for Destiny 2.
I'll be streaming more KotOR tonight. I need a cool name for the series. Suggestions are welcome.
I'll be on 8PM central time, and probably go for 90-120min. We'll see. I'm pretty tired and frustrated. It's been a week.
Anyway, if you want, you can get caught up on my KotOR series here or below:
And that's it. I hope to see you tonight, and let me know what you think of Destiny's past, and where you think it's going.
-Blaine
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