I had a lot of mixed feelings over Destiny but for some reason I keep going back. Almost everyday I would pop in and do my daily stuff and try to work towards some better gear. I knew I was on a loot treadmill but I just kept going anyway. Before long I was already at level 28 and pretty much at the end of what you could accomplish solo. So at that point I was forced to tackle more group-oriented activities.
Unfortunately Destiny has one major problem that really needs to be fixed. For some reason Bungie decided not to include matchmaking for the weekly strike mission, the weekly nightfall mission, and raids. The first to weekly missions are a great way to get specialty resources and raids are the only way you will find gear to get you to 30. This is pretty much the end game of Destiny right now but Bungie is making it really difficult to actually participate in it.
I’m not sure what Bungie’s logic is for not including matchmaking in those events. Some people seem to think it’s because they are a good deal harder than other stuff and PUG-ing it would be difficult. That doesn’t really make that much sense to me since that is what everybody is doing anyway. So far the only way I have been able to do any of these is by going onto various message boards and searching for groups. So most of us are already trying to find random people to do these weekly missions with. For some reason Bungie must think that everybody who plays the game must have 3-5 other friends who also play on the same system and at the same times. This really wouldn’t be that big of a problem if there was some kind of public chat in the social area of the Tower but nothing of the sort exists. There’s really no way to communicate with other players that is in any way easy. Players shouldn’t be forced to use a third-party just to find other like-minded players.
I still find myself having fun and coming back despite how difficult they are making things. Really all that needs to be done is adding matchmaking and things would be so much better. Keen always says that I’m antisocial in games but that doesn’t sound anything like me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go and remove 37 people from my friends list.
Big question is do you think Destiny has real staying power? From what you hear in the media, Bungie wants to make Destiny into some epic 5 year + franchise. I guess with some tweaks to the social system, some regular updates to released games, and new releases every year or so, they could probably do it.
Will be interesting to see if a new Halo really crushes Destiny’s playerbase though.
I’m really not sure. I don’t know how the average Destiny player feels about gear treadmills and repetitive daily/weekly content. People have been doing it in WoW for like a decade now so maybe. I will surely drop in every now and then to check out updates and new content but there is really only so much repetitive gameplay I can stomach.
I don’t think Halo will have that big of an impact on the player base. In the end they offer two different things for players. The people who stick around and play Halo will do it for the online versus action that most people associate with first person shooters. Destiny’s PVP right now leaves a lot to be desired but it offers a PvE gear treadmill.
You can try destinylfg.net in the interim until they add matchmaking
I think the core gameplay is pretty fun and well-polished. It feels good to use the skills and weapons. If I feel like challenging myself, I go pvp. If I want to just blow up some aliens, I do pve.
I like that I can have a chance of progressing (i.e., purple loot drops) no matter what I’m doing.
I like that I can pop in and do a 15-20 minute mission and feel like I didn’t just waste my time.
We’ll see where they go with the DLC and if they can repair the non sequitur filled story, but despite the low ratings, I can see playing this game for a while.
After reading the reports of many people saying destiny is somewhat fun, but missing a lot of features and does not feel just right yet.
I will wait for the price to drop a lot and the game to flesh out in the mean time.
That way I will get a better destiny experience after the wait.
Makes no sense those early adopters pay a lot more and should get the same or better experience.
If your game is not “done” yet, then do not release it. (blizzard used to do this, but diablo 3 is a stain on that reputation. It should have been released in the state it is in now + the expansion into one game.)
I wonder though Graev…..are you going back to it more and more because it is growing on you, or has this game come along at the perfect time since you are not playing anything seriously right now.
If you had an MMO that you were really into, would you still play this some?
When I am compelled to play a game for fear of missing out on daily quest loot it feels more like the game is playing me than the other way around.
This is one reason I eventually stopped playing WoW; at that point I had gone through all of the content I wanted to experience, and we were doing the repetitive instance loot grinds a few times a week which was more of an obligation to the guild than actual fun. I felt mental stress when I considered missing a day of collecting free stuff and at that point it became more of a compulsive behavior.
If someone (most likely my girlfriend) at the time had asked me why I was doing it, I likely would have said because it was fun, but in reality it was more fear of missing out, as the loot was good and multiplying that by 365 was substantial.
Upon the realization that I was primarily “playing” to avoid stress and in reality paying Blizzard for “free” virtual reality tokens I took a deep breath and walked away.
Ironically the same mechanism that was in place to keep me attached to the game on a daily basis then worked in an opposite manner as once a few weeks went by the feeling immediacy was replaced by one of being behind the 8-ball, that is I could calculate my total loss to that point, saw it was significant, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it up, so why bother logging in if I was no longer having fun?
Again this only pertains to a game where the dailies are the primary reason I log in, as opposed to a perk added to an inherently fun experience.
It would have been interesting to see how I would have reacted if after a week of not logging in Blizzard had offered a mechanism to make it up, such as a limited week of double loot. Perhaps that is a reason for the rest experience mechanic, not so much to encourage people to maintain a healthy lifestyle by walking away from the game, but to provide a psychologic hook to maintain addiction after staying away for a bit?
I think that players may sometimes be self-deceptive and confuse fun with compulsive obligation as both can provide a sense of stress relief, the former from stresses of real life, and the latter from those of virtual life.
@Gankatron You really nailed it on dailies. IMO, they are one of the worst ideas ever for the MMO genre. I personally am sick of quests, but create a need, and don’t joke it’s basically a requirement, to do repetitive quests and you eventually break a persons soul.
The game should create the drive to do task on their own. Whether it’s gather resources, run a dungeon, upkeep your shop, etc.
Once I find out a game involves dailies, that is usually the sign it’s not for me. Death to dailies!
I guess there are areas for exceptions, such as Hearthstone. However, dailies in HS don’t create a mindless task. Not that I enjoy HS dailies, but I don’t feel as if the HS dailies detract from the game.