To answer this question; both. But fear not, I will elaborate. The topics in this post have weighed on my mind for quite some time now. Here goes!
Bungie. What can I say? There has been so much that you have gotten wrong. What you've done right; get a new community manager (face it, DeeJ isn't good, and he knows it, especially since he's on the reddit forums more than here); Bungie also got the graphics right (finally, someone could animate clothing correctly, instead of making our characters look like Gumby); Voice acting (I liked dinklebot, considering his voice matched his robotic character); Gun play (definitely good, and this is apart from balance. I am talking about the way it felt and looked to actually shoot a bunch of sci-fi guns). For a while I truly enjoyed these things. But then, I began to become aware of the decay...
- [b]signing a contract with Activision[/b]
- [b]advertising a completely different game than what you gave people [/b](one of the shadiest things you could do to a customer)
- [b]going back on your word to honor players' time[/b]
- [b]taking months to balance weapons, and not isolating it to one play mode [/b](I blame this on their 80 job openings, honestly you need to shut this down, get on hiring employees, recover, rehash the game and knock us all out of the park)
- [b]total lack of communication with players, which sub-sequentially has caused us all to wage war on each other [/b](They hired a psychologist apparently to help them create the rewards system, but really they should have kept them around to help them see they suck at communicating with their community (NO dropping a weekly update and running away doesn't count.)
- [b]lying about last gen capabilities[/b] (lazy development honestly, and a cash grab)
- [b]Kicking non-TTK buyers[/b] (ok, I can understand why you'd want to do this, but for people who have been using the forums for years? That's a slap. Those are your veterans. Respect them https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/159336744/0/0, and check out another post on it and my commentary https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/158327470/0/0/1)
- [b]you seem to be vehemently against (or at least DeeJ is) giving people optional matchmaking for endgame. Hey, if it doesn't work, just scrap it. I mean it was easy enough for you to scrap year one...[/b] ([url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/159649984/0/0/1]they want us to do it[/url])
- [b]to go off of that last one, here's something that takes the cake:[/b] http://planetdestiny.com/luke-smith-podcast/
[quote]"Right now, it looks like Bungie won’t be bringing forward Vanilla strikes. Currently, they are faced with the choice of updating strikes or working on more, and they feel the latter is a better use of time. Finding ways to improve the matchmaking experience is on their radar, but currently there are no tangible ideas to reveal."[/quote]
Wow. You know, I've played enough games to know that I have never seen a developer add content to an already existing game only to render the previous leftovers completely useless. It's appalling really. A waste of our time and of their developer's time. An expansion is supposed to add functionality, not take it away. They aren't going to waste their time bringing year one forward, but they'll continue letting us waste our time grinding gear and spending hours on LFG? Right...Year one content is practically useless without level modifiers. What reason do TTK owners and non-TTK owners have to play it anymore? I even heard year one strikes are no longer Nightfalls. My game disc might as well have just combusted once the 2.0 update dropped, like a James Bond tape. (podcast info found in this post; https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/159447585/0/0/1)
Now, let's move on to something equally as pressing; the community. I wish I could say that this forum is the most toxic there is. Sure, there are a lot of forums with way better moderation, and this one seems to be lacking, but unfortunately this forum reflects the actual state of people in the world. I see it in commentary on many facebook posts (believe it or not, facebook is a very good location to gather a lot of cultural data without needing to interview, much like this forum, no it doesn't reflect everyone but it gives good insight.) Here's what I see;
- [b]we tear each other apart because we don't get any communication from Bungie. We are left to speculate, and opinionate, and judge. Some of us even agree with each other on many subjects then tear each other apart on another[/b] (especially on things like weapon balance [my friends made a post on trials and needed weapon balancing, only to be destroyed].)
- [b]judging those who play this game because of friends[/b] (yes you can play any game with friends, but come on, if that's what someone wants to do then fine. Bungie wants us to make friends since they won't give us matchmaking, so some of us do and that's who we play with and form bonds with, then we get people judging for that?)
- [b]bashing last-gen people just because Bungie said so...consumerism...[/b] (do I really need to comment on this? show some respect to the parent platforms)
- [b]Elitism; the purest concentration of RNG spawn. These people will exist anywhere, within this game and without[/b] (It makes sense that it exists, given the amount of content we are required to play over and over and -blam!-ing over, so we try to find the quickest avenue to avoid taking too much time - a large part of our culture actually)
- [b]going off on people when you think they're complaining. It's only seen as complaining when you think it's annoying. That's why some of us see something as constructive, while the other sees it as complaining. Very Subjective[/b]
- [b]now this one is my favorite to hate:[/b]
[quote]It's so very fascinating that so many people say "you haven't bought it so you have no say in the matter!" And then I see others say "you bought it so you can't complain!" That's one very interesting dichotomy.
And then there's people that say "don't like it don't play it!" Which is even more interesting given it's a fallacy.
Both the dichotomy and the fallacy are very stupid things. So much has changed in our world [b]because[/b] people wouldn't stand for shitty treatment. It is because people like us, who stand up for the fair treatment on many occasions and subjects, that shit changes to become that much better, even if it is a little bit. It's people like you, which I wish I could understand, that want things to stand still. They don't want change, they want it to be the same, they don't care. I see so many people like this all over, and when I read their words I cringe because the lack of emotion, empathy, and concern for others is non-existent. I'd go so far as diagnosing them anti-social. But no, let's go ahead and continue on with our dichotomies and our fallacies, so that everything in the world can stand still, and never move out of the flames, so the world can burn to a crisp, because people decided to not take action.[/quote]
Here's an article on that fallacy I was talking about; http://utahliberty.org/content/702
- [b]just leaving a post saying -blam!- you Bungie does nothing. It leaves no room for feedback, it leaves no room for resolution, and it leaves no room for thoughts. At a certain point, yes you have to leave something behind, but leaving without advocating for change harms everyone[/b]
I am not innocent from treating someone poorly because of their different opinion. I think it's time we try a little harder to understand each other, and try a little less to tear each other down. If you love this game, great. That's awesome, I can understand. But understand my point of view as well. Understand that I view the mistakes Bungie has made as something intolerable, and that gaming companies should be held to a higher standard not only because it is the right thing to do, but because they can make amazing games by being held accountable. I think both us and Bungie are decaying. I [i]want[/i] this game to be good, I want it to be something great. But I am losing hope. I am on here, because I want it to change. The only thing I think we deserve is an apology, to supporters and non supporters, and I think we all deserve (even Bungie) a game that is absolutely amazing and unique.
p.s. - [i]I wake up in the night, a nightmare plaguing my slumber. I dreamt of new dance emotes, running away from me. I scramble to get my wallet. I throw my wallet at my TV over and over, falling to my knees and weeping. I pick up my tv and slam it on the ground, my wallet (now mush) plastered to the screen. I take a sledgehammer and smash the mushed wallet into the screen yelling "take my money! take it!!" I break through, and I see a golden room. I climb through the wormhole, and on a golden throne sits Luke Smith. DeeJ stands next to him with a red velvet pillow. On top sits a gold-encrusted copy of Destiny 1. Luke says "You've done it. You've won. Here is your reward. It is the complete copy of Destiny 1, perfectly balanced weapons, 150 slots of vault space for each category, optional matchmaking, dedicated servers, answers to questions, no plot holes... and more...It is the best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be. Congratulations Guardian."[/i]
[b]edit 1[/b]: Cozmo is a start and is a better community manager than DeeJ.
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Fantastic post. Bumping