The above video is one of my favorite videos on youtube, ever. Megaman X was one of my favorite games of all time, and the video itself is just so funny the entire time. It's hilarious. However, while it is funny, it also brings up valid points about gaming. The section I wish to discuss is mainly about how gaming is aimed towards dolts. It is disgusting to me when a game has to tell you 'use the thumbsticks to move' or 'use this button to shoot.' Or when it gives you hints to obvious patterns that any human being should be able to figure out- to recognize simple patterns in your head like any human being should be able to do and NEEDS to do in order to... be. There are games that teach you concepts as you play. Take Dead Space 3 as a recent example. No story spoilers, but there is a part where a vent opens up and glows bright red. Now as gamers, we assume walking over that vent would kill you. That's just something standard to assume. Yet despite that, we aren't told "hey, do not go over that vent or you'll die!" A necromorph pops out of a vent onto the glowing vent and... is completely obliterated. So there. By something put into the game, we now know that the vents will kill us. We didn't need some lame tooltip or a conversation that breaks the fourth wall saying, 'Hey vents opened up- I bet they will kill me so I should avoid them!' No. Instead, we were taught the concept in that controlled environment as we played. Now, I'm not saying Dead Space 3 does everything perfectly- it has obvious and annoying tooltips in the beginning. Only one or two are warranted- like holding the right thumbstick in to activate the blue line. OK, tell us. I wish it could be done in a way that doesn't assume we couldn't figure it out on our own, but yeah. Still, the vent example is something done right. In Dead Space 2, we are introduced to the babies in the school. There is a part where a woman in a room, whom you can see through a window, is calling to her baby to come to her. It is clearly a Necromorph baby and is glowing. It hugs her and explodes, killing them. Boom- dramatic, realistic, and interesting way to let you know what that enemy does. Halo has done something similar before. In the beginning of Halo games often it would say 'Look up. OK, now look down.' You all remember that. What you might not have known was that regardless of if you pushed up or down on your stick, you would go in the direction the person said. This was a way to set an inverted controller scheme if you wanted WITHOUT having to go into the menu. It was immersive, realistic, and innovative to me. Yet even Halo has done the tooltips, if I recall. Oh, and don't even get me started on Dark Souls. They give you the most basic controls (would be nice if we didn't even have that but yeah), but leave everything else for you to figure out. That makes the game great. Every developer should learn from that. Destiny is a new start for Bungie. This game is meant to be social, and open to all. But WHY does a game being social/casual and rated below M (they are going to a T for Teen rating) mean the players have to be treated like dolts? Bungie is trying to set up something completely new here. I am very excited. But this is also a chance for them to be innovative in all the right ways in addition to the new ways. Don't treat us like idiots, Bungie. Let us figure things out. Don't break immersion. Don't think of us as fools and children. The target audience for Destiny might be younger, I suppose. But what developers need to understand is that needing to figure things out for ourselves will NOT just frustrate us and make us hate a game. Rather, it gives us a chance to actually THINK and ENJOY solving the simpliest of things. Experimenting with controls and understanding concepts. That is brilliant. I pray Destiny does this, and I can think of no reason for it not to. So, community, what are your thoughts on this trend? Do you have examples of this being done well or poorly? And of course... what are your hopes for Destiny regarding this?