[url=http://www.bungie.net/en-us/Forum/Post?id=59911877&path=1]In DeeJ's mailsack this week, I posed this question:[/url]
[quote][b]Posted by: [/b]Spawn
How will you be addressing all player audiences within Destiny?[/quote]
I'd like to expand on this conversation a bit, because I feel that it's important. Cooperative player or not, I think we can all agree that Destiny will have a wide range of goals, missions, objectives and checkpoints to encounter. Through all of this we have the choice of deciding our own skills as being a solo player, or chiming along with others.
We knew that through Bungie's Halo era that there are certainly goals in the game that no achievement can list. The unthinkable. "Mythic" difficulty or "LASO" was invented by the community during Halo 3, only to be later seen used in terminology for Daily/Weekly Challenges in Halo Reach. But during this era, there were certainly more unknown goals to arise - Rube Goldberg machines from forge, screenshot contests, Campaign Challenges, certain medals to attain, style of kills - I'm talking world records.
It has been mentioned multiple times in [url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/17/bungies-destiny-a-land-of-hope-and-dreams?page=1]IGN's article[/url] that
[quote]"[b]Destiny is fully playable by yourself, but designed to seamlessly connect you with friends[/b]"[/quote]
Since there are no menu screens when you load up Destiny - you're immediately thrown into the world, I'd imagine that there is some-sort of preference system that takes place when your friends are online as well, so you'll appear in the same are as them. But what if you don't want to play with friends online? What if you just want to be a solo player and take things on your own and get that perfect screenshot for that contest? Can you sneak along with other parties of players and take part in their festivities? Will they be able to "kick you out", or perhaps you're part of an enemy group and merely playing the "mole" and trying to gather information. How will this impact your player experience?
Have you ever tried to play a massive world game as a solo player? I find it incredibly boring, but that's my own taste and you're entitled to your own. Reversely, if you want to play in Destiny's world, but only for a strictly competitive experience and have no interest in taking part into the lore of Destiny, will that affect you outcome in the world later. (Molyneux anyone?)
I hope to see Destiny as the game that fulfills all audiences needs. Some will come to Destiny for competitive matches, others for game progress, achievements and collectables, screenshots and amazing sight seeing, others to have a good laugh at the end of the day. I find it very difficult to address the needs of all these audiences, but I'm not the developer, Bungie is. Will playing as a solo player through a "campaign" be different missions as if you were to play with a group of friends? That's my biggest question at the moment.
[i]Should players be forced to experience Destiny with others[/i]? Destiny is being advertised as a coop game, but for those that have no interest in a coop game, will their experience be significantly altered - not better or worse - but may in fact be an entirely different story altogether? Only time will tell.
What kind of player are you? What do you hope to achieve as your goals in Destiny? Are you a competitive/casual/social/freelancer player? I believe Destiny's biggest challenge is to preserve the heritage of all kinds of gaming communities. Furthermore, if done right, can also form these communities into new "worlds" so to speak, in that future Destiny games can also be shaped around these ideas that originated from this first community.
But that's a whole different topic, speak at what you will. I'll do my best to adress your responses as needed.
[quote][b]Questions to address[/b]:
> [b]What kind of gamer do you consider yourself? [/b]
> [b]What is your most important goal/objective in a video game?[/b]
> [b]Are you a solo player? Do you prefer to always game with friends? Maybe somewhere in between?[/b][/quote]
[url=http://www.mmo-symposium.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Av0V2.jpg]Again, feel free to refer to the picture at the top of my post.[/url]
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Edited by Uberdawg: 2/27/2013 10:53:23 PMHeh. Loved the picture. [quote][b]Questions to address[/b]: > [b]What kind of gamer do you consider yourself? [/b] > [b]What is your most important goal/objective in a video game?[/b] > [b]Are you a solo player? Do you prefer to always game with friends? Maybe somewhere in between?[/b][/quote] 1. I've gone through phases in my gaming career. The three big phases I can remember are: Neutral Good as a young gun, Neutral or Lawful Evil as a middling sort (I blame Gears of War), and I've turned more into a True Neutral where I am today. I rarely wear a mic or play with friends anymore. 2. I am a sucker for collecting things and maximizing things. I've spent many an hour on Bethesda's games trying to get the right balance of readiness for all threats, firepower, armor, and being lightweight in order to maximize loot. I do so love loot, money, and customization in games. Bigtime hoarder. Competition is probably my second favorite thing to do in games... I love a good scrap between two teams that really know what they're doing. 3. Definitely a solo guy. I just sort of lost the enjoyment of playing with friends. I hope that'll change with Destiny, though, because it seems like the type of game that'll focus on team play and relationships a lot more than Halo. I share your concern about how well Bungie will be able to cater to all audiences. I'd like to see different "tracks" for players to go down: such as a player vs. player track where teams/factions fight, an exploration track where an individual or a group can explore new places and progress in a story, and a dungeon clearing track where we accumulate loot and stuff. All three tracks could add to your online "status" (defined as gear options, online rank, reputation, standing among peers and within factions) but in different ways. Writing that last sentence gave me an idea: I think Destiny needs to find a way to integrate reputation, collective and individual, into the game heavily. You know how a lot of games offer friend's leaderboards to see who's got the highest score on X or what have you? Bungie could take that to the next level and integrate it with factions to the point where perhaps, say, Seven Seraphs becomes known, because of the choices of its players, as the faction that tends toward X or Y. That'd be a lot of fun online and would be a way to give players a feeling of being a part of a living world they affect.