Dear Bungie,
Destiny simply isn't what I expected. I've had great respect for the work you guys do from the first time I played Halo with my friends, and I followed the Destiny buildup until its release with edge-of-my-seat anticipation. To me, there's no story more compelling than that of humanity's very survival, and no pursuit more noble than fighting for the preservation of our species. It's what drew me to Halo, and what drew me to Destiny. It's teams of artists such as yourselves, who recognize the inherent nobleness of this concept and seek to bring it to millions, that inspire me, that give me something to look forward to after a long day at the office, that offer me the chance to escape a reality where the difference I make is marginal at best, and enter a reality where I have the chance to make a difference that feels like it matters, if only for a couple of hours every night.
You brought me that sense of purpose and inspiration with Halo. But I don't feel this anymore. In Destiny, with a full loadout of legendary and exotic gear and having played through the full story, experiencing what the Crucible has to offer, battling my way through countless strike missions, finishing every bounty 100 times over, and exploring the complete extent of every map, I'm...bored. But it's worse than being bored. I don't feel anything. I've stuck with the game all these hours, whole days, desperately seeking to feel what I expected to when I first read about Destiny so many months ago. It isn't there.
Although I initially thought that the lack of story was the problem, I've come to realize that the lack of story is only the tip of the iceberg. It's the part that's visible, that every Guardian who's also searching for that sense of purpose and fulfillment in Destiny can readily point to and say "That must be it". And it's a very valid concern. But the core problem with Destiny runs much deeper. The core problem, as far as I see it, is that you're utterly alone in the game.
I'll attempt to expand as best I can. The reason the raid works so well (and is arguably the most successful part of the entire Destiny endeavor) is that it requires massive amounts of teamwork. It provides, upon beating Atheon, a sense of reward and togetherness that no other part of the game currently gives you as a player. I feel as though the team at Bungie would like to bring this experience to the wider majority of the game, but is confused as to how to do so, or is otherwise very conflicted as to how to go about doing so. I want to assure you that doing this would be exceptionally easy, and would make Destiny the game you want it to be and the game that we, the players, want it to be.
My suggestions operate on the assumption that most Destiny players care about the notion of fighting for humanity. It is the premise of the entire game, the reason anyone who enjoys PvE wanted to become a Guardian in the first place. With that in mind, Bungie needs to begin addressing the issue of feeling alone in the game by giving players a shared experience outside of the raid. Sure, if you have enough friends with the game, you can link up a fireteam and do some of the same 4 strikes (now a staggering 5 strikes for only $19.99 on Xbox) you've done 5,000 times over, but the only emotional appeal to this is that you're doing something with your friends for a while, until you get bored, and let me assure you, killing the Archon Priest for the zillionth time is boring - boring enough that the friends I used to play with have quit the game. I feel that many can relate to this situation. In order to make your players feel something deeper and continue to invest in Destiny, we need to be able to actually fight for the very survival of humanity.
Other people have left comments regarding this, and I'm mirroring their ideas and sentiments and not claiming them as my own, though I've had the very same thoughts as them for some time now. Bungie needs to actually put humanity on the brink. As Guardians, we need to be able to get an alert from The Tower while we're out collecting Spinmetal that The City is under a massive attack by The Fallen. We need to be able to see all the players around us disappear, heading to orbit just like we are, mashing our controllers to take us all back to defend The City. Upon arriving, we need to see droves upon droves of enemies marching to the walls, and have a way to get out in front of the walls to fight them in the plains before they reach the gates (troop transport ships on a loop that fly you over the city and drop you into battle, anyone?). We need to see dozens of other Guardians fighting tooth and nail to defend the last bastion of humanity alongside us, and we need this on at least a weekly basis. These kind of encounters can play out all over the solar system, and last a day at a time, giving many players the chance to enter the fight. Ground must be gained and lost, territories threatened, The City seen teetering on a precipice before you and your fellow Guardians prevail (or don't, which leads to many other, ridiculously interesting options for the game, and opportunities to fight for what is lost).
Again, I don't claim such ideas and sentiments as my own, but I wanted to articulate them here in the hopes that someone with a voice inside Bungie HQ might raise these ideas that I very much believe thousands of players yearn for. If ideas like this were baked into the game, this crippling sense of solitude that one often feels while playing would effectively disappear, because we'd all be fighting for something together - something tangible, that we could see and feel and believe in.
While you, Bungie, continue to release patches nerfing hard-earned exotic weapons, killing loot caves, restructuring the raid to prevent players from beating it with human ingenuity, and announcing DLC content that is quite honestly very lackluster and addresses none of the deep, even psychological ineptitudes within the Destiny universe, I assure you that even if the current numbers say otherwise, you are not building a 10 year franchise. Or a 5 year franchise. I'll be curious to know what those numbers reveal once other games are released through the holiday season. Somehow, I don't think they'll be very promising. Not considering what you gave us at launch, and how little you continue to give us. Destiny was a promise of something incredible that never was and still isn't. It could still become that, but my hope is waning, and that's a real shame, because this world you made for us, this repetitive, empty world - it's very pretty.
Thanks for your time. I hope I get the chance to thank you for your efforts in the future.
English
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It is truly amazing how many things which would make this game better are completely obvious. Sadly, they will never get rid of invisible walls/ceilings, they will probably never let us hold more than one exotic at once (again, belittling our sense of accomplishment), they will never include back and forth conversations with any NPCs, we will never see negative emotes, we will never know the stories that used to "frighten children" and why "now, the children are frightened, anyway," (It's not like the Tower ever gets attacked) because the NPCs that do talk don't tell us anything ever. We could go on for hours listing all of the obvious and relatively easy to fix problems (but we wouldn't accomplish anything [sound familiar?]).
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Who actually read all this
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People with brains. And those that like reading. You obviously don't care. So why did you even bother commenting?
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People who are lazy and/or stupid want to belittle those with intellect in order to make themselves feel superior. It's quite the complex.
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You put my word out of my mouth without me to say anything
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Dude that was well written and beautiful.
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Bump dude you are so right if they just stopped killing loot caves that people have had to find out and use as you said human ingenuity and then nerfing things that people have spent hours upon hours on. If they didnt nerf things then people will have a sense of achievement when they get these things instead of feeling like you haven't achieved anything, so if only bungie/activision looked at this and though "hmm this guy is right maybe we should listen to him and make a change" Bump
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Shut your pie hole lots of people love the game keep your no good rotten thoughts out this sight is for fans of destiny no f**king haters >(
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And it will never become what its suppose to be sadly
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I play alllllll the game bungie have made and serously this is the game that gave me the more disapointement what ever u say it wasnt what it was supose to be
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Bump bump, and did I mention bump?
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What is bump? Sorry
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Bump=reply. so with this post having a lot of replies its at the top of the list. Hopefully someone from Bungie taking a look at it!
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Ok Thank you
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No problem lad
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I couldn't have said it any better this game got bungie and activision fans pumped up as well as many other new games and when I first played that beta I felt like bungie read my mind about this game it was almost just like I thought it would be but then I hear they take out the already added in raids and charge maybe $20 to the people that thought this game was going to be spectacular and buying the $60-150 was very ... Mean
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Very true..I used to play Guild Wars and tough missions that required co-ordinated teams were throughout the entire game, not just end game. It was the lifeblood of GW. Destiny doesn't seem to have it.
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Guild Wars was and still probably is an amazing game, thanks for reminding me about those good old days buddy !
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And BuMp
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I couldn't agree more, and can I just say that I LOVE the idea of being reported of an attack on the tower when your in the middle of running around after the gunsmith doing patrol missions, I do have to admit that it probably would take bungie a long time to produce this for us guardians, but if your reading this bungie, then God I would pay to give it a go, and good god that was also the longest comment/big ass idea I've ever seen, I clap my hands for how well you presented it. Cheers
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It would take a while, but they had 5 years of development to implement it. What were they doing?
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Yes, that has always had me scratching my head. Five years and we get this?? Gta 5 had five years of development and there was way more content than in this game. I really wonder what they were doing with all that time. You've come up with something beautiful within just a few weeks that's ten times better than what they've come up with in five years. Something's up.