After playing Destiny for almost two weeks nonstop, I have arrived at what I call, the "hardcore dilemma." I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. What little morsels we get turn out to be the same thing with different seasoning. Destiny isn't an MMO, so I don't expect MMO support. It's obvious that this is Bungie's first shot at this type of game, so I'll forgive them for their oversights. They have a great foundation, but they'll have no excuse the second time around.
Last night, I listened to two super jaded gamers in my party complain about Destiny nonstop, comparing it to MMO's and other full-fledged online communities. It's something that confounds me because once I've done everything there is to be done, you know what I do next? I play another game. I've never let expectations dictate my experience; rather, I let the experience dictate my expectations--which means I never hold great expectations to begin with.
That's the problem with the hardcore--they have a superiority complex. They believe their opinion is the only one that matters despite all market research saying otherwise. Catering to the hardcore is the last thing any developer should do. Always dumb it down. You can't really say the game doesn't have enough content when you put in a hundred plus hours to do everything. Were it any other game, that's amazing. But expectations and hype make people stupid.
The game has plenty of issues that need to be ironed out, but I understand that a game of this scale, particularly on the networking side, presents enormous challenges for a development team. In the future, I'd like to see a steadier progression curve. As it stands, to reach max level requires total luck. Most people, when they hit level 20, crash into a wall. The concept of leveling by gear is sound, but I believe that it should be supplemental to a guaranteed, albeit--longer, method of leveling up.
Leveling up faction rep should be faster. Patrol missions should be more varied. Story missions and Strikes should be initiated from Patrol mode. I'd like to see an overhaul of the voice chat system so that there are more options to talk to people without having to force them into your fireteam. Social interaction options should include the ability to gift items--something like materials, if not, gear. I'd say more but the list goes on and on.
All this playing has made me realize that I'm a solo gamer at heart. There's nothing like kicking back and enjoying a game at my own pace. I get annoyed when I receive invitations. I'm usually doing something on my own. Single-player is my lifeblood.
On to other news, I finally won my first fantasy football match up. I would've been 2-1 if I didn't forget to set my lineup last week. I had an injured player on the field and my replacement scored 20 plus points on the bench. Seriously. Nonsense.
Ever since this game has come out, my online activity has come to a startling halt. I'm still deep in its clutches, but little my little, I'm disentangling myself.
Hopefully.
/eventlog
