These 5 things Bungie should implement soon for the benefit of Destiny 2 and the community.
Destiny 2 has recently received significant media attention again. The reason: A Wall Street analyst predicted a grim future, stating that in-game earnings from Destiny 2 would disappoint in 2018, and together with all the criticism of the past months, this would harm the publisher Activision.
And indeed: The social media is still full of salt, Twitch viewer numbers for Destiny 2 streams are plummeting, and YouTube channels are looking for other games to report on.
The prominent Destiny YouTuber Datto has now released a video in which he wants to do something against this downward spiral. He names 5 things that Bungie should do for Destiny 2 to get the MMO shooter back on track. We present them in German.
Better communication, more accurate patch notes
So far, Bungie has always been very secretive about specific mechanics in Destiny. “How do the Three of Coins actually work?” was a question that Guardians were occupied with for months in Destiny 1, and that Bungie never answered concretely. Little is officially known about all the secret mechanics in Destiny 2 as well. Only when the Guardians uncover questionable mechanics like in the XP disaster, must Bungie take a stand.
Nevertheless, the developers remain vague in their statements. It is rare for them to even mention numbers or statistics. Bungie once justified this by saying that Destiny should not be a complicated number game. Guardians should play with a weapon because it feels good, and not because it is a few percentage points stronger than another weapon after elaborate comparisons.
But that needs to change! Guardians want to know what is going on in their game – and why. Bungie does not meet this requirement at all. An example:
In early December, with the Curse of Osiris, some adjustments were made to the sandbox. Bungie wrote in the patch notes: “The damage of pulse grenades has been slightly reduced.” But by how much? Or: “The damage dealt by super abilities to bosses has been increased.” Nice, but by how much exactly?
The patch notes for other online games like Overwatch or The Division are much more detailed. Here, all changes are stated with percentages, and often there are comments from developers explaining why they made this adjustment.
This transparent communication is something Bungie must also get used to. They have promised for months that they want to communicate more with the player base. It is about time this is implemented.
Bungie should make more of the existing content
Many Guardians complain that they have nothing to do in Destiny 2 anymore. It simply is not worth playing anything. They find no arguments to convince friends to start Destiny 2.
However, Destiny 2 actually does not lack content. There are two raid activities, there are well-designed strikes, and even a few heroic adventures are in the game. Why doesn’t Bungie make “more content” out of this content?
The replayability must increase; there must be goals in these activities. A triumph book that has cool items as rewards would be a start. A strike scoring system is planned, but this feature must be linked to worthwhile rewards.
Bungie must give Guardians more reasons to want to log back in. And that only works through exciting loot and sufficient goals.
Destiny needs long-term experiences
Currently, the content plan for Destiny 2 looks like this: In the launch version, we fight against Ghaul. This threat is now averted. In the first DLC “Curse of Osiris,” we play a few story missions around Osiris and a Vex threat. This threat is also now averted. And in the second DLC, it will be similar: A new threat comes that we will stop within a few missions – and that’s it.
With this concept, Bungie succeeds in telling and concluding short stories quickly, but many Guardians would like to learn more about the characters, locations, or even the enemies that are only touched upon in the brief DLC storylines.
This is a wish that developers certainly cannot fulfill anytime soon, but: A story does not have to be restarted and concluded with every DLC. Instead, the developers could tell “deeper experiences” and more complex stories. How disappointing would it be if we face a new threat in a future expansion and eliminate it within 5 missions?
Long-term story developments, in which we pursue a big mystery across multiple DLCs, would do Destiny good and provide a contrast to the currently short DLC stories that feel insignificant and empty. Then the Guardians who would like to spend a lot of time in Destiny might feel more immersed in the Destiny universe again.
The short and self-contained DLC stories certainly have an advantage: Casuals can be attracted anew each time and charged for it – because they do not need much prior knowledge for it.
Easy content should not give the best loot
Datto sees another problem in the current loot distribution. You can play prestige activities that grant loot up to the highest power level. Or three heroic strikes or a few public events – with the same result.
Therefore, the demand: Easy activities should not be as rewarding as hard activities. Currently, it is far too easy to reach the highest level. That is not a good concept.
However, it will be difficult to find the right balance. Because in Destiny 1, there was, for example, the “Forever Level 29” problem, as players too rarely had the chance to earn the best loot.
In the toughest content, however, there should definitely be better items available that stand out from items gained from easier activities like public events. Now one might say: Then it hardly seems worth playing public events! However, many Guardians are currently asking: Why should I even play the World Eater raid track?
It is a necessary evil that there are hard activities that have desirable loot. Otherwise, all loot would be a boring uniform mass.
Bungie needs to decide what Destiny 2 is supposed to be
Should Destiny 2 be a game for casual players? Should it be a story game? Should it be a game that requires significant time investment?
Currently, it seems that Bungie itself does not even know. The base game was designed in a casual-friendly way with a clear focus on the story revolving around Ghaul and the Red Legion.
Only now, weeks and months after the launch, is Bungie working on ways to improve Destiny 2’s endgame to give Guardians who want to invest more time in a game something to do. In other words, Destiny 2 is currently trying to be a questionable mix of both, trying to satisfy both casual and hardcore players. And that is not working.
It seems as if there was never a clear line in the development of Destiny 2 regarding who the game is actually for. For future expansions, Bungie should make a clear decision and communicate this to players in advance.
Do you agree with these criticisms?
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