In Destiny 2 there is a major insider report. A writer from the game reveals how poorly the staff of the story team were treated. She was denied a promotion because she was not good enough at the game. However, her job did not require any special skills in Destiny 2.
Which employee is involved? The US site IGN spoke to current or former employees at Bungie. One woman is named there, Cookie Hiponia. She worked for Bungie since September 2016, first as a freelancer, later joining Bungie full-time and joining the Narrative Team. She remained as Managing Editor until August 2019.
In her position, she was responsible for the in-game text and fulfilled an editorial oversight role. She states that prior to her time, there was little focus on ensuring that the story was coherent and that continuity was maintained.
This led to a lack of professional standards within the team: “There were only a few people writing things and leading the effort,” she told IGN.
No Promotion Because She Was “Not Good Enough at the Game”
The Problem with Promotions was: Hiponia says that the chronically understaffed writing team would have constantly faced criticism. They were told they were “difficult to deal with,” didn’t support their “bosses well enough,” were aggressive, rude, and could not handle criticism.
These arguments would also come up every time promotion discussions took place. Promotion requests were continually denied.
Hiponia said she was specifically told she could not be promoted because she was “not good enough at the game.” However, her job had nothing to do with gameplay design. When she then asked for more time to play to improve, that was also denied.
This is the Discussion: On reddit they are discussing the entire insider report. This point, that a writer was not promoted because she supposedly plays too poorly, causes some bewilderment among the players. Because in their view, almost all Bungie employees seen playing were quite bad at Destiny 2:
- “I’ve seen these guys play during presentations and raid-alongs. They play as if it’s the first time they’ve ever touched any game. So to hell with that!”
- “If you don’t want to promote someone, you come up with some excuse so that it doesn’t look like you have them in your sights.”
Apparently, Some Female Writers Did Not “Fit” into Bungie’s Culture
What’s Behind It: The continuity problems at Bungie that Hiponia mentions were evident when Luke Smith, the head of Destiny 2, once admitted he had no idea what the “Darkness” actually was, a major concept from Destiny 1.
It was apparently desperately needed for someone to address the very issues for which Hiponia was responsible. But the report makes it clear that the writer and her team had many conflicts with the “elders”. There were said to be cultural conflicts because writers like Hiponia, a writer with roots in the Philippines, struggled with how the Bungie bosses represented women in the game.
The statement: “We can’t promote you because you are too bad at Destiny 2” seems to be a kind of code for saying: “You don’t fit in here – you’re not a gamer.”
This also explains why Bungie’s CEO, Pete Parsons, emphasized in his response to the insider report that the company has significantly focused on women and members of underrepresented groups and that much progress has been made at Bungie in recent years. Because with someone like Cookie Hiponia, the integration into Bungie from 2016 to 2019 apparently did not work at all.
We covered the insider report comprehensively on MeinMMO:
Shocking insider report about Destiny 2 reveals the many problems of the story
