In Destiny 2, the developer Bungie has drastically limited communication with the fans. Developers rarely speak up on Reddit and Twitter anymore. Community Manager Dylan “dmg04” Garfner now explains on Reddit why they are speaking less: There have been death threats against the team, which are taken very seriously. Gafner himself and his family have also been threatened, and since then he has been taking antidepressants and is taking a longer break.
It was different before:
Even though there was always a lot of criticism of Destiny and Bungie, communication was a strength of the team. The longtime Community Manager DeeJ was often criticized for not saying much concrete and rambling, but the actual “makers” of the game repeatedly reached out to players via Twitter or Reddit and shared their thoughts on very specific, detailed aspects of the huge shooter:
- For a long time, the game’s weapon designers had lengthy posts about balance changes.
- The creator of the “Trials of Osiris”, Derek Caroll, regularly shared what he was thinking.
- Boss designer Joe Blackburn explained in posts how he came up with certain ideas.
Additionally, the company itself provided regular lengthy contributions, videos, blog posts, and live streams where the development process could be glimpsed.
Mastermind Luke Smith gave long interviews: Sometimes he talked himself into a corner (“throwing money at the monitor”), sometimes he gave interesting insights into how Destiny was created.
Bungie Reduces Communication to the Bare Minimum
How is it now? Recently, there has been hardly any interesting “side information” about Destiny. It has been reduced to the bare minimum. Communication has been significantly restricted.
What has happened? The relationship between the community and the Destiny team has always been charged with tension. Players loved to tease developers, and every Destiny player’s hobby was to complain about Destiny: There is too little new content, too much old is recycled, the developers can’t do anything and have no idea. This has been the case since release.
Destiny now has 8 years of history behind it – and 8 years of trouble with the fans:
But in recent months, there have been several serious incidents in Destiny:
- A central and very communicative developer, Kevin Yanes, received death threats for speaking about a Titan Exotic, and has since withdrawn from Twitter.
- There were open threats against Community Manager dmg04 – he was threatened “that someone would move close to him – and it wouldn’t be safe for him anymore”.
- Destiny 2 even sued a streamer over this hate speech.
Community Manager Explains Why They Speak Little with Fans
This is what Bungie says now: The Community Manager of Bungie, Dylan “dmg04” Garfner, has actually been in a longer rehab leave since June 20, seeking help from a doctor and a new therapist. He has started taking antidepressants, as he informed fans via Twitter.
A user on Reddit recently noticed that much fewer Bungie employees are commenting and responding to players’ questions than before.
Dmg04 explains from vacation that this is very intentional:
Here’s the thing: The harassment we’ve talked about isn’t about rough responses on Twitter or vague comments. There have been real threats against our people and the studio. We take these threats seriously, which has led to less communication while we work as a team to implement safety and protective measures to prevent this from happening.
I want to make it clear that I appreciate how much the studio has personally helped me after severe harassment against me and my family. That is why I’m taking the time to deal with it. Just because you don’t see the serious harassment in a tweet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Dmg04 says that once the new communication pathways are established, they will talk more with the fans again. Many developers continue to read the comments and discuss the feedback internally.
But apparently, communication with the fans has been significantly reduced.
What kind of harassment is being talked about? In a lawsuit, Bungie reported about direct threats against dmg04 and his family. One person wrote to him that they would move close to him, he is now “not safe anymore.”
Many Destiny 2 players on Reddit and also on MeinMMO have distanced themselves from these hate-filled messages to Bungie.
On MeinMMO it says:
- “Ridiculous. As a developer, you want to be close to your players and get to feel why others don’t do it.”
- “Anyone who sends a death threat to a developer over this needs a major update between their ears.”
The comments show that those who send hate messages to developers only represent a minority of the player base. But they apparently cause a lot of harm and disrupt the relationship between developers and players sustainably.
One of the most interesting bits of information that came up about Destiny was this little gem:
Destiny’s chief reveals: Originally, Glass Vault was not the 1st raid
