In a few days, the Warmind expansion for Destiny 2 will be released. This brings, among other things, a new PvE activity – the Escalation Protocol. In this new mode, Bungie has included a little surprise for long-time Destiny fans.
What happened? A participant of the recently held community summit published a video shortly before the release of the Warmind expansion for Destiny 2 featuring a small Easter egg that Bungie uses to pay homage to its long-time fans and pokes fun at itself in the process.
When the player’s Ghost is asked during the Escalation Protocol event where the Wizards came from, he responds, audibly annoyed, that he won’t answer that. In English, they are referred to as “Wizards.”
Bungie jokes about itself with infamous lines
What makes this so special? The Ghost’s reaction is a clear reference to his infamous line from the Destiny 1 beta phase. The words “That Wizard came from the moon” became a source of mockery and laughter among players during Destiny 1’s alpha.
This inappropriate voice line originally came from the Ghost’s voice actor, Peter Dinklage, who became world-famous as “The Imp” Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones.
On one hand, the voice line was clearly not re-recorded. On the other hand, it was delivered by Dinklage in a strangely poor and disinterested manner, leading many to joke that it was probably recorded last minute on a phone and emailed in.
The criticism led to Bungie completely removing this voice line from the game during the Destiny beta. However, this did not dampen the mood of the fans. Among Destiny veterans, these lines quickly became cult classics and served as a template for many memes and various jokes.
Bungie also poked fun at itself and immortalized these lines on a limited edition T-shirt from their collection.
Later, the studio even integrated the voice line as a joke in Destiny – at least in the English version. In one scene, the Ghost starts with the original line from the original voice actor Dinklage, but then clears his throat and the voice line follows from the new voice actor Nolan North, who replaced Dinklage as the English voice.
How are fans reacting? Many who participated in the alpha and beta tests are delighted by this little Easter egg. It’s lovely that Bungie can still laugh at itself and its mistakes, and remembers its veterans and long-time fans with this little nod. Back then, no one would have thought that this almost improvised and unfinished voice line would become characteristic of the overall state of the game.
Were you also involved in the Destiny testing phase and can you still remember this humiliation?
