The communications chief of Destiny 2, David “DeeJ” Dague, explains how Bungie handles player feedback and the impact of player discussions on the development of the shooter.
Who is speaking? It is David “Deej” Dague, who was the Community Manager at the beginning of Destiny, and is now the “Communications Director” at Bungie. He used to be somewhat like the “herald” of Destiny, delivering the most important information. Today, he works in management and is responsible behind the scenes for ensuring the flow of information.
Bungie has long since employed other Community Managers like the former head of Reddit, Chris “Cozmo” Shannon. Meanwhile, Bungie has even hired a German Community Manager.
DeeJ speaks in a longer interview with the British site MCVUK.
Our job is to tell the truth
This is what he says about the role of Community Managers: DeeJ says that as a Community Manager, one fulfills several tasks:
- He represents the studio to the players.
- He is there to inform the players and explain the fantastic things being done in the studio.
- He should represent the Community Managers but also the players to the studio.
- A Community Manager takes the feedback and feelings of players and shares them with the developers.
Central to the task is always to speak the truth and not to edit the statements of both sides excessively before passing them on:
I constantly tell the Community Managers on our team: Our job is to tell the truth. We tell the players the truth about our game and our goals for their gaming experience. We tell the developers the truth about the players and how they feel. […]
We are there to form a kind of bridge, so that the people who make the game and those who play it understand each other.
David “Deej” Dague
Destiny 2 discusses feedback every 2 weeks
What does feedback bring? DeeJ explains that every two weeks there is a big meeting of Community Managers, developers, analysts, and data experts. The goal is to find out what the current mood in Destiny 2 is.
Many things would flow into this, such as data or conversations.
We have changed existing plans on various occasions to adjust our strategy. Instead of being a company that tries to lead the conversation, we are willing to engage with the discussions.
Depending on what you discuss, we will adjust our steps to bring the game closer to what you want.
David “DeeJ” Dague
However, DeeJ also says:
But that doesn’t mean we strap a saddle on our backs and let you ride us like we’re ponies!
Working on Destiny is a collaboration. For DeeJ, it is important that developers have the right to develop the game they want, while keeping the channel open to players.
Now as an independent studio, without Activision, Bungie wants to be even more open, but without revealing the big secrets. The most important moments of a player in a game should never consist of reading about the game on Twitter.
DeeJ had a legendary appearance during the reveal stream of the “Prison of Elders” in Destiny 1, since then he hasn’t touched a controller in front of the camera.
