In the MMO shooter Destiny , players without the expansion “The Taken King” are left in the dark.
“Imagine you buy a sofa for $100. After a year, the sofa company comes to your house. They say you need to pay $40 to get a nice cushion. And if you don’t pay, they will saw the couch in half and take one half with them.” With this example, a player on bungie.net describes his last week in Destiny. He did not purchase the expansion “The Taken King”.
On September 14, you could do much more than on September 15
With September 15 came many new things for buyers. However, for non-buyers, others disappeared. They now lack access to certain playlists, the Nightfall strike, vendors, certain missions, Crucible modes, and much more. Or they have access, but it is either at a much too low or too high level. While they could still play the old raids or “The Prison of Elders” – there are hardly any players left.
For them, it is clear: On September 14, there was still plenty to do in Destiny; there was still a full game for which they paid in full. Not so on September 15.
The disappointment is great.
The expansion does not add, it replaces
The problem, analyzed by a player on reddit: “Destiny is a disguised subscription MMO.” Anyone who wants to play actively needs the latest expansion; otherwise, they are left out in the cold. Because additional content does not come, as in “The Elder Scrolls Online”, as a new building block that adds on top of the pyramid, but it replaces existing game content. Those who do not buy this expansion lose something but receive no replacement.
The main criticism from players: That was not how it was announced. If I had known this, it would have influenced my purchasing decision.
Bungie has not yet commented on the topic.
Problems could have been prevented with a lot of effort
My MMO thinks: These are very serious problems that arise from the design philosophy of Destiny. It would probably have been possible for Bungie to mitigate them, but certainly at a high cost. They were not willing to invest that.
The problem: Normally, MMOs introduce a new “zone” with a new expansion. Everything would have remained the same in the Tower, and they could have created a Tower 2 where new vendors are situated.
In Destiny, you essentially stay in the existing world, just changing it. Vendors get new inventory, doors open here, and a portal suddenly leads somewhere.
The “best solution” would be to split the world if one wants to remain in a world. Create two versions. Now limit existing activities to level 34, so there would be 2 Nightfall Strikes, one for 34 and one for 35+ and higher. There would be a Tower for level 34 and another for the players above that.
Clearly: Bungie would have to invest some resources in game content for players who “do not want to pay” more, and it seems that they missed or avoided that.
However: Even MMOs do not do that. Games like WoW, which venture into new areas with each expansion, also neglect “non-buyers”; they balance and patch for the current max level and often trivialize earlier game content. Even World of Warcraft cannot be played just as it was thought to be without the latest expansion.
Omnigul problem three times larger
Let’s not get it wrong: This is not about giving “non-buyers” new game content. It’s about taking game content away from them. With the first DLCs, there was already trouble, as non-buyers were regularly excluded from activities like the Nightfall strike whenever Omnigul or Taniks were involved.
For the first DLC, fans already called: Then just make a separate Nightfall strike for non-buyers. But even then, Bungie showed itself to be deaf to this request. Now the problem is back and much larger than it was back then.
No communication
The topic “What will it be like for players without The Taken King in Destiny?” received hardly any attention before the expansion. Now we know the answer: Pretty bad.
Since the entire situation has an “Either you pay us or…” character, it doesn’t help improve the already extremely burdened sentiment of players towards the gaming industry.
However: Most Destiny players are likely to have purchased The Taken King and now simply do not have this problem. Bungie could simply ride out the complaints, as they have in the past.
