In Destiny , Pete Parsons, the Chief Operating Officer, explains the philosophy behind the Destiny universe in a nearly half-hour interview.
It’s a bit like if the otherwise pastoral Peter Hahne were to interview a game developer in his Sunday show, ignoring the whole thing about “And 16-year-olds are shooting each other with automatic rifles and aliens?” and just focusing on the positives of shooters. In fact, it’s not just a bit, but precisely that.
Instead of a serious host on television only talking about how shooter games are the original sin and a breeding ground for future rampage killers who can’t cope with life, here they chat casually about the positive sides of gaming.
Destiny reflects the personality of the players. Communication and collaboration are at the forefront. Even lone wolves are converted to team play. The story is hopeful and positive. There are deep philosophical references and insights everywhere. Everything is somehow good and okay.
Destiny = Bungie; Darkness = Microsoft
In a 26-minute television interview, one of Bungie’s key figures, COO Pete Parsons, speaks with a philosophically interested host about the foundations of the world. The words “hope” and “light” come up repeatedly. And it’s an interesting thought: What if you take these words literally when you look at Destiny not just as a game mechanic? What if you believe the “light” is not just another word for “level”? What if you hear more in the cutscenes than just “This is the next content.”
For Bungie itself, it seems to be more than that. Destiny reflects Bungie’s own journey. Back in 2010, they were a studio with a glorious past (Halo) and an uncertain future, longing for independence after splitting from Microsoft, while the Guardians began rebuilding a world in ruins. In this context, the past glitters far more brightly than the uncertain present.
And that’s exactly what’s so important for Bungie, that moving from darkness to light means that tomorrow’s world is a little more beautiful and hopeful than today’s world. That’s where, according to Parsons, they draw their motivation. Time and again during the game’s development, they paused and looked forward to the fantastic world they were creating for players.
It sounds like Destiny is planned to be brighter rather than darker in the already planned future installments, while darkness has generally gone in the opposite direction with the claustrophobic Crota’s End.
“While my son blows things up, I think about things”
The host’s son is apparently an avid gamer, and the father watched him with interest: “While he was blowing things up, I thought about the philosophical foundations behind the game.” Parsons is sometimes visibly surprised by the ideas his conversation partner comes up with. For instance, he seems pleased about individual lines in the Grimoire cards.
And well: If you watch the half-hour interview, the story told in cutscenes, which has been criticized as incoherent and inadequate, forms quite a coherent concept. Maybe Destiny is less a story and more of a feeling, a concept? And you can also understand the host when he calls the Grimoire not as a manual but as a kind of “handbook like for a footballer.” Or maybe it’s also because the cutscenes are cut into the interview at will and then feel “appropriate”?
What do you think? Is there something to the “light” and “hope” story? Does this positive mindset appeal to you more than if you were playing something dark that gets worse and worse? Or do you not care and are still angry that there wasn’t a decent story?
