In Destiny, there is still much to achieve with the raids. The developers are very satisfied with the first one; in an interview, the lead designer of the raid talks about the individual design decisions.
The next time you wipe in a raid, you can thank Luke Smith for it. He is the lead designer of “The Glass Chamber,” the only raid so far in Bungie’s MMO Destiny. Kotaku had the opportunity for a long conversation with Smith, who has done such a good job of torturing and challenging you that he has even been promoted.
Ghost is silent so that the raiders can communicate
One of the most common questions about the raid is: “Why is Ghost so silent?” Was there no time left for voice recordings, or what? But according to Smith, that has nothing to do with it. Throughout the game, Ghost is the voice that the Guardian hears. But in the raid “The Glass Chamber,” five other voices can be heard, those of the teammates. You should be able to focus on them.
The raids were created with the firm requirement that Guardians overcome them by talking and communicating with one another. Over time, the conversations and commands changed. Commands like “Oracles up!” would arise, until they are no longer needed, and then one could talk about their day or simply be silent. However, at the beginning, communication is incredibly important to make progress.
That’s why Bungie seems to struggle with the players’ demand for a matchmaking system or even a raid finder. In response to a corresponding question, Smith rather avoids it.
The raids take a pioneering role in Destiny
Due to the players’ ability to talk to each other – which is not provided for in the rest of the game – the raid design team had the opportunity to introduce new mechanics and ideas: “The foundation of the raids was that both teamwork and communication are required.” This opened up gameplay principles that the Kotaku interviewer cannot find anywhere else in Destiny.
In a sense, the raid team, according to Smith, becomes a kind of “pioneer group” that tries and tests gameplay mechanics that may later come to other parts of Destiny.
Players should learn through the raids
One of the guiding themes in raid design is for Smith to teach players something slowly and to familiarize them more closely with the game. It is important not to frustrate them: “It is easy to make something incredibly hard. But it is difficult to design something in such a way that players try it, fail, improve, and have fun the whole time.”
For the future, Bungie apparently has a lot in store for the raids in Destiny. Each raid is supposed to show players something new, teach them something new. They are already looking forward to this.
For the current raid “The Glass Chamber,” Destiny has received a lot of praise – the design team responsible for it is still together, has received reinforcement, and things are going well for Luke Smith: the raid was so well received by fans that a promotion was in store for him. This means that not only will raids play a bigger role in Destiny in the future – but so will Luke Smith.
