In Destiny 2, a strange bug has led to frustration. It shows how much players long for a certain Destiny – but Bungie just doesn’t seem to want to give it to them. At least not so far. But that could change.
Destiny players and Bungie – a misunderstanding: The developers of Destiny had envisioned such a beautiful world in 2014, with adventures, planets, strikes, and raids. But players lined up in front of a cave and shot the simplest enemies there. They enjoyed it and occasionally picked up the loot. This was the Loot Cave of Destiny 1. Guardians liked to use it. But Bungie would spend months finally closing it down. Players were supposed to play Destiny as intended.
Players simply do not play as they should
Grinding was a pillar of Destiny 1: This desire of players for strange activities and Bungie’s attempt to take them away runs through the history of Destiny. For a while, it was possible to find legendary weapons with specific perk combinations. Especially weapons that could only drop from a certain strike boss, and only at a specific time, were particularly popular.
Fakebringer – desperately sought: Thus, players chased weapons like the “Fakebringer” in Destiny 1, an Imago Loop with the same perk combination as the Fatebringer, or certain pulse rifles. What did Bungie do? They eliminated overpowered perk combinations. For Destiny 2, random rolls were completely removed.
Weapon hunting boring but fulfilling: This hunt for special weapons in Destiny was never particularly exciting. It consists of running the same strike over and over again, following the same pattern, to get the perfectly configured weapon that you are searching for. This is called “grinding.”
Destiny – an ideal grinding game?
Destiny is particularly well-suited for grinding:
- It has great gunplay, the simple gameplay of Destiny is just fun – it feels great to shoot at enemies, throw a grenade, take cover to reload, and then start over. In 2015, Bungie explained how proud the employees are of the core gameplay – and they could still be in 2018.
- It is also social, you chat with friends – Luke Smith once called Destiny a game “where you shoot aliens in the face while talking with friends about the Oscars.”
- And it feels incredibly satisfying to finally get what you want after a long time.
Destiny 2 was supposed to be different: But Bungie has always been against this kind of engagement. They wanted players to engage in a variety of activities, not just chase a single weapon, but to have a collection of guns ready. In the Guardian’s arsenal, there should be the right weapon for every occasion. Players should engage as diversely as possible and use many different weapons.
Bungie wants to suppress the urge: That’s why Bungie has constantly tried in Destiny 1 to suppress this particular urge of the Guardians, which leads them to repeatedly do the same thing enthusiastically. In Destiny 2, they even succeeded. In trying to make the game as accessible as possible, they virtually eliminated all grinding elements.
T.V.O. brings back the old feeling – 9 hours for a weapon
The feeling was back with Destiny 2: But last week, this desire for the hunt for “the one” weapon was suddenly present. Because in the Nightfall strike, a new weapon was supposed to be obtainable: the Hand Cannon “T.V.O.” Only in this strike was it supposed to be available, only this week – but players simply could not find it.
The rarer the more coveted: In forums, players shared their stories about the dozens of attempts they had made to get this weapon. They spent 9 hours or more in the strike hunting for the T.V.O. The feeling of old was back: If the weapon was so incredibly rare, it had to be especially valuable.
Banale Lösung: But it was not planned for the weapon to be so rare. A bug simply prevented the rewards in the Nightfall strike from dropping at the intended probability.
Bungie grades the biggest problem of Destiny 2: Ultimately, the bug surrounding the new weapon shows the same thing that the Loot Cave from 4 years ago showed: The biggest problem with Destiny seems to be developer Bungie itself. The studio desperately wants players to play Destiny as they envisioned. But many players seem to want something different: Even though Bungie wants to fight that urge, it’s still there.
Bungie knows better: Bungie has a tendency to dictate players how they should play Destiny. Thus, Bungie prefers to change things that core players have never complained about:
- Random rolls on weapons
- particularly strong exotic items
- The item collections
All things that Destiny 1 had, which Bungie eliminated and that Destiny 2 has since brought back or wants to bring back in September.
What is this “hobby” Destiny 2 is supposed to become?
Bungie wants to work on exactly that: All these problems Bungie has recognized, admitted the errors, and wants to work on these issues at the latest in the expansion “Destiny Comet.” However, they never name the issues directly, but speak in codes.
- The code word for “grinding” and “MMO” elements at Bungie is “hobby.”
- And people who like “grinding” are called by Bungie: “Our most loyal and dedicated players.”
With the expansion “Warmind” and a stricter grind to max level, they already catered to them.
Core players want a different Destiny 2 than Bungie: Last week’s incident shows how much a certain player base longs for the “Destiny as a hobby” concept and how far Destiny 2 is from this idea – the incident also shows how easily this idea could be implemented: You just need to make the rewards beautifully rare.
Will we get Destiny as a hobby? In a few days, Bungie plans to unveil the new concept for Destiny 2. Maybe it will be a Destiny 2 again where people run for 9 hours in a strike to get a specific weapon. And if they really find it after 9 hours, they will probably be happy. The question remains why it takes 4 years to get back to the point where they started.
