In Destiny 2, the mood between developer Bungie and parts of the community seems to be getting worse. Following the controversial launch of the expansion “Lightfall”, Bungie has now closed comments under several YouTube videos. The community is claiming that Bungie is “deaf to criticism” – but Bungie says that is not the case.
Which video had the comments disabled?
- The first video where comments were closed is titled “Destiny 2: Lightfall – Art – Developer Insights”. It is a video that deals with a niche topic. The video comes from the art team, was released on March 14, and has received about 82,000 views (via youtube).
- It is a “Talking Head” video: The developers comment on their work on the design of Destiny 2: Lightfall. The developers provide insight into their work – Bungie is known for such videos.
- But under the seemingly harmless video, comments are disabled. “Art” is actually uncontroversial in Destiny 2. Topics like class balance, content supply, or the payment model are controversial, but not design.
Comments were also disabled for the video “Lightfall – Root of Nightmares – Developer Insights” released on March 16.
This is what the community says: On reddit the closure of comments is viewed critically. In a thread, it is said that the closure of comments is proof that Bungie does not want to hear the criticism of the community.
In the discussion, voices are raised that there are so many difficult topics with Destiny right now, such as the “use of pronouns” or the homosexual relationship between Saint-14 and Osiris – the community is getting upset over everything. This quickly becomes toxic.
In any case, the negative comments under the video are a sign that the community is currently dissatisfied with the work of the developers.
Bungie says: They love feedback – Have 0 tolerance for personal attacks
This is what Bungie says: The franchise director, Josh Deane, responded on Twitter to the closure of comments. A user said it was embarrassing for the community to wish for more communication, and then Bungie explains itself thoroughly, and the player base reacts so poorly.
Deane said:
- They will never turn off comments due to criticism. Not even for “shitty” comments. Bungie loves feedback, whether positive or negative.
- However, they will always terminate any interaction if someone from the team is personally attacked for their work or for who they are. Bungie has no tolerance for that.
What’s behind this: This is a persistent issue with Destiny:
- Bungie pays attention to the ‘mental health’ of its employees and wants to protect them, taking threats very seriously. Bungie cares about the well-being of its employees – they have a company trauma after the developers burned out during the launch of Halo 2 in 2004.
- In the community, however, most are decent and moderate people, but there are a handful who completely lose their temper and threaten Bungie employees or insult them in the worst ways. These people can then, when they meet “Zero Tolerance”, stifle discussions by becoming so abusive that developers withdraw from the discussion.
- This leads to communication between Bungie and the community becoming increasingly difficult.
For Bungie, the question is when exactly to end the interaction. If they truly have “Zero Tolerance” and cut off communication in the event of boundary violations, individual bad apples in the communication basket can cause lasting damage.
The mood in Destiny 2 seems to be quite poor at the moment.
Even in other games, the situation is very difficult:
