…and buring them to the ground. Let’s get this out of the way: WARNING WALL OF TEXT INCOMING As the people that follow me know, I write a weekly WOT detailing something about this game. Usually it is a suggestion thread for improvements to the game. This week, I’m going to be straight up honest. This isn’t a suggestion thread, this is a complaint thread. I usually abhor these threads, but I had some things that needed to be said, and where better to do it than in good old #feedback? I can also save some of you some time, the responses to this thread will most likely come in one of the following: -Agree / Agree with almost everything -STFU Noob I love Destiny with all my soul and nothing is wrong -Destiny is a shooter, get used to it -TLDR Now without further ado: Atheon Push – FINALLY. Thanks for that fix. Now may the external tools we are forced to use to find groups will not be full of “At Atheon-only request join if you know how to push”. Not that it matters much as you can still push him. #DeeJ I feel for you. People think it would be awesome to work at Bungie, and they are probably right, but I don’t think there is enough money in the world for a company to put me in the situation you are in. As the public facing member of the Destiny team, you are forced to take the notes that others give you and convey them to the public. You are also the one that has to sift through these forums and take ideas to the dev team. With that said, you may want to speak to the dev team or marketing about what you all post to the public. Weeks ago, when the raid launched, you lauded the raid as the “hardest content” in the game. You celebrated the group that spent 10 hours in and finally emerged victorious. You then taunted them about the hard mode that awaited. Time passed, videos showing the fight emerged. Groups began to progress through the content. Strategies were formed, people geared for the fight. In all that time, not once did Bungie say “hey, Atheon teleporting the three farthest members is a bug”. You went weeks with videos and strategies emerging… then suddenly two weeks ago it was “oh man this is a bug, it will be fixed”. And pretty much no one believed that “bug” line. As a programmer myself, I know bugs. They are unintended consequences that happen when certain variables are fed in. There is no bug that occurs at 100% frequency no matter the variable fed in. At that point, it is a design flaw if it is unintended, or a feature if it is supposed to happen. There is zero way a coder wrote an algorithm that calculates the three (or two…now THAT is a bug) people that go through the time stream, which as a variable must by necessity include the distance from the boss as a computer will only do what you tell it to do, tested this fight, submitted to QA that also tested, then moved it live and never noticed the predictability. Unless that is, your dev team doesn’t really test fixes (which actually is concerning considering a week after the last hotfix, you had to come out and say you went too far on the Vex weapon and will be un nerfing it). Had you posted that “we made a mistake and the raid was released with the wrong calculation” that would be something, but calling it a bug hoping that most of the people would just think this is a bug fix is not a good way to do things. And since this has already turned into a WOT after one point, I will make my second point and be done. From the patch notes: "We're also changing the player experience in the raid to ensure that the activity provides an endgame challenge that meets project goals...." I found this striking. It wasn’t “to increase player entertainment” it wasn’t to “address bugs” and it wasn’t “to ensure the content is challenging for our fans”. It was to “meet project goal”. I guess Bill in Marketing fired up Crystal Reporting, noted that the dev team projected roughly 5% of the population would be through this content, and instead roughly 30% was. There was a scramble to discuss why the conent was so “easy” and it was decided to make the change and call it a bug fix. Even more concerning, since you lock character progression behind gear, you intentionally created an RPG that a regular person can’t actually achieve the end of their character (or become legend, if you will). If you want Destiny to be a shooter, great, let us know please. But as an RPG, you need to provide the ability to progress your character. When dealing with RPG gamers, you are talking about people that spend hundreds of hours collecting melons in Skyrim just to fill their house. Please take note, THAT is an example of no one way to play. Forcing raid to even hit max level isn’t. Some gamers would be content to run the nightfall at level 30, hanging with their friends, and possibly running Ghost Strikes (please note, level 28-30 strikes). Some RPGers consider top tier group content as their “end game”. When you remove the ability to progress a character, you effectively tell those individuals that their way is wrong. So many ways to fix that, level 30 gear with less defense or provides smaller bonuses is just one way. I enjoyed my time in Destiny fighting the Fallen, Vex, Cabal and Hive. I didn’t enjoy fighting the RNG to progress my character. I definitely didn’t enjoy getting a piece of gear only to weaken my character by putting on a “better” piece of gear. And I hated having a good piece of gear, only to be forced to replace it with the exact same stats but a slightly higher light level. Last night was the first day since launch I didn’t even login. I have lost the motivation to do so. This isn’t a quit post. I’ll still follow the game, and maybe even try the DLC since I bought the 80 dollar pack that comes with it. But Destiny has been relegated to the same level as Farmville. A game I bust out every so often when I am bored and the main games I am playing are down, or I just need a break. End wall of text, you may begin bashing me now.