As I am writing this the app has been down for hours for the entire world.
Third party apps that use your api are also down due to your server errors.
Even on a day when the app isn't down for hours it usually takes two or three or more tries before pages on the app will load, especially during peak hours.
The app is essential to the game experience. We find fireteams, and communicate with our clan, and manage our gear with the app.
There are many apps made by just a few people or even just one person that run smoother, are more functional, and have better UI than your app.
Ishtar Commander is a prime example. That app is made and maintained by just ONE guy.
Maybe you should hire that dude to work on your app.
The app clearly does not have enough server support. The server capacity needed for the app to run smoothly must be minuscule compared to the server capacity needed to run the game.
Why are you nickel and diming the app?
EVERYBODY is sick of your poorly performing app.
You are presumably saving some relatively small amount of money by not having adequate in house app development staff and supporting the app with the bare minimum of servers.
For that small amount of money you are saving you are negatively impacting the gaming experience of millions of your customers in a huge way.
Your refusal to pay for enough server capacity for your app and your game is a huge joke/gripe within the entire gaming community. Even my friends that don't play Destiny know about the issues.
Some huge gaming magazine and/or website is going to eviscerate you on this sooner rather than later and you will deserve every word and all the bad press and all the lost sales.
Hire another person to work on the app, rent some more server capacity, fire the person who handicapped the app in the first place.
I DARE you to reply to this Bungie.
Make this the NUMBER 1 POST in feedback! VOTE! COMMENT!
Destiny will never put the game entirely on dedicated servers or get rid of the micro-transactions because...money, lots of it.
But they could fix the app for A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY relative to their overall budget.
P.S.
In response to people who say that if you don't like the app then just don't use it and stop complaining I would like to point out AGAIN that Bungie chose to make the app essential to the game. Bungie chose to put fireteam matchmaking/LFG, clan communication and management, and gear management in the app instead of the game. They could have put those features in the game instead or put them in both but they chose to put them in just the app.
You can't choose to not use the app if you want to to anything that requires a clan or a fireteam, which is the majority of end game activities.
And yes, you can use third party apps to manage your gear, but even those apps don't always run smoothly and often go down completely because Bungie will "throttle the API due to heavy player volume", translation: Bungie does not support their app or api with enough server capacity.
There is no Bungie fan boy argument that can excuse Bungie consistently having to throttle their api due to a lack of server capacity.
It isnt just a once in a while thing, the app runs slowly or not at all for long periods of time almost every single day.
I will end the post by saying:
1. The app is a great idea but it needs to work consistently. Give it the server support it needs.
2. It would be nice if the app had more options and functionality. There should be more categories in LFG like separate categories for Leviathan raids and Dreaming City raids and sending invites should be easier. There should be more tools for clan management, many good suggestions have been made in other posts. The gear management section of the app is awful but at least you allow for the third party apps on that.
3. All of the features in the app should be in game as well. The app should be an optional second screen.
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Firstly, thank you for the feedback. [u]Really[/u]. It's important for us to gather all that we can so we can make the most informed decisions going forward. ==== So you've listed a few items here that I wanted to address because I think it's important that we have a good dialogue. [b]Regarding server maintenance. [/b] This is something that affects all things Destiny. This includes services that you might not consider a "game" service - like clans or fireteams. A lot of what we build is so intimately tied to the game that when game systems have to go offline, the service for the apps goes with it. It's super frustrating but sometimes we have to eat that - and we hate that it takes away from your experience. This, unfortunately, is unavoidable. But we should - and can - provide better 'offline' experiences. [b]Regarding Server Space[/b] This really isn't how our services work or how apps in general work, but what I think you're referring to is the lack of loading or slow loading. This could be on us, to be fair, but we have a mandate that all apps must be under a required size as to not require wi-fi to use or download. We run our pages through automation that reports slow loading or timeouts to engineers - but of course we do that's standard practice for the industry. [b]Regarding UI and UX[/b] Well, this one is on me. I'm constantly looking for the best ways to get users to interact with the services they want to use the most. We are currently taking a big crack at gear - to be released soon - that adds back some needed features and functionality, as well as adds more. [b]Regarding Bungie's Efforts and Time[/b] The Companion Team is a valued part of the company, but by no means is the big fish :) We are smaller than you think and have to handle more services than just the ones facing the users. Bungie never wants to have a bad user experience out there and turn away users, and at the end of the day, we have to make calls in order to ship products. But as I said at the top of this, we want to continue to iterate and make the experience better as well as work with 3rd Party Apps like Ishtar and DIM to get them the API's and Tools they need. ==== The Companion team is always working to make the experience better, in or out of the app.
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Bungie: *improves app* Community: wow, you'll spend resources fixing your shitty app but not your shitty game? Or Bungie: *ignores this post* Community: wow, you guys obviously don't care about your customers and you force people to rely on third party apps to get good results over your own app. Pick your poison.
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I don't like the app, and I don't use it. I used DIM for all my inventory/vendor needs. It does the job quite well. I've never liked using the app, and I think having to use ANY external service to find groups is ridiculous. ALL EVENTS should have matchmaking in game. It's a social game, allow us to be social FFS. I should need a phone or a computer to find a group, if I'm just playing on my console and would like to find a group to do the Nightfall, for example. That's been piss-poor since day one, and it's never changed.
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What’re you talking about bungie has something that monitors their service, is called a plunger
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Shame on you for expecting a company to make a quality product! We should all just keep throwing money at half ass shit and smiling like we've just been through a lobotomy/sodomy combo.
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yeah its not like bungie have pretty much the best API in any game to ever exist...noooo nonononoo the app is tragic. Mate shut up honstly there are so many alternatives BECAUSE of their great API go -blam!-in use one. Yes their API goes down sometimes, as EVERY game EVER does because maintenence exists, and crashes exist, do you think the rules of technology dont apply to Bungie because they are a big company? Fck off and get a brain before making a post.
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The app worked fine until the last update. Now half the time I try to use it, I get an error saying it can't find an account linked. It's quicker to fly to the tower, drop weapons in the vault, switch characters, fly back to the tower, and retrieve those weapons on another character than it is to try to get the app to work. All in the name of progress, so you can have a cute 3-D display of your inventory.
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All of you sicken me. The app is a god damn privilege and none of you need it to play the game. Its people like all of you who agree with this whining idiot that actually get bungie to make uneccessary changes to the game that just ruin it. If the apps not working don't use it. your not entitled to it you crybaby.
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Bungie me and the Chicken love this APP!
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[quote] I DARE you to reply to this Bungie. Make this the NUMBER 1 POST in feedback![/quote] No
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So instead of the GAME you got actually working like it should, you're complaining about a tiny app and saying that single thing alienates the entire player base? Sounds like a cry for attention more than anything...........
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there's an app? lol...that's the last thing this game needed... why are they wasting resources on this kind of crap when there are much MUCH bigger issues to be tackled? whoever allocated the resources for this should be bent in half and strangled to death on their own respective genitalia
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Okay now this is clearly entitlement tears
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DIM is way better and easier than the app anyway.
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Is this a real post? The app is amazing. So what if it was down? It's back up now! Just go to the tower and put things in and take things from the vault manually. We're lucky to have such an efficient app and should be grateful for it. Quit your whining. This really is one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen.
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Fireteam is down for maintenance. Great
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Yep switched to the vault app works much better than this trash
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Well said
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They won't respond but great post nonetheless
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u mean the companion?,I been usin DIM since I found it,yes companion stinx
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The humanity. Thank goodness you've survived this long.
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This App has always sucked. Plain and simple. Never works right. Most of the time the updates seem to fix one feature......break another. Wash, rinse, repeat.