[quote]"I think that the Ghost is a really great metaphor for Destiny in this way where, I don't know that we, as Bungie, understood the type of game that Destiny could be," Smith said. "In the same way, I feel like a bunch of the early writing for the Ghost, in vanilla, we didn't understand what the character of the Ghost could be. And because we didn't understand that character so well, the words don't always ring super well and the performance didn't have the writing that it needed either." -Luke Smith[/quote] [quote]"To think that somehow, before Destiny had shipped, we had some ten-year plan written down somewhere? It’s comical. We allowed the narrative to get constructed that Bungie is just a corporate entity and not a bunch of humans, a collection of people who are just trying to make a really great game." -Urk[/quote] Greetings fellow Guardians, So the release of The Taken King has been contentious (to put things mildly). This expansion represents such a monumental shift in the way this game functions as it tries to fix what Bungie have admitted was a product they weren't completely happy with on it's release in September 2014. I'm not posting this to debate whether or not TTK is a success in redefining this game, but rather to explore how we got here and these two quotes are quite telling. I said a couple months ago that Bungie wouldn't need hindsight if they used a little foresight and what we have here are two high ranking team members at Bungie telling us that they really didn't plan out this game very well. Starting with Urk, I was really surprised to hear him say that. Of course you probably didn't know exactly what would happen over the life of this game, but there's no way you go into a potentially billion dollar franchise without a road map of what you'd like it to be. Like a movie director laying out storyboards, there had to be an overall framework for what they intended Destiny to be. Sure there will be detours and branching roads along the way, but (even if they really did scrap everything in the last year) the overall direction would have to be in place. Then we have another gem from poor Luke. At this point it is almost painful to have to see Luke put out in front of the press because he is not a spokesperson and for Bungie to repeatedly put him in these situations is kind of sad. Unfortunate as it is that they do, here we are with him telling us they didn't understand the game they were making. What's maddening about that is WE KNEW what this game could and should be, so how can they possibly have not understood? Their steadfast refusal to think things through is almost pathological at this point. Designed a shared world game that would require sever based gameplay... [b]Didn't consider that might require an investment in dedicated servers.[/b] Designed a SHARED WORLD game that would require servers so that we could see random people on patrol and take part in public events together... [b]Didn't build in any social tools other than the ability to dance, point and wave to each other, thus almost completely invalidating the shared open world.[/b] Designed a PvP arena that let us use the weapons and armor we found out in the world... [b]Freaked out and started nerfing EVERYTHING when they realized that meant more powerful weapons were more powerful.[/b] Designed endgame activities that required they be run in teams of 3 or 6... [b]Didn't implement anyway to group for those activities.[/b] Made a game in which we'd constantly be finding things out in the world... [b]Forgot we'd need places to store them.[/b] Now we head into year 2 and the hope is that these things are behind us and they've learned from their mistakes, but there are still some troubling gaffes that suggest that might not be the case. As much as TTK has gotten right, the Court of Oryx is a major disappointment. For an event that got its own live stream preview, it just doesn't seem like they thought it out at all. Watching the reveal, I think a lot of us questioned not only the decision to limit rewards to the person using a rune, but the fact that we'd have to repeatedly run the lower levels to be able to run the higher ones didn't seem like something most would want to keep doing and it looks like they don't. CoO has been virtually dead since launch. People went in, charged up and did their Antiquated and didn't go back. I've never seen more than 4 people running it and the lengths people are having to go through to run it are ridiculous with fireteams going in, splitting and inviting in more to try to get a big enough group to face a tier 3 boss. What's exasperating is that it's one more thing that could be a thriving experience if there were just some form of in-game LFG system (hosted lobbies Bungie, seriously). Then we have the strike quitters. I can't understand how they couldn't see this coming when they killed off the weekly. It's literally the first thought that went through my head when they announced that. When there was a weekly, the strike was the strike and so people had to run it. When they made it so any strike gave the rewards, it opened up the door for people to run what they wanted to get their marks and of course that meant quitting out of the ones they didn't like. It was the most obvious outcome for a design decision ever, so did they not see it coming or just not care? Finally I'll throw in the apology that Tyson Green had to offer up in the Weekly Update to fans who were pissed off that they were searching for ways unlock the Sleeper Simulant quest.. only for it to be time-locked. There is so much that has been improved with the game since launch, but it just seems time and again that Bungie are their own worst enemies by not considering how design decisions will play out a week, a month, a year down the road. 4 releases, 4 economies anyone? So please Bungie, if you really have no 10 year plan, please hire someone to draft one because this game deserves it and these fans deserve it. Just close your eyes and picture it in your mind. If you see it, you can get there... [spoiler] Still banned. Ninjas are still a joke. Peace.[/spoiler]