1. It is...and it isn't. Destiny is firmly branded in the minds of its players....but BUNGIE refuses to accept that fact. Which is the source of most of the community's frustration with Bungie and the game. 2. Don't count on it. Part of the reason why Destiny has been as successful as it has----despite Bungie's systematic mismanagement----is because its largely had the field to itself. The only games that were even remotely trying to do what Destiny is are: Warframe, The Division, and Monster Hunter World. a. With all of these being 3rd person games, Bungie was always going to retain the FPS crowd. But the loot-based RPG players who make up the bulk of Destiny's PVE players were ALWAYS in play and up for grabs. Since they have always been frustrated with the shallow RPG experience that Destiny has always put forward. b. Warframe is by far the best competitor. But it FTP nature led it be a super-grindy, inaccessible time-sink. Requiring people to put in the kind of MMO-style play hours in order to progress...that is the opposite of the appeal of these MMO-lite game. The game has a dedicated following....but that following will always be limited. b. Monster Hunter World is a very good RPG...but has a gameplay loop that many people don't like. So that limits its appeal. c. Then the biggest wasted opportunity: The Division. The Division had the potential to eat Destiny's lunch as a loot-game. The problem was that Massive Entertainment was even more inexperienced than Bungie....and Ubisoft's shitty business practices at the time led the game to being pushed out the door a good YEAR before it was ready. By the time Massive dealt with their learning curve...and the game's QA problems....they had already permanently crippled the game. It became a good game...but too late to truly rival Destiny. 3. Anthem is being made by BioWare. They are EXPERTS at both making action games AND RPGs. So Bungie can't count on them to self-sabotage or have this massive (pun intended) learning curve. BioWare also has the advantage of 4 years of Bungie mistakes....and their own mistakes with Mass Effect: Andromeda to learn from. Having THOROUGHLY enjoyed my play-through of MEA when it came out....I could see even then the outlines of a great game within it. One that just didn't get enough time in development to realize and polish....and that EA quickly abandoned when the ME community took their frustration at not getting ME4 out on the game. I said to myself at the time, "If this game had been called ANYTHING other than 'Mass Effect' it would have been a success." Well...here we are. Not only has BioWare drawn heavily from the best parts of Mass Effect: Andromeda....they also borrowed the best parts of Warframe....Diablo 3....and then (with the flight and airborne combat mechanics) added their own uniqueness to the mixture. Bungie is staring down the barrel of what has the potential to be a great game. Despite its technical problems, I haven't felt this good about a pre-launch game since the Destiny 1 beta 5 years ago. BioWare and EA also know what they have...because in the pre-release marketing of Anthem, they are taking DEAD aim at the same "influencers" (streamers and content creators) that Bungie has relied upon to virally market Destiny. ....and all of them are liking what they see (so far) and are planning to incorporate the game into their channel's content. Unless BioWare makes some sort of huge mistake.....Bungie has a fight (for marketshare) on their hands. Don't kid yourself.

I’m not kidding myself here, what’s happening with anthem is what happened with both destiny games. I’ll elaborate. Prior to both the launch of D1 and D2, the community overhyped the shit out of the game. This led to massive community dissatisfaction with the games, sort of like with what happened to the last Jedi, hopes got to high and got the better of us. Almost everything I’ve seen about Anthem is about how good it’s gonna be, how much BioWare will have learned, how much EA will have learned not to push micro transactions, and how badly it’ll hurt destiny and bungie. All I can say is, no it won’t. Destiny has defined itself, both with the community and Bungie, as something that can always be [i]better[/i], and from the looks of it bungie is trying to do just that, make destiny better [i]constantly[/i]. Their issue comes to whether the community is ever consistent with what needs fixing or needs to be made better, information bungie needs to do that. Big surprise, we’re anything but organized or consistent about that crap, which negatively impacts the game. So part of the issue with destiny is us, as when making patches and fixes a developer relies on what the community tells them. With Anthem, it currently looks like EA and BioWare haven’t learned much, as I’ve seen issues that have been present in EA and BioWare products for a while now, over-the-top micro transactions, seasonal content, and the sacrificing of a decent story and deep lore for gameplay. Here’s a question, did you like The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker? [spoiler]the mods are gay[/spoiler]

Sorry, but wrong. 1. I'm a 50 year old man whose been gaming for over 40 years. I don't "overhype" anything. Because I never walk into a game expecting to get my "mind blown". I learned the danger of that back in 1981 when I went to see "The Empire Strikes Back"...and left the theater "disappointed" because I had expected the sequel to have the same EMOTIONAL effect on me that Star Wars had. But since you can't step in the same river twice....it didn't. Despite being one of the best Star Wars movies ever. The reality is that---if you're lucky----you'll have ONE "mind-blowing" experience per GENERATION. ...and for me, those experiences are movies. Not games. 2. Bioware has a game on their hands that has all the potential to be something special as Destiny did. But unlike Bungie, Bioware isn't learning-on-the-job....and isn't drunk on the success of Halo to the point that they are "uncoachable". Bungie has to keep FIXING Destiny because Bungie won't accept the reality of what they made...and keep BREAKING it. They keep breaking it because they wont' take the time to learn about the game they made....or learn about the people playing it. We've been SCREAMING at Bungie for going on 5 months now about how much we hate "enhancement cores"....going on a YEAR with how much we dislike the RNG progression under the Milestone system. ...and Bungie basically has ignored us. Whereas people just---almost casually----mentioned their wish for a social space in Anthem. That wish flew in the FACE of a MAJOR design choice by Bioware with regards to the role that Fort Tarsis would play.... ...and even before the game releases, BioWare changed the game to honor the community request. Unlike Bungie....BioWare knows EXACTLY what they've got. In fact, they in many ways sacrified Mass Effect: Andromeda to pour more resources into the development of Anthem. ....(and once you get passed the technical problems that plaqued last weeks VIP demo) you can see why they did it. As for monetization? That isn't going anywhere. Video games haven't seen a price increase from $60 in over a generation...whereas everything else in the economy has basically DOUBLED in price just due to inflation, in that same time period. That money has to come from somewhere. So you will either pay for it in MTX....monthly subscription fees....DLC expansions....or straight up at the register. You get to choose. But if you think they are going anywhere, you are being painfully naïve. Since more money is now being made by these practices than are from the sales of the base games....and these companies are not going to walk away from that money. ..and no one is going to lose money by trying to supply you an endless flow of content for a one time price of $60. The world doesn't work that way....and isnt' about to start.

I didn’t need to know your age but I guess that’s fine. It tells me you have experience and views based on that. But before I go on, I would like you to answer my question about windwaker. [spoiler]the mods are gay[/spoiler]

Never got into Zelda. Nintendo hit the market when I was in grad school.

I said a few years ago that Bungie’s inability to properly manage/harness the community would be ruinous. Then I started to see a pattern that indicated intent on Bungie’s side. The notion that Bungie has established itself as a game that can always be better is as false as the sense of security it induces. There’s a very big difference between a gamer and a user, and Bungie doesn’t see it, nor do they seem to understand that each one of us are both. They cannot rely on the gamer fiend to always win over the user’s experience. Nor can they rely on a heavily under-representative forum membership that is rarely capable of unanimity, and far too often contradicts itself over long periods. There’s really only one answer for them. Decoupling from activision was the precursor. Be interesting to see if they figure out the rest.