This is my thought process on what Destiny’s story is, what role you will play as a player, and why it will be that way. I’ve tried to keep it somewhat organized and flowing for anyone brave enough to go through it. It’s a series of questions I was asking myself, followed by my attempted answers and reasoning. I’d love to get the ball rolling on this topic, as I haven’t heard much about it on here. So here goes: [b]Are we all variations of the same hero?[/b] Much like Reach where you were Noble 6, are we all one 'chosen' Guardian? The PS4 trailer said that it was our mission as Guardian to solve the problems facing humanity. So it would be reasonable to think this, and I probably would if it weren't for the fact they explicitly said, "[i]millions of heroes[/i]" at the GDC. Also, it would be strange to see other people in the world and know that they are [i]also[/i] 'the chosen one'. [b]No, we are all unique,[/b] so: [b]Are we all a different Guardian?[/b] This is the most realistic thing to expect in Destiny. Every human-controlled player is a Guardian. The [i]only[/i] Guardians are human controlled. We each are a part of the 'army' of Guardians attempting to defend the human race from extinction. There may be one or two Guardians which are CPU controlled, but only for dialogue purposes. However there wont be any AI, marine-esque, foot soldiers by your side; those positions will be filled by [i]real people[/i], that's the magic of this game. It would make sense to have us all making up the force that is the main protagonist of the game. [b]The player base as a whole makes up all of the Guardians[/b] We as a community are to Destiny as the Master Chief is to Halo. This leads me to ask: [b]How does the story progress?[/b] Is there a ‘main quest’ that we all complete? This is the standard –[i]but[/i] – if every character is completing the same major missions and objectives it leads us back to the first question. By having everyone complete the same set of major quests each player’s story would be the same. We still will share very similar experiences, battles, dungeons, etc. but not to the heroic, one man army, extent we did with the Master Chief. We rather are working towards a common goal. This would support the co-operative environment that Bungie has said they want. Bungie has stated that the world of Destiny will be evolving, and even they do not know what could happen. They’ve also said during the GDC that they aren’t making the standard 8-10 hour FPS game. This makes me believe that [b]the main story-arc is not determined by what you do alone, but by what we as a community do as a whole[/b]. The story isn’t the ‘pipe’ that you follow in normal shooters, but an organic tale evolving to how we play. So: [b]How is the story told?[/b] Staten said during the GDC that they (Bungie) are [i]cinematic[/i] based storytellers. It’s fairly obvious that the main points will therefore be told through cinematics. The missions which we can all immediately take part in, and watch the cinematics, will be designed to explain to us the world we are in. The story telling that is being done is not focused on the current battles and individual triumphs, but the Destiny universe as a whole. To compare to Halo, the cut-scenes that we can expect will be similar to those [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALT7rhmUXmc&t=0m7s]of our discovery of the flood[/url]. [b]The cut-scenes will be more focused on the moments of awe, wonder, and discovery[/b], as opposed to the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_HxlekWWN0&t=0m25s]one man army[/url] cinematics. Still: [b]What about the main storyline?[/b] This is where I expect Destiny will really set itself apart from other games. Watch and listen carefully to the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwOUi4JDC4o&t=0m58s]ViDoc from 0:57-1:18[/url]. This is the best hint we have of how the main story-arc will work, and supports my previous claim of an evolving world based off of what we do. Notable screens are: 0:59 – The notification ‘New Chapter on Venus’ insinuates that there will be [b]continuously added missions[/b]. 1:07 – The text ‘Venus is awesome tonight! Meet u there?’ implies that [b]certain locations will be of focus at certain times[/b]. 1:15 – The notification ‘Get in the game and help us take our worlds back from our enemies’ supports the idea that the [b]main storyline is a community effort, decided by our actions[/b]. Notable quotes: “Really make a conscious effort to build an experience which is going to be meaningful for people” – Taking part in the main missions which are added will be important to people. [b]We have an impact on our overall success or failure[/b]. “How do you keep a player going for 50 or 100 hours over some number of months” – Further implying that [b]new, important, missions are added[/b]. All of these support my previous claims. So finally: [b]What’s the TL;DR?[/b] - We are each our own person, each a unique Guardian. - Every Guardian is human controlled, the Guardians are the players. - The only set in stone quest-line will be to help us understand the Destiny universe, and answer questions. - There will be no mission which has you complete a legendary task which massively influences the main story-arc. - The Guardians are the protectors of humanity, we as a community are shaping Destiny’s story together. - The main story-arc is decided day-to-day based off of what we as a community achieve in previous missions.