Bungie, can you add a "Party up" feature in Matchmaking activities like in the old Halo days?
Let me say first and foremost, I never played during the old Halo days (too young back then). But even I understand how important and successful social features are and how they can massively improve aspects like matchmaking times or finding new friends in a game.
Linked above, you will find one of TheActMans most recent videos regarding Halo and how it has lost its successful identity. While the video is about Halo in the first place, it also mentions several social features that were crucial for the success of Halo back in the 2000s.
The feature I am talking about with title and post, is a "Party Up" feature (mentioned at this [url=https://youtu.be/IgdzsekAo5s?t=1059]bookmark[/url]). Said feature allows players, that got thrown in a lobby together by the matchmaking, to optionally join up in a group for the next match to stay together. Let us imagine for a moment Destiny 2 would have such a system
You had a good match with a well working team in the crucible? You can party up for the next match together. A well working strike team with fun in it? You can party up for the next one too. A fun Gambit match? Party up! Seasonal activity or Well Activity in the Throne World with players you want to stick with? Party up with a single button press.
You would be surprised how much it would contribute to your social and gameplay experience. Partying up usually goes hand in hand with people considering to talk via voice chat or use the text chat we have now ingame. Joining matchmaking as a group gradually reduces your matchmaking time because [b]the system needs to find less players[/b] for a full go.
Other games have such features too. One of the biggest examples I can name from my own experience is Overwatch 1 and 2.
I have been asking for such a feature earlier on the forums here and most people were like "just go on Bungie.net/Discord/etc. to find people". But why take the longer way when I have the people right in the match I am playing right now? Why have to do the extra work of going to a website or 3rd party app to find people, when you could propose "to team up" your fellow players [b]in the very activity you are playing at that moment[/b]? With a single button press of your keyboard/controller?
Bungie says for a reason "Destiny is played best with friends". And I can confirm that Destiny 1 was my most fun time in my gaming life because of all the social bonds I had with other players across my country or even the world. Back then I had roughly 60 people playing Destiny 1 in my friendlist every day.
After the "wacky" Destiny 2 launch in 2017 that number shank... I mean shrank fundamentally. Today I am playing Destiny 2 mostly alone and only sometimes with friends when they are up for it. We have many matchmaking activities but not enough social features to encourage to interact with each other.
And that is a shame, because that is what made Destiny 1 so special.
That sounds like a fun idea. Maybe put a "Party Up" button at the end-of-round screen people can click on if they didn't already peace out before the timer ended.