I get the feeling that hey are still hiding a lot from us. There's a lot they still don't want us to see, so I feel like this ad had limited story and setting as to not give anything away. This ad wasn't made for deep thought; it was made to be like "OMG, that hunter just blew the -blam- out of those cabals."

No it wasn't made for deep thought, but you're missing the point that this ad wasn't made with much thought at all. There's a difference between something not needing to be deep and being willfully ignorant of what needs to be sold. How the hell is the general public supposed to even know which is the hunter, which is the cabal? Okay that doesn't even matter, forget it: how are gamers that haven't already looked into Destiny supposed to know that the story is being told on the last city on earth or that it's a mythic sf story taking place in our solar system at all? These aren't "deep thoughts," they're the absolute basics of the pitch. Put yourself in someone else's shoes, someone that doesn't know anything about the PoD ViDoc, the PS4 or GDC videos and hasn't seen the concept art. It ends up looking generic. Destiny has plenty to differentiate itself from a Star Wars clone setting or any SF shooter game. what they showed didn't convey that to people who don't already know about Destiny. That's why it's [i]okay[/i], but not great or even that good; they at least know Bungie is making another SF shooter, in any case, but that's about it.

Idiot

Does it make it any easier to be a loyal Bungie fanboy and still be objective about this trailer knowing that Bungie didn't produce this and that it actually was Activision, Favreau & 72andSunny calling the shots? What about knowing that we'll actually get a good trailer at E3? Sorry you got mad!

I called you idiot because the moon has craters. It's not just flat.

Sorry, I must have missed the part in the trailer where the moon didn't look boring and looked even close to being as interesting as this concept art. Idiot.

With a teaser like this, you have to choose what you're focusing on. They decided to focus on the Guardians, the heroes, of the story. I imagine there will be a separate trailer (probably not until E3, though) focusing on the places we will explore, but they needed to give us the main characters first.

You hit it on the head! They had to choose a specific focus for this teaser trailer and I thought that they did a terrific job in stirring up interest and hype for E3 and their official gameplay reveal at the Playstation conference.

Agreed! I think this was exactly what they needed to expand their audience for the next couple months of reveals/activities

Unfortunately I have to agree. They missed the mark a bit with this. I didn't feel the awe and excitement that so many of the old Halo trailers were able to instill.

Yeah. Don't get me wrong, the CG models, animation and production values were top notch, it's more a fail on the part of art direction for this ad IMO. The Kipling reference had me stoked for something that felt more like an adventure. But the moon was wide open, flat, we couldn't even see the Traveler in the shot of Earth, and it was confusing as to whether there was supposed to be wind or an atmosphere on its surface. No evidence of interesting changes on it other than a few glimpses at a moon base in the background, where was the broken up crust from the Ocean of Storms, or the Hellmouth? Mars was better, but still we see mostly wide open area with little suggestion of a distinctly human presence on the planet in decay. And the VO/live action parts barely seemed to be set in a futuristic setting at all unless you already know what the stuff outside the window is supposed to be. They just didn't really sell the sizzle or even a bite of quality steak here. I know rabid Bungie fans might be excited for anything they show, but as a whole this just didn't do what they've shown us in Pathways out of Darkness, the GDC talk or even the PS4 announcement video justice.

DeeJ acknowledged this ad is only supposed to whet our appetites. For people who've been following Destiny since reveal, this [i]was[/i] weak on background art and lore. But I don't think that was the purpose of this ad. This is one of those action-packed ads that is supposed to make people who've never heard of Destiny say "That looks -blam!-ing awesome, let's go check that out!" Bungie is only now casting the fishing net into the wider sea to attract more than just us, your so-called "rabid fans". The initial hook to the wider audience needs to be simple, cool, and invite them to learn more. We of the loyal Seventh Column don't need that hook, so of course we are not going to appreciate this as much, or at least in the same way, as someone who's never heard of Destiny before. Art, lore, and technical aspects of Bungie games is often reserved for ViDocs and later advertising anyway. We're early in the marketing cycle for more advanced stuff. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFzOgI4y0zQ]Halo 3's "Starry Night" ad[/url], the first trailer after the Halo 3 reveal, was very similar to what we just saw. It's action heavy, but also a little thought provoking; it was watercooler stuff. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX5Kh1f5ksY]The lore and art heavy "Believe" campaign[/url] didn't come out till later. Reach's campaign was more mixed up, probably due to the public beta; they had to show more gameplay earlier in the campaign, but they doubled back for more artistic and story aspects during the "Remember Reach" campaign. So I won't be too disappointed with what we have now. It's a promise of greater things to come.

For me it comes down to the fact that I know what kind of emotion Bungie is capable of evoking with these kinds of trailers. The "Believe" videos - particularly the one with the models - and the Halo 3 tv-spot are the ones I am primarily thinking of. I understand that it's probably difficult to create a trailer that is interesting and complex when very little is publicly known about the game and they aren't quite ready to reveal more information, however this calls into question why they would attempt something like this when they are so limited. Those Halo trailers also had the benefit of a wealth of experience and knowledge on the part of the fanbase to appreciate the context, yet it still seems like there has to have been a way to work within their constraints and also give a taste of this wonderful universe they are cooking up. In the end this trailer felt generic; as much as I wanted to be pulled into the universe I simply wasn't very interested. Some other people feel this way and I find myself agreeing.

Agreed, Bungie are great storytellers but they had next to nothing to do with this ad except for making the concept art and game assets that the creative for the ad was based on. It's Favreau, 72andSunny, and Activision for deciding to bring them in to produce it. Hell, we only have Gus narrating because Favreau worked with him on Revolution. Digital Domain just handled the CG/animation but not the art direction; that was the ad agency. DD did well with the concept they had to work with though IMO. Let's face it, if Bungie somehow had the means to produce these ads themselves in-house somehow they'd be winning advertising awards. Because devs' publishers end up outsourcing the work we get okay but not great stuff like this. Especially for new IP's. I feel like Activision stuck with 72 and Sunny just because of the CoD: Ghosts work, but they should've gone with someone that understood what they were selling.

I was not aware of that, thank you. That certainly adds some context to the whole situation.

IMO, the art directors and people making these commercials typically talk down to gamers compared to ads that run promoting even TV shows, and looking at 72&S's work they're definitely no exception. They think we're all mooks. I suppose we should be used to it by now. Just had higher hopes for Destiny I guess.