Thanks Paul! Much love for the most exciting time in the current season...
LOL
Still waiting for a response to my email to Bungiestore-support sent in July - will keep you updated but i'd really not advise holding your breath!
I kinda predicted this season would be here but it's not a great decision for Bungie to have made - nothing really happening for at least a month and then an expansion within a season for some...
We'll have moments of Triumph at some point but that'll be a grind-fest with no unique activity.
Great articles on the power grind and the dungeons.
I agree that the dungeon piece is kind of confusing unless you think of it as a "bundle" that comes with a discount. I don't think not including the dungeon in the base package is all that bad - it's probably meant for casual players who don't raid or do dungeons anyway. There is no FOMO if you never engage in those activities anyway. Sidebar: It wouldn't surprise me to see something similar for Trials or Iron Banner.
I think the larger issue - covered in your article on whether you can recommend D2 to someone new - is that the game is being broken down into its constituent parts and sold separately (or not sold for Free-to-Play "F2P" players).
The larger issue is really 2 issues: monetizing the game as much as possible, and then balancing that with content vaulting.
From narrative perspective, the game is a mess right now:
1. Shaw Han's intro tells you nothing really about the story. It just sets up the world.
2. Forsaken's story happens chronologically before the Crow is in the HELM and in any seasonal content. So it may be jarring to see Uldren in the Spider's Lair on free roam when he is apparently leading his Scorn posse to the Watch Tower.
3. Shadowkeep's story was completed in Season of the Worthy and Season of Arrivals... which are NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO PLAY. As a stand-alone, it's not that great.
4. Beyond Light's story is basically told in the Beyond Light Campaign and then the Quests with the Stranger, and then is promptly shelfed in favour of the Year 4 Seasonal Stories Archs.
AND... if you don't own the campaigns, you probably cannot tell the game even has a story. In fact, I don't even known if you can go to the Tangled Shore, Dreaming City, Moon (Luna) or Europa without them.
It just makes me wonder what the point of having a story in this game is anymore. And I don't even know how a new player would untangle that.
Then we come to content vaulting - which is still sh!tty to say the least. Not just because people paid hundreds of dollars for the content that they can no longer play for "reasons", but because you lose half the story over who anyone is.
Ana Bray? Osiris? Uldren? Mara Sov? Just a few people that now have no introduction at all and their parts in the game are predicated on their back-stories... which we no longer have once Forsaken is gone in a few months.
So... how to recommend this game to people?
1. I just say that it's free to try the core gameplay experience - strikes, crucible, gambit, and the Cosmodrome and Vault of Glass.
2. The core experience is generally pretty fun - barring the f**king server issues I am having all weekend this weekend. Thanks, Bungie.
3. The gear grind is secondary to the fun.
4. You can earn just about all the gear you need, including most useful exotics from the Monument to Lost Light.
5. There is no power requirement for all of the above. You can walk in a day 1 and do whatever you want (except of course Vault of Glass).
6. Power gains and gear gains are really easy at first. The diminishing returns only come later ... much later.
I put 1100 hours into it because for like 90% of that, I had fun. There is no game like it.
Does Destiny 2 have a future? Probably. I won't be buying Witch Queen or any more seasons, but I'm not uninstalling the game either.
Thanks Paul! Much love for the most exciting time in the current season...
LOL
Still waiting for a response to my email to Bungiestore-support sent in July - will keep you updated but i'd really not advise holding your breath!
I kinda predicted this season would be here but it's not a great decision for Bungie to have made - nothing really happening for at least a month and then an expansion within a season for some...
We'll have moments of Triumph at some point but that'll be a grind-fest with no unique activity.
Just comes across as lazy i guess...
Laters!
Great articles on the power grind and the dungeons.
I agree that the dungeon piece is kind of confusing unless you think of it as a "bundle" that comes with a discount. I don't think not including the dungeon in the base package is all that bad - it's probably meant for casual players who don't raid or do dungeons anyway. There is no FOMO if you never engage in those activities anyway. Sidebar: It wouldn't surprise me to see something similar for Trials or Iron Banner.
I think the larger issue - covered in your article on whether you can recommend D2 to someone new - is that the game is being broken down into its constituent parts and sold separately (or not sold for Free-to-Play "F2P" players).
The larger issue is really 2 issues: monetizing the game as much as possible, and then balancing that with content vaulting.
From narrative perspective, the game is a mess right now:
1. Shaw Han's intro tells you nothing really about the story. It just sets up the world.
2. Forsaken's story happens chronologically before the Crow is in the HELM and in any seasonal content. So it may be jarring to see Uldren in the Spider's Lair on free roam when he is apparently leading his Scorn posse to the Watch Tower.
3. Shadowkeep's story was completed in Season of the Worthy and Season of Arrivals... which are NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO PLAY. As a stand-alone, it's not that great.
4. Beyond Light's story is basically told in the Beyond Light Campaign and then the Quests with the Stranger, and then is promptly shelfed in favour of the Year 4 Seasonal Stories Archs.
AND... if you don't own the campaigns, you probably cannot tell the game even has a story. In fact, I don't even known if you can go to the Tangled Shore, Dreaming City, Moon (Luna) or Europa without them.
It just makes me wonder what the point of having a story in this game is anymore. And I don't even know how a new player would untangle that.
Then we come to content vaulting - which is still sh!tty to say the least. Not just because people paid hundreds of dollars for the content that they can no longer play for "reasons", but because you lose half the story over who anyone is.
Ana Bray? Osiris? Uldren? Mara Sov? Just a few people that now have no introduction at all and their parts in the game are predicated on their back-stories... which we no longer have once Forsaken is gone in a few months.
So... how to recommend this game to people?
1. I just say that it's free to try the core gameplay experience - strikes, crucible, gambit, and the Cosmodrome and Vault of Glass.
2. The core experience is generally pretty fun - barring the f**king server issues I am having all weekend this weekend. Thanks, Bungie.
3. The gear grind is secondary to the fun.
4. You can earn just about all the gear you need, including most useful exotics from the Monument to Lost Light.
5. There is no power requirement for all of the above. You can walk in a day 1 and do whatever you want (except of course Vault of Glass).
6. Power gains and gear gains are really easy at first. The diminishing returns only come later ... much later.
I put 1100 hours into it because for like 90% of that, I had fun. There is no game like it.
Does Destiny 2 have a future? Probably. I won't be buying Witch Queen or any more seasons, but I'm not uninstalling the game either.
Peace out, Guardians. :)
Thanks for round up, Paul!