Destiny: A Shell of a Game

[DanielVT]

 

My Content 

 

Destiny never felt fully realized, I have felt that I was playing a shell of a game, and the "story" (which is a joke) was so broken up. We know absolutely SHIT about the universe. We know absolutely nothing about ANYTHING or the aliens we blindly shoot in the face over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, and it REALLY makes me super angry. The game is fun enough, and for whatever reason that's why I play it, but I can honestly say I've never been so disappointed with a game. If you want to be mad, read the following, and express your frustration below. (http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2hqmkb/how_destinys_content_completely_changed_over_the/)

 

 

Quoted Content

 

"This thread is a collection of posts and my thoughts that show how Destiny's development changed DRASTICALLY within its last year.

It is the reason why the story is lacking, the missions are repititive, and why there are grimoire cards. A lot of shady stuff went down during the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014.

Anyway, let's start off with what the Story was supposed to be like:

STORY: This reddit post from a deleted thread Here explains how Destiny's story was originally during E3 2013. Bungie.net user Diver2441 sums up all of this here:

(Key parts are BOLDED for the lazy)

So recently a Reddit thread came to light detailing what Destiny's narrative looked like in 2013, and it's very different from the ailing excuse for a story we're presented with today: the Traveler bringing the darkness, Crow, different progression through planets and even considerable cut areas. So it becomes apparent that between mid to late 2013 and launch, Bungie gutted the story. 

Now this is where it gets good, something else happened back in late 2013 before the story was gutted; Joe Staten, Bungie's former lead writer left. Some may think it coincidence, but I think not.

Now the Reddit thread (which has mysteriously disappeared) outlined a story sprawling across a considerably larger solar system, and 

including a number of characters and factions who never so much as appear in the full game. The prime example of this is Crow, the character/faction who was set out to expose the Traveler and Speaker for in fact bringing the darkness along with the Traveler, and not the Golden Age. A specific reference to Crow can be found in the above video at 1:01, where a mission would have you assist Crow in looting the Archive on venus for details on the Vex Gatelord (which is in fact a mission we end up doing in the main game, but Crow is clearly not a part of it).

 The Gatelord was said to contain a way to access a pre-Collapse AI construct who had the ability to expose the Traveler, and we can see this in the form of the inaccessible Bunker RAS2.

Even in the PvP, we see a reference to "faction wars" at 1:20 in the video, so 

it appears that justification and explanation for the different factions in the tower was cut as well.

Destiny's current half assed story starts to make a little more sense when we apply the context that the entire narrative was gutted less than a year before launch, and remade without Bungie's lead writer. Why Joe left, and why Bungie felt the need to completely gut the story of the game and cut huge areas is beyond me, but it's abundantly obvious that there's a lot more going on than meets the eye.

WHAT THE STORY WAS RE-WRITTEN INTO: Grimoire Cards. I'm currently trying to find the post where I discovered this Check Edit2 for Source, but basically back in February 2014, a man was hired to write all the Grimoire Cards. This was clearly the solution to trying to incorporate as much story as possible with what little story was actually in the game. This also is most likely the reason why there is no Grimoire UI in-game, because it was far too close to release to actually incorporate such a thing.

UNUSED LOCATIONS AND FEATURES:

Continuing from Diver2441's post, he mentions:

If we look at an 

article

 from 2013 and

 the reveal ViDoc

, it becomes very obvious that the game we have today is vastly different from what it was as little as around a year ago. 

For starters there are references to areas such as Old Chicago, the ghost fleet in the rings of Saturn, Charlemagne's Vault, and others that very clearly never made it into the full game, despite being fully made and playable around a year ago.

 Additionally, at 3:24 in the video above, we see an in game location in The Reef, and from 3:43 - 3:51 we see a pine forested area in game that never saw the light of day as well. Even in our own back yard of Old Russia in the retail games, we have locked off areas such as King's Watch, the Jovian Complex, and the Seraphim Vault, none of which are even mentioned in the retail game today.

CUT CONTENT BEING RESOLD AS DLC (POSSIBLY):

This video shows that the majority of the first two expansions of DLC is potentially already on the disc! Even in the beta, areas such as the King's Watch and Seripham Vault were accessible through glitches and yet are not available in the full game (Actually, these places aren't even mentioned in the DLC either!) More proof about these areas can be shown through the data dumps athttp://db.destinytracker.com

I want to note here that this doesn't mean the content is actually finished, but the idea that it could be is annoying and makes sense given the amount of content that had already been cut.

ANOTHER COINCIDENCE: Along with Bungie's Lead Writer departing for unknown reasons, we can't forget about Marty O'Donnell being fired too. We're all aware that the situation had to do with salary, but when Marty left, there was a clear bitterness between him and Bungie. Bungie had changed, and the lead writer had recognized it too. Was it Activision? Probably. But we're not being told the full story and I don't expect us to find out unfortunately.

WHAT BUNGIE MUST DO: There are a variety of options Bungie can do to fix these problems.

1. GIVE US THE HELD-BACK CONTENT FOR FREE: Unfortunately, this isn't very likely given Activision's greed and contracts already settled in to sell this content later. Some could also argue that it's a good thing this content is being held-back so that the game will stay alive for much longer, although I personally disagree given the lack of content available at launch.

2. GIVE US JUST THE STORY MISSIONS FOR FREE: This is a bit more reasonable and would solve the overall complaint with Destiny. We know there is a story being held back greatly, and we should not let them sell this to us as DLC.

3. GIVE US A SCHEDULE AND COMMUNICATE BETTER: This is my final plea to Bungie. The game is already out; we don't need to be left in the dark anymore. They need to tell us when content is being released and what we can expect so that we can voice our opinions better and prevent them from making more mistakes.

THOUGHTS? I know this thread is extremely long in details, but I think it needs to be seen. The Destiny today is not the Destiny we were promised or the one Bungie had even imagined. Locations, ship customization, a real story, and other deleted content were all things planned/created before last year and are all gone now. Something must be done.

(I will continue to edit this post as more info comes along).

EDIT1: Source to Diver2441's post: http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/70651356/0/0

EDIT2: More details about the Grimoire cards and the fact that all of this "cutting out content" was very recent.

Posted by Reddit user /u/mrdabu:

...Moreover, basic game elements were removed - in the developer commentary for the gameplay reveal the bungie developer (Mike Zak, environment artist) says that the hunter could have gained his weapons and armor through trade with other players or a kind of gambling (8:12). this is not implemented in the release version. The video was released on july 8, 2013 on youtube. So the decision to cut these features out was made in the last year of a more than 5 year development period which is very uncommon.

Perhaps the story is so lame and such a mystery because of all the changes during the last year.

Then he talks about the grimoire cards which contain the story. in the forum of destiny.bungie.org a guy called general battuta says that the grimoire story was „mostly written and edited in one crazy spiny very close to launch“. (sept 14, 2014) On feb 13, 2014, he posted a thread in which he shared his excitement of being hired as a writer for bungie in seattle. this was 7 months before release.

EDIT3: Reddit user /u/PopeOwned gives a little bit more info about Bungie's Lead Writer, Joe Staten, leaving:http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2hk88o/spoiler_redditor_provides_insight_as_to_why/ckthwqk

Edited September 29, 2014 by DanielVT

[Daigashadokuro]

 

I recommend you add a tl;dr...

[LouTheDroog]

Get good, Destiny.

[DanielVT]

 

I recommend you add a tl;dr...

Um, what?

[30 Year Old Boomer]

Meh I'm not interested in it. Seems to be overhyped and we all know Watch Dogs,TitanFall and Cod were medicore.And the raids trophies and the platnium ? Forget it. I'm excited more for Far Cry 4 in Novemer

[devourerplease]

All this post needs is a tin foil hat.

[Brawler]

 

I recommend you add a tl;dr...

 

This. I'll give it a shot.

 

TL;DR : "Game was too short, didn't have enough content."

[Light_Infinite_]

the game story and wasted lore was shit a fucking insult , the gameplay was good and fun , very addictive like borderlands 

[Venocide]

Jesus people, is reading that god damn hard!?

[Memnoch]

So ... Most people I have spoken to are pretty happy with Destiny as it's addictive and easy to play.

 

Buying an activision game, you should know you are in for a long ride, and destiny is expected to be over several years. Checking files and saying 'This should be free' doesn't mean anything - it just means they have started development on something.

 

The game, as most now, is based around MP, SP is just a minor annoyance for publishers.

 

I just don't see why you sound so surprised about it.

[Guest]

so people never played/bought games with stories that they could finish in a few hours yet is still very fun and addictive to play? i admit bungie should had stick with more ingame story rather than trying to do all this social media story crap because there is just sooo much left out ingame. hopefully..... there will be more events coming that are the stuffs they took out of the game. and hoppppefully the dlc stuffs will complete and fill the missing gaps. Destiny srsly can be so much more.

[DARKSCORPONOXR]

has the op never heard of ever changin concepts, ideas, game mechanics, changes in dev teams etc ect durin development?...

since when have gamers ever got the things they wanted or were expectin in a game once a final version is finished then released?... things change whether it's somethin small like character voices or big like story/gameplay changes...

these changes could come down to deadline issues of just needin to get the game out on schedule, budget constraints or beta testin changes made because it didn't work as intended...

the game will essentially still be the same game you were lookin forward to playin but if you are easily disappointed then you can do somethin about it- don't listen to the hype because hype is false and will kill a product straight out...

examples would be:

- any handheld product made by sony

- gt5/gt6

- cod/battlefield games

- mgs games with exception to mgs and mgs3

- any capcom game

- any gta game after gta3: san andreas

- any mk or ed boon dev'd game

- any bungie game

- rareware

- nintendo

Edited September 29, 2014 by DARKSCORPONOXR

[DanielVT]

People seem to think I'm crazy, but DESTINY ALWAYS FELT INCOMPLETE when I played it. Bungie does better games then this. Does anyone remember the E3 trailer in which they showed story segments that were NOWHERE in the game? Yes, I  expected more, it's Bungie for God's sake. There is not enough content to warrant 5 years of development. The fact that they scrapped huge amounts of an actual story ticks me off. The game should have been more complete and with more locations weapons etc. 

This. I'll give it a shot.

 

TL;DR : "Game was too short, didn't have enough content."

BTW, in reference to one of your previous comments, Bungie's contract with Activision is 4 Destiny games over 10 years. So yeah, I expecting much more from Destiny 2. 

Jesus people, is reading that god damn hard!?

Apparently!

Edited September 29, 2014 by DanielVT

[DaivRules]

 

Destiny never felt fully realized, I have felt that I was playing a shell of a game, and the "story" (which is a joke) was so broken up. We know absolutely SHIT about the universe. We know absolutely nothing about ANYTHING or the aliens we blindly shoot in the face over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, and it REALLY makes me super angry. The game is fun enough, and for whatever reason that's why I play it, but I can honestly say I've never been so disappointed with a game. If you want to be mad, read the following, and express your frustration below. (http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2hqmkb/how_destinys_content_completely_changed_over_the/)

 

"This thread is a collection of posts and my thoughts that show how Destiny's development changed DRASTICALLY within its last year.

 

 

Increasing your font size over you whole post is almost as bad as typing in call caps. I haven't purchased Destiny, but I am interested in it and am curious about what people are saying.

 

As soon as you increased your font size, you stopped a lot of people from reading the rest of your post. We're not 6 year olds with our first books, use a typical font size like everyone replied in.

 

As I said, I don't know any details about gameplay, but trying to read your gigantic (literally) post is difficult. Even if you have good points, and they look like they're organized well, it's hard to get worked up. You're referring to a bunch of stuff that's not in the game. Criticizing content that you saw that didn't make it in for any reason is fine, I guess, but where do you draw the line? The things you refer to may just be completely broken, no one knows for sure.

 

Your points about the missing back story is enough. It's more than enough to make a game utter garbage. Your devotion to this game comes across as borderline fanaticism and somewhat scary. It's just a game, write Bungie a letter (yes, an actual letter and mail it) and tell them directly. I'm more curious about what you will do if Bungie doesn't do any of your Three Things Bungie MUST do.

Edited September 29, 2014 by DaivRules

[ABBUemo]

I'm still getting it... All my friends are playing it so naturally i'm jealous and want like a kid who's watching his/her friend playing with a ball and wants it

[spacemonkey3k]

There should be more, much more, to this game out of the box. Adding in everything that should be there as dlc isn't sweetening the deal for me either. I'm going to attempt a plat, seeing as how I bought the game at full price, and then move on as I recommend everyone does. If we buy into this model of "intentionally hold back a majority of the game just for money and longevity's sake" then we encourage more game developers to use the same model. It is fun from a gameplay standpoint but EVERYTHING else about it just screams cashgrab.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Cthulu26

[A12]

If you were Bungie, why wouldn't you attempt the biggest ripoff in video game history?

Their sides must be out of the solar system by now...

[LianshiSaonji]

there's gonna be more than one game, stuff will eventually be explained, just like halo.

 

halo 1 wasn't a masterpiece, future halo's got good.

 

give it time like destiny.

 

yup.

[BeautifulTorment]

Couldn't you have given us your own opinion rather than copy and pasting someone else's thoughts from reddit in super huge and poorly formatted text?

 

Your points about the missing back story is enough. It's more than enough to make a game utter garbage. Your devotion to this game comes across as borderline fanaticism and somewhat scary. It's just a game, write Bungie a letter (yes, an actual letter and mail it) and tell them directly. I'm more curious about what you will do if Bungie doesn't do any of your Three Things Bungie MUST do.

 

They aren't even his points. It's just a paste from a highly upvoted thread on reddit.

Edited September 29, 2014 by BeautifulTorment

[DanielVT]

Increasing your font size over you whole post is almost as bad as typing in call caps. I haven't purchased Destiny, but I am interested in it and am curious about what people are saying.

 

As soon as you increased your font size, you stopped a lot of people from reading the rest of your post. We're not 6 year olds with our first books, use a typical font size like everyone replied in.

 

As I said, I don't know any details about gameplay, but trying to read your gigantic (literally) post is difficult. Even if you have good points, and they look like they're organized well, it's hard to get worked up. You're referring to a bunch of stuff that's not in the game. Criticizing content that you saw that didn't make it in for any reason is fine, I guess, but where do you draw the line? The things you refer to may just be completely broken, no one knows for sure.

 

Your points about the missing back story is enough. It's more than enough to make a game utter garbage. Your devotion to this game comes across as borderline fanaticism and somewhat scary. It's just a game, write Bungie a letter (yes, an actual letter and mail it) and tell them directly. I'm more curious about what you will do if Bungie doesn't do any of your Three Things Bungie MUST do.

The smaller type underlined are my thoughts, and the rest is someone else post copied directly from reddit. He has alot of solid info on how we got cheated out of a game. Also do not call me a fanatic or that my interest in this game is scary. We were promised an amazing narrative, and got absolute crap. We were showed parts of a story in E3 that did not take place. Have you even played Destiny? If so you would know that it has so much potential but it completely unrealized, almost as if it were torn apart into segments to be released later. It really sucks. You and most everyone else's lack of desire of a better product and promises actually lived up to is what is scary. If there aren't people like me, than the status quo will be acceptable in this industry. Also, I'm very dissapointed in peoples lack of an ability to read a sizable article. It's quite depressing really. Oh, and I have fanatical devotion because a game has been really dissapointing? That's funny. Go read review after review, and watch YouTube video after YouTube video of people really dissapointed and frustrated with the lack of content and shitty story etc.  

 

P.S. With all due respect, you are in no position to tell me I'm wrong or my disappointment is not valid as you yourself have not even played the game, nor were you apparently anticipating the game, or reading articles towards the release of Destiny of Bungie employees making promise after promise that turned out to be false!  Comments like yours seem to be a light form of trolling. Thanks.  

Couldn't you have given us your own opinion rather than copy and pasting someone else's thoughts from reddit in super huge and poorly formatted text?

 

 

They aren't even his points. It's just a paste from a highly upvoted thread on reddit.

I found this guys opinion to be super solid, and the facts that he compiled were worth sharing here. My opinion on this game has already been shared, I love the universe, and enjoy the game, but it also greatly frustrates me, and my opinion is the majority might I add. Also big name sites like IGN and GameInformer, and Kotaku have shared the same article. Go tell them that they are wrong and should have their own opinion. I also HIGHLY disagree that the text is badly formatted. I found the article to be clear and concise. I didn't know people were afraid to read something that is longer than 30 sec. Sheesh!

Edited September 29, 2014 by DanielVT

[Nagflar]

I didn't know people were afraid to read something that is longer than 30 sec. Sheesh!

 

I didn't know we measured text in time, either. Sheesh, I must really be falling behind .

[Carville87]

The lead writer leaving was probably a sign but bungie didn't become a bad developer overnight honestly I think that activision are to blame here they are a company that only cares about money. They saw destiny as an opportunity to make money by milking fans of their money with paid dlc and selling a game on bungies legacy

[Xxleonardo97xX]

Didn't get hyped for Destiny, didn't buy Destiny:

 

[BeautifulTorment]

It was certainly formatted nicely on reddit, but whatever you did to it here is just raunchy. People aren't afraid to read big things, so long as it doesn't hurt our eyes (like what you've done to it after pasting it).

[REDSHIRT64]

I think Destiny is a great game! It lived up to its height for me and Bungie has released new content every week since launch. I have gotten more than my 60 bucks worth. Hype is not supposed to appeal to everyone, so idk why people get so butt hurt about it. Gamer expectations these days are ridiculous anymore. If the genre appeals to you then hype matters. People dump on COD every year yet it outsells every game with the exception of a rockstar game releasing and I love COD games. People are getting all hyped up about Kingdom Hearts 3 right? Well that genre does not appeal to me so the hype is irrelevant for me but that doesn't mean I'm going to waste the time post negative reviews about being over hyped and a disappointment. For every bad review of a game there is a good one. To each their own. I also have no problem with the cutting n pasting of articles but it was tough on the eyes to read bud lol. Anyway as always good post to spark a conversation.