Bungie has a Destiny sized problem guys. With the launch of the “Crimson Day” event, it’s has become readily apparent that Bungie has very little left in the tank of their shared world shooter before the launch of Destiny 2 in the Fall. Destiny‘s legacy has become about as polarized as an issue can be in the gaming community, but with the beginning of this new event and other massive issues such as a lack of new content that was supposed to justify microtransactions and the complete failure of a stable multiplayer component. All we can do is wait for the supposed next massive DLC and then the launch of the new title.
This list below are several things Bungie has to do if they want to bring back a jaded and spurned community to Destiny 2.
Plot out a series of content beyond just DLC
The main issue of what we have with Destiny is not that the content is bad by any means, it’s that there is nowhere near enough of it. Looking at the amount of content dropped between the game’s launch in 2014 and now and we have 2 pieces of major DLC and a full blown expansion reworking the game. This is not enough for a game that is meant to be played at least once every day or two and leads to a sizable amount of the community leaving and coming back when new PvE content is available. This the same problem that Blizzard has with World of Warcraft and Diablo but they have learned that paid content is not something that can be done over a weekend. Bungie needs to learn that if you want to have a vast game with RPG elements fueling your core gameplay, you have to release content that is comparable to the scope of your game and able to keep up with your users.
Do not treat semi-regular or special playlist multiplayer events as new content
Ok, I get it, Iron Banner is supposed to be the hardcore mode of PvP and meant for the best players but I do not understand how instead of treating this as a reoccurring event in the game it is treated as if it is brand new content every time it comes through. The same applies to the most recent playlist added to the Crucible, Crimson Day, which is just 2v2 with a special buff if your teammate dies. These are not new pieces of compelling content by secondary things that we play for a weekend, say “That was fun” and then go back to the core game. Treating these events like they are game changing, brand new content meant to keep us playing only exposes shortcomings in the game itself and makes players wonder “Why isn’t there an option to play Iron Banner rules all the time?”
Do not release weapons in special playlists that fully alter the gameplay of PvP
To the new players of Destiny, I give you this migraine inducing weapon given out in early Iron Banners known as Felwinter’s Lie:
Now, this gun right here is the reason that the meta of PvP shifted towards having shotguns that were long range, one hitter quitter with a slow rate of fire because it was for a long time the only one of its kind and had no counterplay in close range. This is the grandfather of the Matador and Party Crasher +1 and it wouldn’t have been an issue if not for 2 things. First off this gun with optimal range stats was only available through drops in the first Iron Banner events and much like no one buying Gjallarhorn from Xur in the first week of playing, no one knew early on the power it would hold. Now this wouldn’t be much of an issue but as we all know with what happens with an RNG loot system, there were plenty of players out there exploiting the fact that they had the only shotgun in the game that had that kind of a kill range. This brings us to our second problem, the versions being offered for sale and drops in later Iron Banners have nerfed versions without the perk sets needed to be competitive with the earlier ones without the earlier ones receiving any sort of balancing or nerfing to return it to a fair state. It literally got to the point where the only counterplay available to this gun was gut it out and leave the lobby at the end of the game.
Be transparent to the community about issues
Popular YouTuber and Destiny commentator Rick Kackis has made an assortment of videos on the other major issues in Destiny such as lag, more lag and a lack of respect and transparency between Bungie and the players. Unlike Blizzard’s blue notes and posts, Bungie is very quick to simply post information and then stay quiet on it for months at a time. They also do things that are unheard of in PvP modes such as change the matchmaking algorithm to prioritize skill over a connection, not tell the community they did this and then stay quiet when the community outcry shows that they made a mistake. Doing this change ruined the PvP experience because since Destiny does not have dedicated servers, it increased the level of lag and host advantage in games to where Destiny’s PvP has become a joke and will never get consideration as high level. Another point is Bungie said they were buffing Auto Rifles (the most underused gun in the game) by a flat 4% damage increase but then said 3 weeks later it was a typo and that they were getting a 0.04% buff which for you math wiz’s out there does absolutely nothing to the statistical power of the gun (it is so small it gets rounded down to the original stat). Now, Bungie’s response to this, instead of saying they made a mistake, was to claim it was a typo and the community pushed a mistake. If that’s what happened, why did they allow it to go on for 3 weeks before correcting it? They didn’t because they knew that the positive information going out helped push numbers back into PvP and the game and created some goodwill but then when they told us it wasn’t coming, this was them essentially saying we are so stupid we cannot see what actually is going on.
I feel that is a statement I can close on. We do know what’s going on Bungie, you control the narrative here and we can see right through when you try to hide a mistake instead of owning up to it. We are the players that made your first not-Halo game in a decade be successful and we are the ones that determine whether it gets a lifespan outside of the launch windows. The sad part of all of this is that Bungie used to be amazing with their fans and I know they are not that heavily influenced by Activision. So, just as a reminder Bungie, be honest with us, own up when you make a mistake and don’t try to hide when we ask you the hard questions. Be honest and candid with your responses and surprisingly enough, even if your answer is “I don’t know” or ” We are trying to fix our mistake”, if you actually mean it and try to follow up with doing us right then you would be amazed at what we will do to make sure your game is a success.
