Yo, I really don't want to poop on your face hawkian (because I like you) but goddamn, I don't understand why you're so defensive about everything in this thread.
I shouldn't have to make this post...
You shouldn't be making this post I agree. Destiny
is a financial success, but that is on the strength of the marketing campaign. It was a success long before anyone actually got to play it. Furthermore something being a financial success does not mean it's good, nor does it guarantee any kind of longevity, people pick up and drop games like bricks all of the time. Destiny does need urgent help because an overwhelming majority the people that have invested real hours are getting tired of playing the game. They're tired of chasing a carrot you can't catch and grinding for a carrot you can only eat slowly piecemeal style. And you can't have a succesful always online multiplayer game without people playing. I will need more clarification on the "core gameplay loop" statement. What is addictive about being frustrated to the point of breaking? Grinding for marks, repeating the same bounties? It's repetitive, not addicting. The core gameplay loop is badly thought out imo, it's filled with interruptions, dead space in the form of loading and travel time, and a general sense of I'll do this because it's what Bungie wants me to do. To the point where if I do something I personally enjoy too much Bungie will pull the plug on the little rewards I do receive to make me go do something I enjoy less.
I've played with you, I enjoyed it, Because I enjoyed talking with you and xinfamous. I hated every second of gameplay we were doing, jumping off the cliff shooting dudes and repeating. It was however the most efficient strategy of receiving extra drops, since I was maxed out on vanguard and crucible tokens at the time. Drops that were at that point in time crucial to my further progress in the game. That drop never came, what happened instead is that I banged my head into a wall repeating the same segments of gameplay ad infinitum in the hopes of things changing. I eventually bought all of my legendaries like virtually everyone else, I didn't want to though, because I had already calculated the timedelay inherent in having to wait to grind up enough marks to do so. That's not addictive, it's straight up telling me to go do something else, anything else, since my progress for this week is capped anyway.
The GAF community for destiny is going to be transient, I know a lot of the people on my friendlist have already moved on, and I've honestly joined them. But I understand why you enjoy making connections and just hanging out with people it's fun. I've had a lot of fun in terrible games because of the company I kept, it doesn't make the game better though. But even on this front we're hamstrung by Bungie having a very specific idea in terms of how you're allowed to connect. I don't enjoy posting on GAF in a spammy kind of way just to get people to play with, but due to the incomplete nature of Bungie's systems of communication that's what I've been reduced too.
I'd like to try the raid, I wouldn't mind trying it with a pickup group but this game trains you to be view other guardians as little more than some sort of distant A.I. It blocks off virtually all channels of communication because people might get trolled, but at the same time it also blocks off virtually all positive communication. I'm tired of having to wave at a dude to say thanks for a rez. Or dancing because we're happy we made it through a dungeon. It's ludicrous that this hasn't been fixed yet, it was one of the primary complaints during the beta and it's taken them a long time to even adress it as a perceived problem. I could have sworn that'd be the number 1 thing they'd fix from the beta.
You keep claiming reviews are incomplete because they lack a review for raid content and other very time investment heavy gameplay scenarios. I find them to generally accurate however, the reviews adequately cover everything I have done and repeated for my 3 days of playtime. Including the lack of raiding. My only hopes of raiding are to troll the web LFG'ing for days hoping to find a bunch of dudes that want to do it and are of a high enough level and are free at the same time as I am. That's fucking ridiculous. If you're going to place that kind of barrier on your content it may as well be unreviewable.
There is no way to connect to anyone in the game. For a goddamn 6 man raid mind you. I played vanilla wow, I did every single dungeon with random groups of people I met in the game, I even formed a guild that successfully raided Molten Core from dudes I met while playing the game. I can't say the same for Destiny. I've connected with absolutely nobody via destiny, the few social experiences I've had have all been launched by neogaf.
PLEASE READ IF YOU... FUCK IT, JUST PLEASE READ
Let me get it out of the way: the progression system in Destiny is fantastic.
I read it all, I disagree, I hope you'll read my statement of disagreement. I'll take your word on your knowledge of game design, I hardly see it as relevant but it is what it is. For what it's worth I've putzed around in Unity and have read some books on the subject, I'm most certainly an amateur at "game design" but I'd like to change that someday. So I hope we're approaching this subject from somewhat even footing.
I think the comic is apt, it isn't saying these things are alike it's saying what you're saying these things aren't alike. It's also a statement on how it feels to play each of these games, in all 3 of them there is a constant roll happening, every minute you're playing rolls for loot are happening and you can visibly see the results all over the map in 2 of them. The same rolls for loot are happening in destiny too, only they produce results about 2% of the time, making it feel like nothing is happening. To further compound the issue of that 2% of the time that something actually pops out of a dude you're shooting it's most likely nothing of value to you. You say it's impossible to not make some kind of progress but you're so wrong it's not even funny. Virtually all possible progress is capped to some extent, so it's quite possible to reach a point where your progress isn't progress at all. It's treading water. As an additional flaw these caps aren't even communicated, it doesn't tell you you've capped out and your progress is moot, you're left to infer that from the lack of results usually.
You cannot progress to 30 without doing the raid, you cannot progress to 30 without getting lucky in the raid and getting very specific pieces of gear to drop for you. You'll have to wait 3 weeks regardless, and you'll still be at the mercy of an RNG. Furthermore 2 of the rewards that are uncapped (Strange coins & Motes of light) require you to be online at a specific point in time, to find a merchant you're never told about, in a randomized location in a hub world you race through. You wouldn't know about Xur without the internet telling you when and where to find him. Anytime Xur is not available your progress is being needlessly delayed. If you miss Xur I hope you enjoy waiting for him to come around once more. I agree with you that these systems are the core progression in destiny and I find them to be immensely unenjoyable. I don't enjoy saving coins which I'm collecting randomly(with a few guaranteed a day) hoping Xur is going to show up with something I want. I don't enjoy wearing the same storebought armor every single other warlock is wearing, and I don't enjoy feeling like my enjoyment is on timedelay because Bungie is afraid of me running out of content.
You say I should play how I want, but that's obviously not the case here. I should play what Bungie wants me to play when they want me to play it. If I play too much of something Bungie is going to tell me I shouldn't. If I enjoy something and repeat it Bungie is like that's fine but now there's no reward. It's dull, it's simplestic and it's the most annoying way of elongating your content possible.
You seem to interpret people's complaints on the loot system as some sort of derisive remark on the quality of the games grind based progression system. People are dissapointed with the looting because it's dull, uninspiring, and not fun. When 98% of the icing on your cake is feces, your cake is defective. Especially if the cake is just the same bland vanilla cake day in - day out, with no respite. Xur is here, everyone bought the suros ar, nobody feels like they accomplished anything. Everyone that grinded out the coins now has a suros ar. Just like all of the warlocks had sunsinger gauntlets and it's the same boring dripfeed ad infinitum.