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[Imru’ al-Qays]

Edit: Here's the full text of an AMA with someone claiming to be a Bungie employee. Much more interesting than the original Reddit fanfiction.

The story so far with alleged Bungie insider 404Architect.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Yup.

 

[kittens]

Yeah, I read that. Seemed like Tales From Your Ass to me. 95% speculation.

 

[sp3000]

This story was more interesting than Destiny's story was

 

[GrizzNKev]

Yeah, I read that. Seemed like Tales From Your Ass to me. 95% speculation.

Same.

 

[Teknoman]

Well thats disheartening. I still have fun with the game...but damn.

Whats stopping them from getting together a grimoire database in game?

 

[ezekial45]

Though I'm still enjoying the game, I'm very annoyed that it doesn't even come close to what they promised the game would on launch. I'm usually a sucker for PvE and often ignore the PvP, but since the exploration, quests, and narrative are so lacking -- I've gotten a lot of my fun in MP. Which is extremely unusual for me.

It's one of the most disappointing games in recent memory. If there's an award for games that Failed To Deliver, then this game has that locked.

 

[Trouble]

Destiny's story in 3 words:

Aliens need shooting.

 

[Jobbs]

Well thats disheartening. I still have fun with the game...but damn.

Whats stopping them from getting together a grimoire database in game?

I think it's just an abortion overall. They ended up with a mess and no story and not sure what to do with time running out -- so, grimoire cards. They could probably retrofit that stuff into the game, but I doubt anyone cares at this point. I'd be curious to know what % of people playing actually went to the website or app or whatever and read those cards. I sure didn't.

Fortunately for them, it doesn't seem you need to have a story or any particular reason to shoot aliens in order for a game to sell.

 

[ryanmac]

Whether that yarn is accurate or not, it's pretty obvious that someone took a big knife and started cutting stuff out of this game. Whether it was because content was bad or they needed to make deadlines you can't deny that an experienced developer like Bungie wouldn't release a product with such a thin layer of story.

 

[enzo_gt]

Been reading up on this, sounds a bit too dramatic for me to believe or be plausible, but I am interested to see where this goes or if it gets substantiated some more.

The one posted in OP is just someone pulling shit out of their ass but someone linked a better breakdown in the OT that I can't seem to find ATM.

 

[TacticalFox88]

And sadly I was really REALLY looking forward to the story pre-release

 

[SJRB]

Yeah, I read that. Seemed like Tales From Your Ass to me. 95% speculation.

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Yeah, I read that. Seemed like Tales From Your Ass to me. 95% speculation.

I dunno, I didn't even know I beat the game until the credits rolled. I tried to follow it, twice through even and it sucks ass. So that thread seems entirely possible.

 

[ryanmac]

Whether that yarn is accurate or not, it's pretty obvious that someone took a big knife and started cutting stuff out of this game. Whether it was because content was bad or they needed to make deadlines you can't deny that an experienced developer like Bungie wouldn't design a product with such a thin story.

Something happened.

 

[krypt0nian]

What a wholly unsupported tale. Reddit.

 

[harrypmgaga]

Whats stopping them from getting together a grimoire database in game?

Nothing technically, I don't think they could've fit it in to the launch.

There was a post from a Bungie employee on a Bungie fansite a few weeks ago that was basically saying "yeah the grimoire stuff was done in the last sprint before release".

Nothing to stop them patching it in though.

 

[Beaulieu]

a thread about a reddit speculation thread. novel.

 

[Maintenance]

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

Ice cold.

 

[CLEEK]

It seems clear that the story was gutted, but the reason is why? Joe Staten left for unspecified reasons, the Grimore stuff is barely incorporated into the game, there is clearly an underlying lore and story than in its final presented form is impenetrable.

Was is an internal conflict as to what the story should be? Was is done in a misguided attempted to drive players to bungie.net? Was is related to future DLC?

Who knows, but Bungie are not amateurs. A story as bad as Destiny's is not just the work of people who don't know how to form narrative in-game. Something is amiss behind the scenes.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Been reading up on this, sounds a bit too dramatic for me to believe or be plausible, but I am interested to see where this goes or if it gets substantiated some more.

The one posted in OP is just someone pulling shit out of their ass but someone linked a better breakdown in the OT that I can't seem to find ATM.

If you can find it PM me and I'll update the OP.

 

[LyleLanley]

Destiny's story in 3 words:

Aliens need shooting.

You forgot the part where you ghost interacts with an old computer.

 

[Zomba13]

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

 

[gdt]

This is unsubstantiated silliness. Makes Bungie sound evil or something for releasing a game with a shitty story.

I was crushed when it released, mostly cause of the complete lack of a campaign and incredibly repetitive mission design, but having my friends force me to play with them has gotten kind of addicted actually. It's very grindy, but it's fun. Great Halo gunplay too of course.

 

[Gazzawa]

RIP Halo.

 

[Rizzi]

Destiny's story in 3 words:

Aliens need shooting.

Please hold square/x.

 

[Brakke]

Oh so it was a video game and those change scope during development sometimes? "The Destiny today is not the Destiny we were promised or the one Bungie had even imagined." Swap any game/dev ever in and that statement applies.

 

[Dead]

It seems clear that the story was gutted, but the reason is why? Joe Staten left for unspecified reasons, the Grimore stuff is barely incorporated into the game, there is clearly an underlying lore and story than in its final presented form is impenetrable.

Was is an internal conflict as to what the story should be? Was is done in a misguided attempted to drive players to bungie.net? Was is related to future DLC?

Who knows, but Bungie are not amateurs. A story as bad as Destiny's is not just the work of people who don't know how to form narrative in-game. Something is amiss behind the scenes.

Bungies are notoriously awful storytellers, but Destiny is really on a whole other level. I dont know if the OP account is really what happened, but it does indeed feel gutted.

 

[ezekial45]

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdza03XOmTw

 

[Symax]

I like the story so far. Rahul Is the best villain ever created. 10/10 would decrypt again.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Yeah, I read that. Seemed like Tales From Your Ass to me. 95% speculation.

What a wholly unsupported tale. Reddit.

These. "Coincidence, I think not" is such a ridiculous notion.

 

[SegaShack]

Sorry but without evidence this is all just speculation.

 

[Hollow]

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

 

[Vire]

Total fan fiction bullshit.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

This is unsubstantiated silliness. Makes Bungie sound evil or something for releasing a game with a shitty story.

It's not unsubstantiated, it's poorly-substantiated. It's not unusual for games to get their stories rearranged during development. But the state of Destiny's story compared to Bungie's past work, and the fact that the game's lead writer left a year before launch, make it clear that something happened.

This is the first step in the process of figuring out what happened. There's bound to be inaccurate information and baseless speculation mixed in, but we can look hard at the evidence and decide for ourselves.

 

[Steel]

Don't know why a thread was created for this speculation but not this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=130069142#post130069142

Which is substantiated.

 

[Ephemeris]

Put me in the "i'm having fun with the game but wish the story wasn't lacking so much" camp.

 

[Foxix Von]

More than likely tales from my ass but it's as plausible an explanation as I've ever heard. I'll buy into it. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Don't know why a thread was created for this speculation but not this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=130069142#post130069142

Which is substantiated.

Because I didn't see that post. I'll include it in the OP.

 

[sant]

I don't think we'll ever know for sure what happened to the game.

 

[ThisOne]

The Grimoire Cards come across as being very lazy and undeveloped. Who wants to log into a clunky website to look at virtual trading cards? No surprise that they weren't what was originally planned.

 

[zychi]

Destiny feels like odst, a halo expansion turned into a retail release. Halo reach engine with different character models, horde mode spread out as campaign, and slighlty updated graphics sold for $60.

 

[jambo]

Just like the game's actual narrative then.

 

[OniBarubary]

Who left Bungie from back in their Marathon days to reach this awful level of storytelling?

Cause the Marathon games have an incredible story. Especially 2.

 

[NewGame]

Destiny's story in 3 words:

Aliens need shooting.

So basically it's Halo?

 

[Vidpixel]

Please hold square/x.

"Shoot things, please hold square/x to learn about the story, now continue shooting things."

- Destiny

 

[SparkTR]

Who left Bungie from back in their Marathon days to reach this awful level of storytelling?

Cause the Marathon games have an incredible story. Especially 2.

If I had to guess, pretty much everybody.

 

[Maintenance]

Who left Bungie from back in their Marathon days to reach this awful level of storytelling?

Cause the Marathon games have an incredible story. Especially 2.

It is probably a Rare / Bioware situation all over again (only the name remains, basically).

 

[OniBarubary]

If I had to guess, pretty much everybody.

Well, it was a while ago so that's believable.

 

[CLEEK]

Bungies are notoriously awful storytellers, but Destiny is really on a whole other level. I dont know if the OP account is really what happened, but it does indeed feel gutted.

At least all the Halo games had an understandable narrative as far as tying your actions as Master Chief into driving the story onwards. It's just they went full retard with the back story and the nonsense around ancient humans etc.

With Destiny, nothing felt related. Just go here, do that. None of the alien races were fleshed out. The Speaker, Queen and Exo chick had fleeting moments of meaningless exposition. Everything to do with the Traveller, Guardians, The Light etc was briefly mentioned, then never explained or given any weight or meaning out. The entire campaign just felt like you were playing a game on shuffle. Chapters playing in random order, with no flowing narrative connecting them.

I mean, the game starts with you being brought back to life hundreds of years in the future, and this fact is never ever mentioned again by your or anyone else really sums up the game's narrative issues.