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Destiny Nearing 13 Million Players, 500+ People Working on the Game Right Now

I dont get how people are baffled. This is how any artistic industry works.

Liking Destiny is like liking Twilight or Transformers 2. Some just want to turn their brain off and have fun, and to them, criticisms hold no weight because despite its flaws, destiny is good enough for their needs.

Some people satisfied with grind and the style of progression Destiny offers. And that's fine.
 
Maybe its because I'm a little bit older, or just a different kind of gamer but I remember spending months of my gaming playing skirmish in Command and Conquer games, NEVER playing the story. I played Quake and Quake 2 for more hours than I could count, starcraft diablo, counter-strike, numerous other games and I never cared about story. Some games yes I care about story, but lately unless it is something I really fall into, like the Uncharted games or Mass Effect I'm mostly just playing for the fun. The gameplay, jumping around, killing guys, trying to get fancy combos etc. I have played 3 Assassins Creed games, couldn't tell you one thing about the story.

Destiny has been a ton of fun to me because as others have said, it just feels so dang good. I was mentioning in the OT how I like doing the bounties and patrol because its just fun to zip around on the speeder bike, launch off it into the air, grenade a group of enemies into a Nova bomb and then use Fatebringer to blow up a bunch of remaining guys. It's totally cool if you don't like the gameplay, and I'm sorry if you fell into the hype too much, and pre-ordered the $100 edition and feel like you got ripped off, I learned a llloooooonngg time ago to never listen to marketing pr bullcrap, because everyone wants to sell you the best can of worms out there.

I was initially down on the DLC, but have come around to it, for people that raid, or maybe I should say ... for me and only me, I feel I got my monies worth. I really love the new raid, not quite as much of the Vault of Glass which I think is just sooo good, one of my most favorite gaming experiences in a long time is playing it, and even with the "worthless loot" (actually its not, Fatebringer and Vex are still amazing weapons) I still play that raid. There are a lot of games I used to play and I bet a lot of people here played just because they were fun. They may have beaten the game 10x times over and still come back to it because it fits like a glove. That is Destiny to me, it just fits like a glove, some people its Madden, some people its Quake 2, some people its Team Fortress 2, some people its Left for Dead... for me Destiny is my new glove.

... I also love crack cocaine
 
I need to ask people still playing if they have stories behind getting their exotics.

Bungie was very specific about having stories, behind getting exotics, you know.

stories.

I bought mine from Xur
 
For a vast number of people, the game is already plenty compelling. I, and several of my friends, have played Destiny regularly since launch. I've put in over 200 hours and I can assure you I'm enjoying it. Completing the raids and the Nightfalls has been some of my most rewarding moments in a game...well, ever. People will misinterpret what I'm saying here, but *personally,* the raids and nightfalls give me that same feeling of reward/accomplishment I felt when taking down bosses in DeS/DS for the first time.

Folks who stopped at LVL 20 never got to experience anything like the raid, nor did they come to fully appreciate the different elemental types of weapons and their strengths/weaknesses in different missions with modifiers which truly change the way you have to play.

Honestly, I think one of Bungie's biggest mistakes was not including more "raid-type" missions in the main game. Smaller versions that would have given people a taste of what the raid is actually like, because it absolutely changes everything.

As for story, there's a ton of backstory and interesting lore, but I don't think this will ever be something like Mass Effect. Frankly, I'm not sure if that was ever the intent. I'm ok without it, but I get why people want more.

I fully understand and admit that the game isn't for everyone and completely get why folks don't like it. It's just unfortunate that so many on the other side of the fence (not referring to you directly) can't understand/comprehend that many gamers actually do find it fun/compelling/interesting/etc.

LOL, what? You mean the nightfalls where we all just hide in a corner and snipe enemies one by one?

Come on man, if he's level 20 that means he's played through the game and all the strikes. He's experienced everything the game has to offer, other than the raid, which is really just an extra long tedious strike. Doing a level 20 strike at level 20 is literally no different than doing a level 30 strike at level 30. That's just how Bungie set up the numbers game here. Once you level up your subclass, you're officially done growing your character. After that it's just about increasing the number on top of your head and next to your gear so you don't get one shotted by higher level mobs.
 
Just got the game a week ago. Only played about 10 hours but enjoying it so far.

I rarely play shooters but figured I would try the game since it seems to be popular. I admit I suck at the genre, but fortunately the controls are easy to handle and I'm enjoying the combat even if I'm not very good at it. The music is quite good as well.

I actually won't mind grinding since I tend to enjoy that aspect at times. Hell, my favorite genre is SRPGs which certainly has many games in which the player can spend countless hours grinding. I may indeed get bored eventually, but I don't envision myself regretting the money spent on the game.

The game certainly has issues and I can understand the criticisms especially when it comes to story. I don't quite understand though why so many posts seem to mock people who enjoy the game?
 
The game is garbage, I feel bad for people still playing this soul crushing grind of a shitfest.
You show up in every thread just to troll, every time, with out fail, like your life will end if you don't enter at least 3 destiny threads a week and just spit the same stuff you have been spewing since September

We get it, you're El presidente of the Anti-Destiny movement on Gaf
 
I dont get how people are baffled. This is how any artistic industry works.

Liking Destiny is like liking Twilight or Transformers 2. Some just want to turn their brain off and have fun, and to them, criticisms hold no weight because despite its flaws, destiny is good enough for their needs.

Some people satisfied with grind and the style of progression Destiny offers. And that's fine.

I enjoyed the game but I see the flaws, the problem is when people think sales = quality

The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct sold well
Grim Fandango is a commercial flop
 
You lost all your credibility right here, man.
Sorry. :/

I tend to agree with him. I did the raid a few times and didn't find it nearly as interesting as others claimed it to be. Not to mention, walking away with no new gear (other than a shader) really didn't help matters at all.
 
The game certainly has issues and I can understand the criticisms especially when it comes to story. I don't quite understand though why so many posts seem to mock people who enjoy the game?
That's the part that irks me about everything surrounding the game. Hell I didn't even try the raid and felt happy playing through to 20+ a bit until I didn't care for the grind. No biggie, still had fun with the gameplay and got money's worth.

Was the hype backlash really so bad that it's a green light for people to bash not only the game but people themselves who like the game? Usually those going for personal attacks when criticising games get rightfully called out but for Destiny it's acceptable and normal to go into any thread about it and post about how inferior all those people still playing it are.
 
The game is garbage, I feel bad for people still playing this soul crushing grind of a shitfest.

I wouldn't have played a "garbage" game for more than an hour.

Flawed? Absolutely. Disappointing? Week after week. But the highs are high enough to keep me invested for what is approaching 800 hours now. I can think of several games more acclaimed than Destiny that didn't eclipse that - not within this timeframe at least.

I like the game and I don't think the expectations of others invalidate the positive experiences I've had. I only feel bad about enjoying Destiny when Bungie comes along and publicly shows they have no idea what they're doing. If even 1% of that 500 appeared to understand the game and what the fans expect of them, I'd feel better about sinking hours into it knowing that it'll get better. Unfortunately, I can't put my faith in that, and that bothers me more than whatever issues the game launched with.
 
I tend to agree with him. I did the raid a few times and didn't find it nearly as interesting as others claimed it to be. Not to mention, walking away with no new gear (other than a shader) really didn't help matters at all.
Did you do it with people who already knew all the ropes, or with people discovering the raid with you?
Doing it with a bunch of friends and slowly adjusting our teamwork is one of the best experiences I ever had in a game.
Agree about the crappy loot design, though: they should at least guarantee a drop for the first time you complete it. Can be a total bummer.

Same concept as the strikes. A big bullet sponge boss surrounded by a million adds. Only difference is that there is a gimmick involved in taking his shield down.
Yeah, let's forget all the other phases leading to this boss, asking for a good effort of coordinations between people.
 
I'd like to see a histogram of those active players. I guarandamntee you that there are way less of these "active 13m" playing now than there were 2 months ago. Especially when you prune off the free demos and beta accounts.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and all (and soulcrushing and grindy as hell), but these numbers are deceiving to put it mildly.
 
I wouldn't have played a "garbage" game for more than an hour.

Flawed? Absolutely. Disappointing? Week after week. But the highs are high enough to keep me invested for what is approaching 800 hours now. I can think of several games more acclaimed than Destiny that didn't eclipse that - not within this timeframe at least.

I played Candy Crush for about 10 minutes. I have a friend who plays daily and she easily has over 1,000 hours now. Is the game garbage, poor, good, amazing? Who the hell knows. It's trash to me and heaven to her. Maybe Destiny is kind of like Candy Crush.
 
500+ people working on it right now? Where were they months and years ago for the game when it was being created? Why were we given a $60 beta to test with paid DLC extensions which are already on the disc from day one?
 
You show up in every thread just to troll, every time, with out fail, like your life will end if you don't enter at least 3 destiny threads a week and just spit the same stuff you have been spewing since September

We get it, you're El presidente of the Anti-Destiny movement on Gaf

Like clockwork
 
Same concept as the strikes. A big bullet sponge boss surrounded by a million adds. Only difference is that there is a gimmick involved in taking his shield down.

Crota is a bullet sponge...? I don't think this term means what you think it means.
 
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That is what playing Destiny is like. Grats, but they reeeeeeeealllllyyyyy need to step it up for the sequel.

That gif is amazing... Link to source?
 
I put alot of hours into this game, over 16 days worth of hours. I really enjoy the mechanics of the game; the way guns handle and the combat. When the DLC hit, the gear reset rubbed me the wrong way. Great, even more grinding I said to myself. Tried the new raid, it's fun, but not as cool as the first time I played VoG.

Only about a couple of weeks after the release of the DLC, I am burned out. I don't care if I miss dailies, the weeklies, the nightfalls, or the raids. It's just the same stuff, and I am done with this grinding crap. I am done doing the same strikes over and over again. My vast arsenal of weapons can't keep me interested (before the DLC hit, I had all exotic weapons and armors across the three classes except 4 or 5). I am sick of going to destinylfg trying to find people to play with.

I may play log in here and there a couple times a week but I am pretty much done with this game. I am never pre-ordering games especially digitally. Bungie will need to earn my money next time.
 
Did you do it with people who already knew all the ropes, or with people discovering the raid with you?
Doing it with a bunch of friends and slowly adjusting our teamwork is one of the best experiences I ever had in a game.
Agree about the crappy loot design, though: they should at least guarantee a drop for the first time you complete it. Can be a total bummer.


Yeah, let's forget all the other phases leading to this boss, asking for a good effort of coordinations between people.

Only one guy in our group knew how everything in the raid worked. He gave us some guidance along the way, but tried to let us discover things on our own for the most part. I guess I was just expecting something different based on how great I was told it was.

Granted, it did have more interesting and varied gameplay than the regular missions/strikes. But not enough so to make me want to keep replaying it. Guaranteed loot drops may have helped though.
 
I played Candy Crush for about 10 minutes. I have a friend who plays daily and she easily has over 1,000 hours now. Is the game garbage, poor, good, amazing? Who the hell knows. It's trash to me and heaven to her. Maybe Destiny is kind of like Candy Crush.

Is there anything wrong with Candy Crush though? Unless Candy Crush is full of dumb design decisions and fails to deliver on its promises, I don't see that as an accurate comparison.

Destiny is riddled with problems, which are rightfully criticized but also blown out of proportion due to the hype backlash (which it also rightfully deserves). The game was billed as one thing and boy did it miss the mark considerably.

Even given that, it wouldn't normally be a big deal. The game could launch with terrible systems and then steadily improve every week until it became something special. Sadly, I have not seen that potential from Bungie with any consistency, which only exacerbates the negative reaction.

They've found themselves in an endless cycle, and the people still playing for whatever reason unfortunately aren't being thrown a bone.

My biggest problem with Destiny are the people running it.
 
I think they'll throw Destiny under the bus, Molyneux-style, "OK, so our last game fell short of what we hoped, but Destiny 2 will be totally amazing and next-gen!"

I'm pretty sure they'll keep their current House of Wolves roadmap and design. If they made it good, it'll cost a lot more to develop and it still won't be enough to drag back many of the players who've left.
If they just add another strike raid and short 'story' arc then they spend little money, and fulfil their contractual obligation to deliver something to the guys who've already got the season pass.

I still play sometimes because it's a great casual way to shoot some aliens for half an hour while dinner's in the oven. It's also really fun doing the weeklies/raids in co-op.
I might get the season pass if they heavily discount it in the future. But pricing it like a Gay Tony / Undead Nightmare expansion instead of a lightweight map pack is just taking the piss.

Seriously, with 500 people, you'd think they could get a couple of guys to change up the enemy types spawn locations and keep the content fresh. The game would be much better if they just made some minor evolving changes to the world.
 
I'd like to see a histogram of those active players. I guarandamntee you that there are way less of these "active 13m" playing now than there were 2 months ago. Especially when you prune off the free demos and beta accounts.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and all (and soulcrushing and grindy as hell), but these numbers are deceiving to put it mildly.


Also, no sales numbers.
 
Did you do it with people who already knew all the ropes, or with people discovering the raid with you?
Doing it with a bunch of friends and slowly adjusting our teamwork is one of the best experiences I ever had in a game.
Agree about the crappy loot design, though: they should at least guarantee a drop for the first time you complete it. Can be a total bummer.


Yeah, let's forget all the other phases leading to this boss, asking for a good effort of coordinations between people.

The phases being "shoot these shiny gold things or else your party wipes" and "don't get seen by these gorgons or else your party wipes" and "here, try our stupid attempt at platforming"?

None of those activities have any depth. They're just there to make the raid longer and for Bungie to tick a "variety" box on their checklist. Really a microcosm of the entire game.

I remember reading a destiny review where they said how every world just feels like a movie set with all the enemies just being props. There's just no believability, no attempt at hiding all the spinning gears behind the scenes. I kill some fallen near a cave, walk away and come back, and see that same group of fallen rush out of the cave. You can almost see the game's code running right before your eyes.
 
Usually I can understand where resources went, but honestly what was everyone doing prior to Destiny 1 releasing?

Did they throw out a ton of content early on or only hire up really late in the process?


Destiny hasn't been in full development for four years.

They spent a considerable amount of time making a new engine and a whole new toolset before Destiny development could even start.
 
I saw the demo last night on the store so i thought i would give it a try anyway even though i have only heard bad things about it, and i can honestly say it is so much worse than i was expecting.

It started so promising too, the menu music reminded me of halo and the shooting and gameplay felt really satisfying and solid.

Then i played another mission, and another, and another. each one felt exactly the same as the last. The environment was so bland and my god was everything so boring. It honestly feels like the only things they got right was the music and basic shooting, the longer i played the worse it got.

And whats with matchmaking too? Does it even exist? every time i was in the lobby for a mission it seemed like it wasnt even bothering to find other players even though i had changed the settings from friends only to public. So it was just me on my own playing fucking dinglebot defense 2014 until the game asked me if i would like to purchase it (obviously i mashed the O button as fast as possible to get off that screen.)

I feel like Bungie got it so. so. wrong. i could load up any halo (up to reach, never played 4) and within 2 hours i would of had at least one epic encounter and explored beautiful looking worlds. The two hours i spent on this I ran/speeder biked around a bland boring environment, and visited a small social hub.

I feel like Im missing something, from what i witnessed with my time playing it i see no reason at all why more than 1million people would be playing this, never mind over 12 million. (And yes i love shoot and loot games. Borderlands 1+2 are some of my favourite games from last gen)
 
I gave mine to my brothers last week. Just couldn't be bothered any more. The way this whole thing has panned out feels like at some point a decision has been made to use a leveraged buyout model for development.

Whereby they make a core game and then sell it, see what the profits are looking at then ramp up development to fill the voids/lack in content. People are buying DLC, still playing and buying the game and as the money rolls in, more development is done.

The weapons are boring, enemies are 1 of 3 with a different skin and the replayability is awful - which is what kills it the most. I personally think Warframe does everything Destiny does, but better in a different PoV.

Having said that, plenty of people on my friends list are always in party chat, doing patrols etc. so it ust hit the right note with some people. Guess it's just one of those marmite games.
 
I saw the demo last night on the store so i thought i would give it a try anyway even though i have only heard bad things about it, and i can honestly say it is so much worse than i was expecting.

It started so promising too, the menu music reminded me of halo and the shooting and gameplay felt really satisfying and solid.

Then i played another mission, and another, and another. each one felt exactly the same as the last. The environment was so bland and my god was everything so boring. It honestly feels like the only things they got right was the music and basic shooting, the longer i played the worse it got.

And whats with matchmaking too? Does it even exist? every time i was in the lobby for a mission it seemed like it wasnt even bothering to find other players even though i had changed the settings from friends only to public. So it was just me on my own playing fucking dinglebot defense 2014 until the game asked me if i would like to purchase it (obviously i mashed the O button as fast as possible to get off that screen.)

I feel like Bungie got it so. so. wrong. i could load up any halo (up to reach, never played 4) and within 2 hours i would of had at least one epic encounter and explored beautiful looking worlds. The two hours i spent on this I ran/speeder biked around a bland boring environment, and visited a small social hub.

I feel like Im missing something, from what i witnessed with my time playing it i see no reason at all why more than 1million people would be playing this, never mind over 12 million. (And yes i love shoot and loot games. Borderlands 1+2 are some of my favourite games from last gen)

There's only matchmaking on strikes/strike playlists and PvP. Story missions, dailies, weeklies, and the raid are require you to get together a group on your own.
 
The Destiny hate is getting annoying, I am at the point it feels like people are trying to make you feel low for liking the game (all my friends do too). Yes I agree with its flaws, but the gunplay, raids and grouping is still a blast as is collecting weapons, gear. We get it, you dont like the game, then why post in destiny threads?
 
The feeling you get shooting things in this game is still ace. Repetitive missions don't matter all that much when its just so fun to play. They are making steps in the right direction but still make some bone headed decisions. But I still log on every night to play a bit with friends. Bosses aren't bullet sponges when you have a good team and are playing at the appropriate levels and the raids are far more than an extended strike. The new Crota's Raid made me feel like I was living an action movie script during the first section.
 
The RNG has me.

I want to stop playing this game so much but I always go: "I'd better stop... but what if this next ROC strike was the strike that drops me an exotic? Just one more..."

And then the cycle continues. =/
 
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