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

And personally, this is what keeps me playing. That, and playing online with the friends I grew up with. The same friends I used to play Phantasy Star Online or Goldeneye with on a 4-way split.

I too recognize the game's faults, especially the lack of a good story narrative. However, there is a ton of entertainment value, for me, with what i consider the best FPS mechanics I've ever played, and having some beers while teaming up and bullshitting with friends.

I'm very curious though. How many people here used to play Phantasy Star Online and do NOT care for Destiny at all?

Me. PSO never got old. I had one save file with 620 hours of playtime on it. HUCast for life bro! But I got completely burnt out with Destiny after 6days playtime. The difference to me is the variance in loot available in PSO where there was an abundance of ultra rare grade special weapons and classes/races that felt very unique whereas Destiny suffers from a pitifully small loot pool and what feels like the same class/race with all the same weapons and a different super move. Combine the ridiculously mundane and repetitive bounties with the swift kick to the balls that is having lootable ships that turn out to be completely useless since they have 0 gameplay and you get a game that actually pissed me off the more I played. Also, despite what many might say, I dug the hell out of the story and art in PSO. In Destiny the skyboxes are pretty but the story was just SO bad I couldn't even appreciate the art. Seeing how gorgeous the art was just made me more angry at how wasted it felt on such a terrible excuse for a story.

But hey your experience may vary these are just the thoughts of a fellow PSO lover.
 
People didn't hate on Call of Duty because it was popular. They hated on it because it was the Madden of console shooters.

It's not a criticism that applies to Destiny. It is a new game and a new franchise and it does so much differently from Halo, and is far more complex, that the rough parts aren't so unbelievable.
 
Looking at the video's title ("6 Ways Gamers Have Taken the Fun Out Of Gaming"), they ostensibly blame gamers for playing Destiny like idiots. The main character is clearly not meant to be empathetic, he's meant to be a tone-deaf, lazy slob who is unable to see the idiocy of his own playstyle. Yet people somehow see the Cracked clip as an indictment of Destiny?
 
It's crazy the difference in opinion in people online and the people I Interact with on a daily basis. I work with and know a ton of people that are so addicted to Destiny it's crazy. They won't admit there's much problems there, either. And it's not a small community of people...

So I've been really curious about it. I got a copy and went in expecting not much, really. Not that I didn't believe my friends online, but I could tell from videos it wasn't going to be that great.

...it's worse... It's worse than I thought it would be. Jesus what happened? I mean maybe I'm missing a bit because I'm in the beginning of the game, but it's really not selling me on this shit. I'm getting repeating missions already. I can already tell "earth" is tiny as fuck. The gameplay sucks ass. It's like waves of shitty bullet sponges that animate hilariously. It's like wack-a-mole with a gun at times. And yeah, just fucking waves of these shitty enemies come at you. I practically threw my controller in disgust just a few minutes ago. Clearly this stage was built for co-op... which makes sense because his is an online game... except there's no fucking goddamned matchmaking that I can find. Why the fuck!? What the fuck!? Who's fucking idea was this? Yeah I have a bunch of people playing this game that I know, but generally I don't get on to play at the same time as them, and they're all high level and trying to do the new shit. Even so, I shouldn't have to make that excuse. When you balance a game to co-op you need to provide a way to fucking co-op. There's no excuse here. There's a goddamned expansion for this tripe out already and there's STILL no matchmaking? This isn't even any proximity chat options in the damned lobby!

Oh, and there's no fucking loot. I had friends telling me this is like Diablo or something. Well, where's the loot? I've played some hours now and I've got like 4 new items in total. Woopdie-fucking-doo. That's not a loot game. I played Diablo. I played a hell of a lot of Diablo. I know what a loot game is.

To know that's pretty much all there is for the next 1000 hours just sucks. I'm already bored with the style of content there and I'm like level 5...

Really sucks because a loot based FPS with fantasy-esque story bullshit would be like my ideal game, probably.
 
It's crazy the difference in opinion in people online and the people I Interact with on a daily basis. I work with and know a ton of people that are so addicted to Destiny it's crazy. They won't admit there's much problems there, either. And it's not a small community of people...

So I've been really curious about it. I got a copy and went in expecting not much, really. Not that I didn't believe my friends online, but I could tell from videos it wasn't going to be that great.

...it's worse... It's worse than I thought it would be. Jesus what happened? I mean maybe I'm missing a bit because I'm in the beginning of the game, but it's really not selling me on this shit. I'm getting repeating missions already. I can already tell "earth" is tiny as fuck. The gameplay sucks ass. It's like waves of shitty bullet sponges that animate hilariously. It's like wack-a-mole with a gun at times. And yeah, just fucking waves of these shitty enemies come at you. I practically threw my controller in disgust just a few minutes ago. Clearly this stage was built for co-op... which makes sense because his is an online game... except there's no fucking goddamned matchmaking that I can find. Why the fuck!? What the fuck!? Who's fucking idea was this? Yeah I have a bunch of people playing this game that I know, but generally I don't get on to play at the same time as them, and they're all high level and trying to do the new shit. Even so, I shouldn't have to make that excuse. When you balance a game to co-op you need to provide a way to fucking co-op. There's no excuse here. There's a goddamned expansion for this tripe out already and there's STILL no matchmaking? This isn't even any proximity chat options in the damned lobby!

Oh, and there's no fucking loot. I had friends telling me this is like Diablo or something. Well, where's the loot? I've played some hours now and I've got like 4 new items in total. Woopdie-fucking-doo. That's not a loot game. I played Diablo. I played a hell of a lot of Diablo. I know what a loot game is.

To know that's pretty much all there is for the next 1000 hours just sucks. I'm already bored with the style of content there and I'm like level 5...

Really sucks because a loot based FPS with fantasy-esque story bullshit would be like my ideal game, probably.
Not sure if a joke post? It reads like a 'best of hyperbole'

You're level 5, you didn't even activate the last array station, you didn't even unlock a rocket launcher yet.(you do after that mission) Never even set foot in a strike.. This is why I can't take these walls of text serious.

Diablo 3: reaper of souls (on consoles mind uou) is the only game I know of recently that will scale you to your friends level.

Nm, this is probably a joke post.


In case not a joke post, hang back, save your super for the big dude that rushes in wave 2, hang back in the room 3, and idk, play smart, you're not rambo
 
Not sure if a joke post? It reads like a 'best of hyperbole'

You're level 5, you didn't even activate the last array station, you didn't even unlock a rocket launcher yet. Never even set foot in a strike.. This is why I can't take these walls of text serious.

Diablo 3: reaper of souls (on consoles mind uou) is the only game I know of recently that will scale you to your friends level.

Nm, this is probably a joke post.

So what, he's just supposed to wait until it gets good? Why?
 
Not sure if a joke post? It reads like a 'best of hyperbole'

You're level 5, you didn't even activate the last array station, you didn't even unlock a rocket launcher yet.(you do after that mission) Never even set foot in a strike.. This is why I can't take these walls of text serious.

Diablo 3: reaper of souls (on consoles mind uou) is the only game I know of recently that will scale you to your friends level.

Nm, this is probably a joke post.


In case not a joke post, hang back, save your super for the big dude that rushes in wave 2, hang back in the room 3, and idk, play smart, you're not rambo


It's not a joke post. Yes, I'm sure if I tried that stupid mission again, I could beat it. My complaint wasn't that there's no way at all to beat it solo. The complaint is that it's obviously made for more than one person (and it's obviously not fucking fun to solo in a game that's made for co-op), yet there's no way to make a group outside of people you actually know. The game doesn't need to scale me to my friends' levels. It needs to let me make fucking groups with people my level. It has no way of doing that. No chat in the lobby feature. No matchmaking. Nothing. That's a joke, if anything is.

I was saving my super for the big dude and I was playing smart. It's still a dumb fucking mission, along with every mission so far. It's just sitting behind a goddamned pillar for a few seconds, popping out and shooting something a few times then finding another fucking pillar to wait until your guard goes up again so you can throw another few bullets into some shitty bullet sponge and wait for another wave.

That still leaves the problems with the loot. Again, you can say I'm at the beginning of the game, but this is when the game is really supposed to get its hooks in you. A loot game should be throwing loot at me. I should be looking at weapons and stuff every couple seconds, practically. This is when beginning items are still interesting! It shouldn't be until late game where I'm waiting hours to get something interesting. I didn't feel like there was hardly any loot back when I played 4-5 hours of Diablo III.
 
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.

Destiny made me want to play WoW. WoW does raids and loot the best.
 
Not sure if a joke post? It reads like a 'best of hyperbole'

You're level 5, you didn't even activate the last array station, you didn't even unlock a rocket launcher yet.(you do after that mission) Never even set foot in a strike.. This is why I can't take these walls of text serious.

Diablo 3: reaper of souls (on consoles mind uou) is the only game I know of recently that will scale you to your friends level.

Nm, this is probably a joke post.


In case not a joke post, hang back, save your super for the big dude that rushes in wave 2, hang back in the room 3, and idk, play smart, you're not rambo

Guys, the real game starts at level 20. - Bungie

OR

Please don't trade the game in immediately and instead get suckered with the fallacy of throwing good money over bad. After you have invested so much time getting to 20 and playing in "the real game" you will surely want to purchase the expansion pass.

Seriously, why do we have to move the goal posts for this game? Why is it that we have "well you arent high enough level" or "you didnt do a strike/raid" as statements to shut down criticism of this game? I am addicted to it, but its a game that does not know what it wants to be, yet is happy pretending to be something to elicit a purchase from a consumer. Its an "MMO" and a "loot game", but really its neither and is a shallow piece of content based around inventing new levels of grind to obfuscate the fact that there is a complete lack of content in this game. I recognize that and so do my friends who still play or are interested in getting the game.

EDIT:

Wait...

devilsadvocat
Member
(Yesterday, 11:04 PM)

Oh. Okay. Now I get it.
 
To be fair up to level 20 the game has a decent flow gameplay wise (even though there virtually no story to speak of) and the player is rewarded with a good amount of loot from engrams, chests etc (Borderlands/Diablo it is not). The grind really only starts after level 20 because that is when the game experience changes completely. At that point it becomes an absolute grind. However plenty of people, myself included, find the experience very enjoyable/addicting. Playing with friends certainly helps.

Is it a perfect game? No. Is it the game Bungie promised? Probably not. Does it lack content? Yes. Is it fun? Well that depends on you the player but I would say the vast majority of people are finding the experience enjoyable. To say the game has no redeemable qualities is disingenuous.
 
Just to be clear, none of those 500 people are writers, correct?

This made me laugh so I thought I'd figure out how many people are in-fact writing at Bungie..

Cqtg8CR.png


CLAY CARMOUCHE - Only information I can really find on him. Safe to assume he's still around.
SETH DICKINSON - Contractor. Seemingly distances himself from the story content in a blog post.
JONATHAN GOFF - Profile seems to indicate he's also an artist(?)
ROBT MCLEES - Been with Bungie for nearly 20 years; safe to assume he's still around.
DAVE MONGAN - Started at 343 in October.
JOSHUA RUBIN - Left for Telltale in August.
LILY YU - Contractor. Had six month contract with Bungie in 2012. Likely worked on Grimoire content.
LUCY PREBBLE - Contractor(?)
FELIX GILMAN - Contractor

tldr; it would appear there are three full time writers at Bungie.
 
This made me laugh so I thought I'd figure out how many people are in-fact writing at Bungie..

Cqtg8CR.png


CLAY CARMOUCHE - Only information I can really find on him. Safe to assume he's still around.
SETH DICKINSON - Contractor. Seemingly distances himself from the story content in a blog post.
JONATHAN GOFF - Profile seems to indicate he's also an artist(?)
ROBT MCLEES - Been with Bungie for nearly 20 years; safe to assume he's still around.
DAVE MONGAN - Started at 343 in October.
JOSHUA RUBIN - Left for Telltale in August.
LILY YU - Contractor. Had six month contract with Bungie in 2012. Likely worked on Grimoire content.
LUCY PREBBLE - Contractor(?)
FELIX GILMAN - Contractor

tldr; it would appear there are three full time writers at Bungie.

3 writers for each planet then
 
500+?

Sweet zombie jebus

How many of you have actually seen what a headcount of 500 looks like live? It's like a small country.

Way past time to seriously have a look at the management.

Not trying to flame anything. Just trying to understand that number and somehow see the result in that light.
 
500+?

Sweet zombie jebus

How many of you have actually seen what a headcount of 500 looks like live? It's like a small country.

Way past time to seriously have a look at the management.

Not trying to flame anything. Just trying to understand that number and somehow see the result in that light.
I'm thinking you could make vanilla WoW or Dragon Age: Inquisition amount of content with a fraction of that manpower.
 
This made me laugh so I thought I'd figure out how many people are in-fact writing at Bungie..

Cqtg8CR.png


CLAY CARMOUCHE - Only information I can really find on him. Safe to assume he's still around.
SETH DICKINSON - Contractor. Seemingly distances himself from the story content in a blog post.
JONATHAN GOFF - Profile seems to indicate he's also an artist(?)
ROBT MCLEES - Been with Bungie for nearly 20 years; safe to assume he's still around.
DAVE MONGAN - Started at 343 in October.
JOSHUA RUBIN - Left for Telltale in August.
LILY YU - Contractor. Had six month contract with Bungie in 2012. Likely worked on Grimoire content.
LUCY PREBBLE - Contractor(?)
FELIX GILMAN - Contractor

tldr; it would appear there are three full time writers at Bungie.

Well. It would appear that Joe Staten got fucking erased from existence.
 
No, he's still in the credits

There's actually a ton of people in Destiny's credits that left years ago.

He was the lead writer if I'm not mistaken. No idea why he's not credited there.

(No idea what he's credited under because I can't Paul McCartney)
 
He was the lead writer if I'm not mistaken. No idea why he's not credited there.

(No idea what he's credited under because I can't Paul McCartney)

I thought that at first too but they aren't that evil; he's listed as the "Story Director."

Yeah, beat by Abandonware. He's a Director.

For example, Jaime Griesemer (design) and Max Dyckhoff (AI) are both credited and they both moved on to other companies long ago.
 
Enough that even though its midnight here I can still get a full 12 people for a crucible match in under thirty seconds.

And not to mention the ability to get a full 6 man raid team together with complete strangers in under 5 minutes at all hours of the day even though there's no matchmaking for it within the game.
 
When your game allows even novice players to dupe items with ease, the RNG dependency falls pretty sharply.

I didn't dupe stuff and got by fine. I certainly never had to grind like Destiny expects you to in PSO.

Of course you could also do wacky stuff like trade items in PSO...
 
Oh, and there's no fucking loot. I had friends telling me this is like Diablo or something. Well, where's the loot? I've played some hours now and I've got like 4 new items in total. Woopdie-fucking-doo. That's not a loot game. I played Diablo. I played a hell of a lot of Diablo. I know what a loot game is.
You're right: Destiny is not a loot game.
The fault is not on the game, though, but on your friends for telling you something like this. Hold a grudge to them instead for this point. Maybe you would prefer the game to be more like Diablo, but you can't criticize a game for not being what you wanted it to be.
Destiny is not Diablo, it's more in the lines of an MMO with frequent drops. It doesn't drown you in loots where 95% of them are crap, but gives you a new drop from time to time. During the 1 to 20 course, nearly any new drop you get is better than your current equipment. After that, you are supposed to buy your gear, and drops are a bonus / the reward for the most difficult content of the game. Only the last level and some weapons are left to the RNG.

Now there are problems with the drop tables and such for end game content, clearly, but people really should stop seeing Destiny for what it is not.
 
And not to mention the ability to get a full 6 man raid team together with complete strangers in under 5 minutes at all hours of the day even though there's no matchmaking for it within the game.

When reading GAF you have to remember that most people enjoy bitching about games more than actually playing them! The discussion would be less one-sided if there weren't thousands of people busy actually playing the game, as the OT is clear proof of!

I have my issues with Destiny and may actually hold off on the DLC for now as I don't like how everything outside of the Raid sounds. However, the amount of hate it gets is pretty incredible!
 
500+ people working on what, exactly? Hopefully, it's more missions in bigger areas, and not fucking retreads of old ones. A guy on my buddy lists referred to the new areas as "broom closets." About as apt a description that I can think of. Didn't even participate in the new Iron Banner, since they totally fucking shit on everybody who wasted their time leveling shit up for gear that got eclipsed less than a month later. I hope their numbers for this IB were fucking low, they deserve it.

Buddy list makes playing this game enjoyable. I couldn't play this shit by myself from jump street.
 
When reading GAF you have to remember that most people enjoy bitching about games more than actually playing them! The discussion would be less one-sided if there weren't thousands of people busy actually playing the game, as the OT is clear proof of!

I have my issues with Destiny and may actually hold off on the DLC for now as I don't like how everything outside of the Raid sounds. However, the amount of hate it gets is pretty incredible!

I have to agree. The hate this game gets on GAF, by ppl who barely or never even played it, is hilarious.
 
It's crazy the difference in opinion in people online and the people I Interact with on a daily basis. I work with and know a ton of people that are so addicted to Destiny it's crazy. They won't admit there's much problems there, either. And it's not a small community of people...

So I've been really curious about it. I got a copy and went in expecting not much, really. Not that I didn't believe my friends online, but I could tell from videos it wasn't going to be that great.

...it's worse... It's worse than I thought it would be. Jesus what happened? I mean maybe I'm missing a bit because I'm in the beginning of the game, but it's really not selling me on this shit. I'm getting repeating missions already. I can already tell "earth" is tiny as fuck. The gameplay sucks ass. It's like waves of shitty bullet sponges that animate hilariously. It's like wack-a-mole with a gun at times. And yeah, just fucking waves of these shitty enemies come at you. I practically threw my controller in disgust just a few minutes ago. Clearly this stage was built for co-op... which makes sense because his is an online game... except there's no fucking goddamned matchmaking that I can find. Why the fuck!? What the fuck!? Who's fucking idea was this? Yeah I have a bunch of people playing this game that I know, but generally I don't get on to play at the same time as them, and they're all high level and trying to do the new shit. Even so, I shouldn't have to make that excuse. When you balance a game to co-op you need to provide a way to fucking co-op. There's no excuse here. There's a goddamned expansion for this tripe out already and there's STILL no matchmaking? This isn't even any proximity chat options in the damned lobby!

Oh, and there's no fucking loot. I had friends telling me this is like Diablo or something. Well, where's the loot? I've played some hours now and I've got like 4 new items in total. Woopdie-fucking-doo. That's not a loot game. I played Diablo. I played a hell of a lot of Diablo. I know what a loot game is.

To know that's pretty much all there is for the next 1000 hours just sucks. I'm already bored with the style of content there and I'm like level 5...

Really sucks because a loot based FPS with fantasy-esque story bullshit would be like my ideal game, probably.

Destiny: Trolling Evolved

Seriously.
 
Everyone on the development team at Bungie is working on player experiences for the Destiny IP (although this week, many of us are on vacation for the holiday).

Some folks are working on content for DLC2, some of them are working on bug fixes to networking or content bugs for an upcoming patch to the live game and some are working on things that won't see the light of day till further down the road.

All the initial story was trying to say is that everyone on the development team are all focused trying to make the game better.

Enjoy your holidays.
Thanks, and thanks for Destiny.
500+ people working on what, exactly? Hopefully, it's more missions in bigger areas, and not fucking retreads of old ones. A guy on my buddy lists referred to the new areas as "broom closets." About as apt a description that I can think of. Didn't even participate in the new Iron Banner, since they totally fucking shit on everybody who wasted their time leveling shit up for gear that got eclipsed less than a month later. I hope their numbers for this IB were fucking low, they deserve it.

Buddy list makes playing this game enjoyable. I couldn't play this shit by myself from jump street.
So you do enjoy this videogame? For all the vitriolic hate in this post, I'd hate to see how you react to something you don't enjoy.

The hyperbolic nonsense I read about Destiny (and other games) is pretty frustrating, but then I remember that on these boards especially we have developers who visit and freely contribute to discussions and interact with us directly (at no benefit but some risk to themselves), and then all that 'nonsense' starts to look downright rude.

So thanks Luke, thanks Urk, and thanks to all the others who make games we enjoy playing.



Also, great post by GraveRobber a little way up, +1 to that but it's too long for me to quote on mobile
 
Just skimming over this thread a little, I'm amazed at how passionate people are in their dislike of Destiny. It's getting to laughable levels currently, but it is what it is. By now, we all know what type of game this is...the horse is dead man.

On another note, the holidays will be bringing another influx of new players, should be interesting.
 
Just skimming over this thread a little, I'm amazed at how passionate people are in their dislike of Destiny. It's getting to laughable levels currently, but it is what it is. By now, we all know what type of game this is...the horse is dead man.

On another note, the holidays will be bringing another influx of new players, should be interesting.

It now only takes till level five for the true hate to set in. This game really does affect people.

Thing is, I agree with almost every criticism levelled at the game and yet I've been playing almost every day since launch. What the hell is wrong with me? ;_;
 
It now only takes till level five for the true hate to set in. This game really does affect people.

Thing is, I agree with almost every criticism levelled at the game and yet I've been playing almost every day since launch. What the hell is wrong with me? ;_;
Nothing, it's perfectly normal to enjoy something and still be able to acknowledge its flaws. Destiny isn't perfect, and neither is anything else.
 
This made me laugh so I thought I'd figure out how many people are in-fact writing at Bungie..

Cqtg8CR.png


CLAY CARMOUCHE - Only information I can really find on him. Safe to assume he's still around.
SETH DICKINSON - Contractor. Seemingly distances himself from the story content in a blog post.
JONATHAN GOFF - Profile seems to indicate he's also an artist(?)
ROBT MCLEES - Been with Bungie for nearly 20 years; safe to assume he's still around.
DAVE MONGAN - Started at 343 in October.
JOSHUA RUBIN - Left for Telltale in August.
LILY YU - Contractor. Had six month contract with Bungie in 2012. Likely worked on Grimoire content.
LUCY PREBBLE - Contractor(?)
FELIX GILMAN - Contractor

tldr; it would appear there are three full time writers at Bungie.

Dickinson posted to DBO awhile back saying that most of the Grimoire (i.e. 99% of the game's story content) was written in a mad rush right before launch, and was thisclose to being thrown out entirely. That's why it feels so unrelated to the barebones "cutscenes" (such as they are), and why you can only read the cards on the website/app instead of in-game.
 
Thanks, and thanks for Destiny.

So you do enjoy this videogame? For all the vitriolic hate in this post, I'd hate to see how you react to something you don't enjoy.

The hyperbolic nonsense I read about Destiny (and other games) is pretty frustrating, but then I remember that on these boards especially we have developers who visit and freely contribute to discussions and interact with us directly (at no benefit but some risk to themselves), and then all that 'nonsense' starts to look downright rude.

So thanks Luke, thanks Urk, and thanks to all the others who make games we enjoy playing.



Also, great post by GraveRobber a little way up, +1 to that but it's too long for me to quote on mobile
I enjoy the game itself, yes. The shenanigans perpetrated by the devs post release is what pisses me off the most. Taking down Atheon in two runs with a good team is fun. Dropping Crota to his knees with Gjallarhorns on a good team is fun. Reading about one player getting 10 Ass Energies while his other two buddies get Exotics from a Nightfall run is not fun. Watching people on my buddy list struggle to get out of the level 29 ghetto is not fun. Grinding your way through Iron Banner for level 30 gear that gets made obsolete in less than a week is NOT FUN.

That type of shit I lay at the foot of the devs, not the game.
 
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