Intensity aside, maybe if there's a certain quantifiable number of complaints, it's an issue??
I see this misguided logic applied often, look at all the people yelling, surely indicative of a massive failure! If they don't correct
x, they'll be sorry, just look at all the people complaining about it.
I've yet to be convinced, in terms of launch design without really any knowledge of where the game will go, they made the wrong call.
In this industry, if your game has a playerbase of a certain size,
any decision, even those that seem inconsequential (or universally positive) are going to be resented by some percentage of that playerbase. What's more is that the number of people resenting it isn't likely to appreciably change from event to event, just which subset of the total playerbase is upset by it. Sometimes this resentment is invisible, as when decisions are made that screw over the lowest common denominator, a player who does not and will not ever have a NeoGAF account nor post on a forum of any kind about videogames. Sometimes the resentment is mild, as when the decision is made that impacts the median player but does not impact the fringes. Sometimes the resentment is at a fever pitch, as when the decision primarily impacts the vocal minority at the far high end of the spectrum.
Any of these can be "an issue" of course, And live software development is ever an unwinnable game of triage and prioritization to try and fix things that are showstoppers, improve systems for the greatest number of users with the resources available, and add new things to an existing framework, all without breaking anything in the process. Sometimes you're more successful than others.
But for these games, failure is not contingent on any number of complaints. Failure is silence. History strongly indicates that those complaining the loudest also have a high likelihood of playing for another few hundred hours regardless. Meanwhile by design the game attempts to cater to people who may very well not be 100% happy with the product, but are also less likely to ever even experience the problems being described most vocally.
I can guarantee you for example that Bungie considers the posts about people hitting 265 and feeling roadblocked by poor conveyance of the path ahead to be a higher priority issue than the much more fervent and frequent posts by regulars about having "nothing to do." This was a soft cap they attempted to smooth over during initial progression with some success, but I would wager they are unhappy with anyone feeling frustrated at this point in the journey- especially because they simply may not know all of the avenues of progression available.
It makes both good business sense and design sense to prioritize that issue and its potential reappearance going forward- even if a lot of us at the high end of the spectrum never had that issue, rocketing easily past 265 in the first few days, and couldn't care less about it now. Probably many would consider it dumb to allocate any resources to it that could be spent improving things for the most devoted players of the game instead.
But that's a perspective problem and nothing more.
There's a very simple binary at play either: either you enjoy actually playing the game or you don't.
If you do, then your vertical progression is not the source of this enjoyment but merely the way you unlock all the options. It's just how you ensure that you
can do whatever you
want to do.
If you don't, but would be compelled to play anyway by the introduction of "more to do" in a checklist sense, that's a
problem. It's not a failing of the game that it does not encourage people who aren't having fun to continue playing anyway.
The version of the game that simultaneously pleases all types of players in equal measure does not and cannot exist. I've talked about this exact thing so many times, for many different games. I can find big-ass posts I made from five years ago about the same topic, back when I actually enjoyed the arguments themselves. Now having seen exactly how cyclical it is it's just boring.
I don't care at all how casual or hardcore you are. What matters to me is whether or not you're having fun. That's the basis of every attempt I make to help others; it's fun for me, hopefully it makes things more fun for them. If you aren't having fun there is literally nothing for you here that would make this worthwhile and never will be.
For my part, it does feel a little weird to see some of the hand-wringing, since I'm around 150 hours and I'm not "done" even in the more traditional progression/stuff to do sense:
-In collection terms, I don't have all the exotic weapons, let alone all exotic armor pieces, let alone all of the legendary weapons I want that are currently in the game, let alone
all legendary armor and weapons.
-I don't have the two fully optimized armor/mod sets I want on my main character, let alone my other 2
-Only two of my characters are at 305/base level 300
-I don't have 305 versions of many of the weapons and armor pieces I use regularly
-I haven't done all the Adventures
-I haven't done the Prestige Raid (obviously), which I am interested in for the challenge itself
-I would love to go Flawless in Trials, at least once
One interpretation might be that it is my own "fault" that I have played so much and haven't accomplished all/more of these things yet. I suppose that is fair. I could have played more efficiently and focused solely on the most completion/progression possible over time. But would I have enjoyed myself more under those circumstances? Or is it more likely I would simply have more to complain about right now?
Then there's the stuff I don't have to check off a list but keeps me playing anyway. I also generally enjoy the PvP and I'm better at it than I was in D1. I find rolling with a competent team very satisfying and I've always enjoyed Iron Banner, and vastly prefer the Control gametype in D2 to its D1 incarnation, so I'm excited. I am also looking forward to running weekly newbie raids which is its own challenge and reward. Even if playing with DGAF wasn't the most compelling reason to keep playing regardless of content for me- which it is- there's legitimately still plenty for me to do even as an "almost hardcore" player.
But therein lies the rub... Destiny 2
isn't the only game I play. There's a massive new GW2 expansion I've barely been able to sink my teeth into. Cuphead is fantastic and scratches a completely different itch than anything I've played recently. Nioh, which I scrambled to beat in advance of this coming out, has multiple DLCs I haven't touched including one that came out last goddamn week. Despite over 90 hours in Hyrule I still haven't beaten Ganon in BotW, And I heard there's some game coming out this month with a plumber in it or something, I think it's a new IP.
There's no reason that someone with the free time I have available should expect any single game to indefinitely hold my interest for both hours per session and months per year. Even if it could do a better job of it, there's no way I could be convinced that it would be
better for Destiny 2 to occupy literally all of my gaming time. I don't
want it to. I understand that many people feel differently, and for the moment all I can do is be happy that the game's intrinsic design favors my approach.
The people who benefit from making D2 the only game they play? I play all the time with husbands, wives, parents, people with jobs with whack schedules, people in timezones that put them at all offpeak hours. People who have a dedicated night or two to do some gaming and make it count. People who want to play more and have plenty to do, but can't. All of the progression/grind aspects of D1 that are gone had a tangible effect of making players like this feel like they would get rapidly left behind. I'm not the least bit sad to see them go. For me, bringing them back would really just make the game worse.
Do these changes mean that there is less to occupy the hours of the hardcore day-in and day-out? Of course. But if you aren't having fun it doesn't matter either way. Take a moment to really ask yourself whether or not you are and you should know what to do.
