I Am Disappoint: Destiny Damage Control

I know, I know, another whiny blog about what's wrong with Destiny. Well, if it makes you feel any better, this has less to do with my actual Destiny experience and more to do with the game's reception. Please watch Machinima's Inside Gaming video on Destiny's critical reception, as this edition in disappoint will be in-part a response to a certain point brought up in that video:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Um...
I was totally with you, Mr. Kovic when you made that funny sarcastic quip about not being able to enjoy Destiny because others don't, and you shouldn't blindly follow the opinions of others... but then you go on say that people need to keep these negative opinions to themselves. I'm confused, are you saying that because they're mostly regurgitated opinions... or because the negativity is actually rendering you incapable of enjoying the game?

There are sheep in this community, to that we can both agree. However, I don't think that's something we can expect to change anytime soon within our subculture, that's something that needs to change in society, mostly American education. But right now, if the sheep are going to follow blindly without thinking, we need to take it upon ourselves to lead them down the right path, all the while encouraging them to think for themselves and value their own opinion of a game without needing to "validate" it by conforming to another's opinion. At the same time, you need to be willing to have your opinion challenged, because if you can't defend it without getting mad, then that just screams fanboy/sheep behavior.

"If you don't like the game just sell it already and shut up. I'm having a BLAST!"

That is a useless argument that I've seen all over the place with this game. It doesn't add anything to the discussion but a selfish attempt at silencing criticism. You may not care about certain aspects of the game, but others clearly do, and they'd like to see those elements improve. If your only counter-argument to any criticism against the game is "shut up and keep it to yourself", you've immediately lost all credibility with me. Why are you even talking about this to begin with? Go back to your bubble community full of yes-men and stop trying to pee in the pool.

Too often on the Internet people will blindly dismiss criticism because it's targeted at something they like, often by blabbering terrible logic as a result. I have witnessed some of the most baffling arguments ever made in defense of Destiny. One commenter even going so far as saying that not all games need a deep, compelling story to be a masterpiece, comparing the game to the likes of Mario Brothers. Though that point is sound on its own, it's still a terrible one. There's a difference between what a game achieves, and what it intends to achieve. Mario doesn't try to have a deep emotional story, it intends to have solid, fun gameplay: it's story is only ever context for whatever new gameplay it comes up with. Because of that, it get's praise. Here, Destiny clearly intended to create solid, fun gameplay with an engaging story set against the backdrop of a lush science fantasy universe. I don't know what happened, but half of that mission statement fell flat on its face. The game will be criticized and rightfully so.

To blindly defend these shortcomings is only hurting the game's potential. Bungie needs to hear our criticism so they can improve in an area they clearly want to succeed in. Furthermore, the sheeple need to have their opinions challenged so that they'll take one step closer to critical thinking and common sense. Of course, most will just change stance and board the hate-wagon because of social pressure, but a few will actually grow a few brain cells as a result, realizing that GASP, they can still enjoy the bloody game anyway. Fanboyism loses a few of its soldiers with each polarizing topic in this community. However, that only works if the rational, cooler-heads do their part in the discussion.

Then, of course, there's also the argument that the game was never really about half of the things we got hyped over. The problem there? It's still Activision/Bungie's fault. It's not my responsibility to look beyond whatever marketing you throw at me and assume the game is actually about something else. Any failure to properly communicate a game's intentions is just that, a failure. Also, to allow hype to build for something you know isn't the focal point of your game is irresponsible, it screams profit margins over quality and consumer satisfaction. Oh, you have to capitalize on all the hype? Well then don't be surprised when your game inevitably fails to satisfy everyone and develops a stigma. Capitalizing on ridiculous hype may pay off, but it also hurts the reputation of an otherwise decent game, driving late-adopters away like it's the plague. You saw what gamers did to the Xbox One: kill this trend.

That's what Destiny is, a painfully decent game. A solid jump shooter that's extremely engaging at times, yes, but bogged down with questionable design decisions and a terribly bare-bones plot that leaves you apathetic to the universe it goes to extreme lengths to create. That is MY opinion of the game, and just because most people hold that same opinion may have less to do with the fact that it's regurgitated and more to do with the fact that those are actually faults in the game's design.

TL:DR version:
You can enjoy something while simultaneously being open to/acknowledging its problems at the same time for the sake of eventual improvement and an overall better product.

+2 brain cells

Whew! Now that that's out of the way, I'd say it's time for something a little less critical and a little more constructive! I'm going to add an additional, more creative blog that details and dicusses possible ideas that I believe would've made the game better, specifically in the story department, as that's the only area that failed to reel me in. Stick around for that I suppose!