Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: activision, Bungie, Destiny, entertainment, games, video games

The State Of Play: Where Does Destiny Year 2 Stand Now That DLC Is Gone?

Published Tue, 03 May 2016 15:45:36 -0500

Lord knows I love me some Destiny.

"People still play that game?"

Ha. Ha. Ha. Stop it.

Bungie's bizarre MMO, AAA FPS experiment has been something pretty unique up until this point. There certainly have been stumbles, but there have also been lots of highs. The loot chase is strong in the title, and the gun feel even more so. I don't think I've ever been bored of pew pewing an alien in the head in the game, and the feel of every gun is distinct enough to want to chase the best of them out there.

However, Destiny has had a problem over the last few months. The Taken King was excellent, the best bit of content for Destiny to this point by quite a margin. It told a fun adventure story, added a killer Raid and Year 2 of Destiny started by fixing a ton of problems that Year 1 had. Since then? Things have been quite barren. We've had Sparrow Racing…I guess, which was a cute little distraction, but it's not the kind of updates we were getting in Year 1 with the paid for DLC. Here is where things get complicated, but I want to say I sympathise with Bungie. What makes Destiny so unique is just how polished the core experience feels. Everything about it is AAA. This isn't the usual persistent online universe that we get, where there are concessions in graphics or gameplay for the size and online nature of the world. This is high tier AAA work. That takes time and money, and Bungie have a great vision they are not willing to compromise. It's admirable, and it is why I am in love with the game.

To support that vision, the company needs a lot of money. Game production is hard, and it certainly isn't cheap. In Year 1, that got a little out of hand for some. With a full price game, which then asked for a third of the game, twice, in expansions, on top of The Taken King itself, Destiny was an expensive past time. That model changed in Year 2 with the company essentially scrapping the expensive DLC that was added into the game. That pleased a lot of fans, and opened up the game a fair bit…

…You're waiting for it, aren't you?…

But!

Is Year 2 really better off? Destiny is certainly cheaper now, and we did just get an April update for free. The problem is, that April update had less game building features compared to even one of the expansions to Destiny. At this point in Year 1, we'd almost nearly had two of those DLC.

The thing that is supposedly subsisting all of us are the Live events. They are cool little events, and stuff like the Valentines and Halloween promotions put a neat 'theme' around things. And Sparrow racing was … cool? But lets not kid ourselves. These are not true replacements to the DLC from last year. There is no additional modes like a Raid, Prison of Elders, Trials of Osiris. Nothing lasting anyways, and these Live events have been more about repackaging what was already there. I've long said, Destiny doesn't have to be demanding your attention constantly. It benefits with break periods in between hardcore play (at least for me), but I want to be playing a lot more than I am being compelled to, and a persistent online game can be played too little.

My fear is that with this major April release, we are already seven months into Year 2 and we have to imagine the next expansion will be announced at E3, set for September. Will we even get another update like the April one it in Year 2? If not, then Destiny has a problem. One major release in September, with a handful of community events and an update in the year… it's not enough to keep us coming right now. Will we all keep coming back? And can Bungie continue high end production and maintenance without new players at a constant rate? The answer is, inevitably, yes, as Destiny clearly isn't going anywhere. But for me, the question is 'will future releases get even smaller and less substantial if the life blood of the community slows?'

None of this is easy to solve, and it's stuff that I am sure Bungie are racking their brains about more than we can know. Everything about Year 2 has felt like a transition, levelling out problems the game originally had, but we've been trapped in limbo for months now. We're not at the end of that transition, hopefully with that coming in Year 3. Destiny is doing fine, and I appreciate the ideas put forth in Year 2 of Destiny, lots of them being quite radical, and successfully radical at that. I hope to personally see some kind of middle ground met in the future now though, with a little more DLC supporting Live Events in the future. How do you make it so players don't feel like they are spending a fortune on the game, but still find the capital to produce such high quality work?…I'm not sure, but I do trust Bungie will try and find a way.

And this could be a whole other article, but I hope we have seen the height of the influence of microtransactions on the game. Its importance is certainly is beginning to creep up!

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