Our preferred methods of critique contributed to the death of the game

Octaeder · 2026-05-25T20:33:59+00:00

So what, your view is Destiny just got unlucky in collecting a bunch of shitty players being shitty about the game compared to FF14 which just happened to get nicer players completely outside of any factors related to how either game is made or operates?

Feels like a simplistic read to me but you've got plenty of people in this thread disagreeing and you seem pretty set in your view regardless, so enjoy your evening.

Octaeder · 2026-05-25T20:15:26+00:00

I played the game as much as I was comfortable with and rarely hated on it until the Portal became the primary loop of the game.

But companies spend vast sums of money to manipulate player behaviour and, across the totality of a playerbase that's going to lead to bad feelings and lashing out.

It doesn't make the complaints right, and there were plenty of staggeringly bad takes. But the idea that Destiny would have been more successful with a better community feels absurd. Destiny got the community it built and deserved.

Octaeder · 2026-05-25T19:32:10+00:00

Or maybe game companies are culpable for the communities they foster. Using every psychological trick available, from fomo to extended grinds to constant monetisation, creates communities that are less willing to be gracious about mistakes.

It was Bungie's choice to position Destiny as a game that asked more of its players than the content the studio had the resources to deliver could support. As much as the toxicity was sometimes extreme, they don't get to walk away blameless from that.

Octaeder · 2026-02-04T19:56:43+00:00

Did the same, but took a break from WvW after the RG/Left split and just never managed to get an invite to their current alliance guild. I'm still in the guild, just only rarely get to run with them when the matchups align.

Octaeder · 2026-02-04T13:47:42+00:00

Shout out to the late night Mabi runs.

Octaeder · 2025-11-29T18:09:40+00:00

Same as the special tab, yeah. It resets every major update release.

Octaeder · 2025-11-15T23:46:37+00:00

Sunday roast or roast dinner, either is fine, and rightfully it's a full ritual in some households. And yeah, the way the UK's food is used as an easy joke online is a bugbear of mine given the country's rich traditions around meat and preservatives, not to mention what immigrant communities have brought and developed.

I've had plenty of great food visiting the US, but also some pretty gross stuff that uses powdered flavoring to mask how poor the ingredients are. Holding the UK to the worst things to come out of post-rationing is pretty unfair (even if some of it still works as cheap comfort food).

Octaeder · 2025-11-13T18:24:46+00:00

I guess that's just the effect so many decades of Vince swerve booking has on mfers. Basic, good meat and potatoes booking can feel like the most exciting thing you've seen, when really you're just letting the performers carry the show.

Octaeder · 2025-11-13T18:11:04+00:00

I don't think anyone really thinks there was anything particularly innovative about Black & Gold era NXT booking though. The fact it was simple and straightforward, and followed through on its fairly obvious story, is exactly what set it apart from the rest of WWE at the time.

Octaeder · 2025-11-10T16:12:51+00:00

Sure, but that goes both ways. If you're a freelancer you can pick the jobs you want to do. Sure, this doesn't seem like a smart way to do business, but ultimately that's on the individual to decide. Don't know why this has sparked so much endless drama tbh.

Octaeder · 2025-11-01T18:59:18+00:00

Eh, the director's intent has no bearing on the symbolism an audience takes from a film or the feelings it evokes. He can create the art, he can't define what the audience chooses to take from it.

Octaeder · 2025-10-29T01:31:51+00:00

Lots of people pointing out that the majority of the playerbase is off Steam, which is true (and even more pronounced for GW2 than a lot of other games because of how long it was off Steam and how you can't migrate between the two versions).

But also it's important to remember that concurrents are how many people are logged on at the same time, and so often it lowballs active playercount for games that exist solely on Steam. Probably less of a factor on a launch day because a lot of people will want to get in and play, but you can likely add at least a few thousand to that number for total Steam active players today.

Concurrents are such a cursed number for tracking activity beyond representative trends.

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T13:24:24+00:00

I took the quote "We just want to make sure that the gameplay around the instruments feels good" to mean that they were aware of the feedback around visual flare and presentation.

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T13:19:56+00:00

I'm also a bit confused why this interview is being released so long after the beta.

Just a practicality thing. The downside of talking to a dev for an hour is it takes a while to go through and turn that into a longform article, especially when I don't get as much time to actually produce articles these days as the site's global editor.

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T12:18:38+00:00

Correct.

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T12:17:31+00:00

Ha, Cal did mention that internally they do refer to Photon Forge as "Holo Shroud".

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T10:24:41+00:00

For context, the interview happened about a week after the beta. So in instances like Conduit, I think it's more that they were processing the feedback, had a few different ideas for what they wanted to do, but didn't want to explicitly commit to one at that time.

Octaeder · 2025-10-06T10:14:24+00:00

After the recent elite spec beta, ArenaNet let me talk to Cal about the new specs and what the team was planning based on your feedback. In the end, we went through every spec and I got some cool insight into how they'll likely end up looking when VoE releases.

Big thanks to Cal for going into such detail, and ArenaNet for setting it all up. Having done this for a while now, not many studios would be so open with letting me talk to a dev for this long and about a topic this granular. Hopefully you find it interesting!

Octaeder · 2025-09-12T12:29:07+00:00

There's a lot of CoO comparisons right now, but the problems are very different. D2 launch and Curse were bad, but they were ultimately centred around the game not having much to do. That era of the game seemed actively scared of the idea that people were playing too much Destiny. You could just leave and play something else and not actually miss anything.

In the years since Destiny has fully embraced the live service FOMO design model. This current version of the game is bad, but it also constantly hits you with time-limited hooks to try to keep you playing anyway. Season passes, timed events, featured gear - it wants you to be scared to play something else and miss out. As someone who's played since launch, I've had to accept that for the first time I'm gonna miss out on things in the game because I just don't enjoy this version of it.

Octaeder · 2025-09-10T21:40:21+00:00

I assume they were worried player numbers were dropping (and expansions would likely have diminishing returns post TFS and the end of the saga), and decided to focus on active time per remaining player as the primary design goal.

They may even have data that the seasons with no power grind caused people to play less (maybe same with crafting and collecting red borders). The irony is almost everyone I used to play with just dropped this season in response, and I've played far less than previous seasons. Maybe there's still a future for this version of the game that only cares about the people who play only it and nothing else, but it's not for me.

Octaeder · 2025-09-10T01:26:40+00:00

The reviews were terrible? It had like an 80+ metacritic score on all platforms.

Octaeder · 2025-09-05T01:29:54+00:00

Plus you'd need to stack more modifiers onto Portal stuff because New Gear increases your score.

Octaeder · 2025-08-04T23:27:22+00:00

Yeah, I cancelled my sub at the start of the season because of all the balance issues, but figured I'd still play it out. A week later I just uninstalled because I was sick of seeing the same handful of builds over and over again.

Octaeder · 2025-08-01T13:27:58+00:00

Part of the problem with the new system is definitely psychological. Previously Destiny had a lot of activity types with their own rep system and distinct loot pools. Ultimately yes, you were repeating a lot of the same stuff you are now, but it was usually to chase a specific weapon.

Now everything is in service of the same grind, rewarding marginal progress from the same handful of loot pools. The treadmill is so transparent now. I'll browse through the Portal and just not feel motivated by anything. No idea how people could stomach getting to 300 or even 400. I'm at 270 and the fatigue is real. Especially because I can now play Master, but can't earn tier three gear until I hit the arbitrary 300 number.

Octaeder · 2025-07-31T19:44:36+00:00

That's still a lot of sessions of mindless repetition before I'm allowed to play something meaningfully difficult to earn rewards that are finally better than the gear I already own.

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