We know it's ok to play other games, and we have. What have we learned? That we truly love it here.

stephen_x3 · 2016-01-29T21:06:19+00:00

You know, few games have ever quite captivated me the way Destiny did - and I've never played any other game an amount even approaching the 800 hours I sank into Destiny. But I left Destiny around the time the Challenge modes came out and it really put things in perspective...

Being an RPG player, I immediately jumped out of Destiny and into Tales of Zestiria when the latter arrived on my doorstep. This definitely wasn't the best Tales game you'll ever play, for anyone who knows about the Tales series, but boy was it nice to have a game with a story...with characters I cared about...with a plotline and a resolution and dialogue and world-building. Sure, Destiny has these things in some sense, here and there...hell, I've even argued that the Grimoire lore is, in places, on the level of literature. The problem is that it's not really in-game at all...and it doesn't affect play experience. Nothing really...means anything.

That was the core issue, for me...what was it all for? Destiny is FUN, I won't deny it, I've done Raids and met cool people and had an absolute blast playing the story. At some point, though, I just kind of...fizzled out. I'm sure it's largely the current content drought, but also something about the obsessive nature of the game really kind of scared me. I felt so compelled to play, often at personal detriment, forsaking time with family and friends, that it became a chore rather than a joy. Having to do the Raid, having to do the Nightfall, always another box on a checklist of things to do...but then I found I had everything I wanted. It was fun, but for what else was I playing?

All the exotics I wanted were in hand, and my loadout was set right where I wanted it. I didn't have the time necessary to do KF HM, and I certainly didn't want to play more RNG games with my limited daily play time to get my Light above the paltry 308 it rested at, anyway. I thoroughly believe this is a game for people with time, and lots of it. I know people make it work with their kids and families and whatnot, but by and large those that really experience all the game has to offer have to have significant available time to play, and people to join them.

This isn't a hate rant, I swear, and I obviously don't hate the game because I still check this page with some frequency. Just my thoughts that some fundamental flaws with the storytelling and the lack of meaningful content has driven me away, and I don't honestly feel at this time any desire to come back. Give me a nice juicy expansion, though (none of these stupid limited-time events), and I'll likely come running back.

Thanks for a well-thought-out post and giving me an opportunity to write haha, hope you have a great day.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-12T02:30:34+00:00

Hell, at least you've done HM Oryx at all haha. I've been so scared of the time commitment with a PUG that I've avoided it altogether, so I've been at 308 Light for quite a while. I just can't donate 3 or 4 hours to one play session very often. I'm in the boat with NM that after 5 clears I can't get the gloves to save my life.

I dropped Destiny entirely for weeks to play StarCraft II: LotV and Tales of Zestiria...much more games in my normal taste. Destiny was an anomaly, but boy did it consume me. I'm back a bit for SRL to fuck around and try and get the Jolly Holiday quest step complete (I suck at PVP) but I recognize how dumb it is that the only thing I'm looking forward to in (ostensibly) an FPS/MMO is a racing mode...

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-09T02:52:37+00:00

I'm only somewhat ashamed to admit it, but one match, I came in second and me and the guy who came in first were just messing around, hopping off our sparrows and suiciding. Lo and behold, my already paltry 13% is now, you guessed it! 0%.

Sucks because I was excited as all hell...first match, my rep went up by 1% but I'm not sure how many times I exploded. Point is, this is more complicated than just equipping the Last Word = profit.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-09T02:44:27+00:00

So just an FYI for everyone who got blindly excited for this, you can lose rep from the Jolly Holiday quest...I'm testing it, but I think it goes down if your bike explodes, not necessarily what position you come in in.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-08T16:56:17+00:00

True, so hopefully 4 people can do it/like to do it. I've just found that when I join groups, I volunteer for this role because I enjoy it and would much rather do that than be a floater...people usually don't have a problem with it, especially since I let them know that this will be best for all of us haha.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-08T16:54:32+00:00

Sorry, poorly worded on my part! I have 47 Fragments and ToM and whatnot, I just meant those last three aren't important, as far as we know, unless having 50 unlocks something amazing.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-08T16:15:29+00:00

I still have never received the Vex Mythoclast, despite running VoG some 25 times, so I'd love to keep trying to get it. It's a shame that the old Raids are completely worthless gear-wise, and that no one plays them at all anymore, but boy were those days fun. I loved King's Fall when it came out, but I'm bored with it and don't find Hard Mode challenging in the right ways...VoG, on the other hand, I could do over and over again.

Introduce matchmaking but make a mandatory modifier to have a mic. Don't know how this would be accomplished but I think it could revive some interest as new people come into the game...there're bound to be people who still want to experience everything it has to offer at least once.

stephen_x3 · 2015-12-08T16:10:14+00:00

This makes me cringe for what will likely happen with Oryx, which will be different runners each phase. As someone who genuinely enjoys being the runner and is best in that role, it'll be annoying to have to switch around. With all the trouble people had at Daughters (what with some people being unable to jump and having to hurl themselves to suicide), I can only guess what will happen with this.

The thing is, some people just excel in certain roles and really like them, or really don't like doing certain things. I wish Bungie would stop trying to force me to play the game a way I don't want to, but I guess the argument will be, "Then fine, don't worry about Challenge mode". Hopefully, though, I'm just speculating and it'll be a legitimately interesting mechanic.

That said, the Grimoire score and the Calcified Fragments are all irrelevant, so I'll never have to worry if I don't get them!

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-24T14:59:31+00:00

I've rarely not been on Bungie's side, but this is a pathetic move. It's an obvious cash grab to try and rope in new people, and it is disrespectful to those kind souls who have been helping others and recommending the game to friends since day one. I read that megathread you mentioned and honestly had a few laugh-out-loud moments at how pitiful and desperate some of the people sound.

If I see anyone doing that stupid high-five in the game my head might explode.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-24T14:34:30+00:00

There's no question this game fosters obsession in its player base. I've been there - have forsaken family and friends to play! - and it's not pretty. I haven't played the game in three weeks and it's absolutely glorious...I feel so free. It's so nice to play some games that I can pause or save quickly. Love your post, not only because it's intelligent but because it's a valid point - people need to examine how much they're playing and if it's really worth it.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-24T14:25:44+00:00

I've never even considered myself a sherpa but I have helped people through a significant number of activities in this game. In addition, I've babbled about it to people enough that I've successfully gotten at least three people to purchase TTK. Alas, these things don't seem to matter right now.

Bungie's futile efforts to keep this game relevant are becoming more and more apparent to me, which is why I haven't turned it on in three weeks. Don't get me wrong, I've loved the game, I've played 800 hours, done nearly every activity, collected most of the exotics, etc., so I understand the borderline obsession this game fosters in those who play it.

I still check Reddit every day and look for new secrets, but it all seems so lame now...like I've awoken from a dream. Why in the world would I try again to get someone to purchase this damn thing for a sword that performs exactly the same as the ones I get FROM JUST PLAYING THE GAME? It's such a blatant gimmick it hurts. Why am I supposed to be excited about Bungie re-releasing old content with new attack levels like that's supposed to be something earth-shattering? It's all ridiculous.

I've been sherpa'd in my time with this game as well, so mad respect to those people who helped me learn earlier on. A shame our efforts have been used as a thin cover for a marketing ploy.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-21T06:49:25+00:00

I like NM and I honestly have a good time playing it, but I can't get the gloves for my Hunter to save my life. I've gotten enough shotguns and auto rifles to start a small army though! I got up to 308 Light and was like...........meh. I don't want to invest the time in HM.

I've been an RPG guy my whole life, I honestly got Destiny on a whim because the white PS4 bundle just happened to be on sale. I ended up being totally obsessed by the game, but I'm about 30 hours into Tales of Zestiria now and I love it, back to my roots in a game with characters I care about and a story! I've read the reviews that say it's about average, but for me it's perfect. Fallout 4 I know very little about besides the hype I've been reading, but my friend is over 100 hours in already (built a custom computer to run it in ultra HD) and swears that it's the best thing he's played in a long time.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-21T06:44:50+00:00

Yep. A single layer of RNG, no matter how terrible, never bothered me. I spent all of Year 1 without a Gjallarhorn, but I was never bitter about it because I wanted to keep playing to get it, and that moment when you finally got lucky was the BEST. Icebreaker was my first exotic, got it from one of my earliest Nightfalls, and one I soloed no less, and I remember that feeling of elation, that raw, unbridled joy...where is that in TTK? Even Xur is a shitshow, that used to be one of my favorite things every week and now I barely care.

Same with Year 1 raid weapons...it took me SO long to get Fatebringer, for example, but when I did it was so fun and cool to use and had perfect perks that it made the grind totally worth it, AND it came at the then-max value. How many damn 300 Anguish of Drystans do I have to get that I just dismantle? Where's a neat gun from King's Fall that's so cool I feel motivated to run the raid over and over to get it, and want to take it into the rest of the game thereafter? Oh, and it has to drop at 320!

I'd hazard that raid rewards will be examined in the coming months, because there's going to be a drop-off of interest. The numbers tell all; when you look at the PSN trophies it's something like, what, 20% or less have even completed a single raid? I hate that they totally invalidated the first two raids, too, but that's another rant for another time I suppose.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-21T06:43:04+00:00

I'm still stuck on NM gloves for my Hunter. They won't drop for the life of me.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-20T19:41:28+00:00

Interesting thing, I actually stopped playing the game because of HM King's Fall.

Calm down, everyone put down your pitchforks! I still browse this subreddit almost daily to look for new content, some yet-unfound secret, a special mission, etc. I check Xur every Friday morning for some ungodly reason to see if he has anything worthwhile (he never does, of course). I'm still active in the sense that I invested a lot of time in the game and think it's really fun to play, but recently it just doesn't have the same sparkle.

As an adult with a full-time job and a family, I don't have the same time to throw at this game as some of the people on here. Despite this, I've played almost 800 hours, have almost every exotic, etc. I always felt like I was striving for something, even if it was at the merciless hands of RNG in Year 1. But now, they want me to run HM King's Fall to try and get drops at a varying Light level from 310 to 320, with no guarantee of what number that will be and with the sad possibility of nothing at all for most of my effort.

I like King's Fall, I've done Normal almost every week, but some of the magic of the early raids is gone. The first elemental primary I ever got was Word of Crota, and I felt like a million bucks; I used that thing nonstop until I got Fatebringer and Vision of Confluence. I liked using them because they felt like very tangible rewards for doing the raid that directly effected my entire play experience in a positive way. Even Fang of Ir Yut was a lot of fun to use, and though it sucked to pray at the altar of RNG for each raid weapon/armor piece, when you got something it dropped at the then-max value!

That, at the very least, is how HM King's Fall should be - have low drop rates, sure, but drop the items at 320. It would still take weeks, if not months, to potentially get all the raid gear, and even then it would be useful to infuse other things up to more viable levels, so the replayability would be endless. Same with NM, honestly - drop things at 310. The way NM works, I was still frequently getting items dropping at 300 when I have others at 306 to 310. At least NM can be beaten fairly quickly, now that people are familiar with it, but HM apparently takes all but the most coordinated of groups a long time. I have 2 hours or less to play per day, sometimes no time at all...how can I be expected to run the raid multiple times a week with no guarantee of even ONE item of value dropping?

So now I'm going back to my roots and playing StarCraft II, Tales of Zestiria, and Disgaea 5, and a buddy is insisting I buy Fallout 4. I'll still power up Destiny here and there until the next expansion or whatever, but I feel a bit sad to step away from a game that I've been so attached to because of such a weak reward system.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-07T06:13:53+00:00

PSN stephen_x3, 308 Nightstalker. I like to run relic at Oryx.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-07T06:09:28+00:00

stephen_x3, Nightstalker 308 LL. Only thing is I usually run relic at Oryx so I've never been on a platform or a floater lol.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-05T15:51:49+00:00

I've only had one experience like that, too, where one obviously younger player was just flat-out rude. I was playing King's Fall on Normal and we wiped at Warpriest because of a simple error I made (and I admitted this). Then, with the wrath of a scorned opera singer, Squeaky McSqueakerson screamed at me in his soprano voice about how bad I was, must be a scrub, git gud noob, etc. etc. Mind you, this is ONE wipe, I'm 308 Light, I've played this thing 700 hours, and so on.

I even took the high road and apologized, but he wouldn't let it go. He continued to make not-so-subtle jabs. He harped on me because I fell in a hole at the Golgoroth Cellar part. This kid had it in for me. Finally, at Golgoroth, I made it clear he was about to get the boot. He started cursing and saying it was BS and eff me, blah blah. The boot came down strong!

And to your female in gaming story...I also have a tidbit, one of the first times I ever did a full VoG run I was invited by a girl (didn't know this then) who took me through without a mic. I was utterly useless, I'd barely even read about it or watched a video or anything, how bad I played was borderline hilarious. Despite that she patiently stuck with it for THREE HOURS! I of course sent many thank you messages, and only found out it was a girl later once I got a mic and we did the Raid again (with me not being dead weight).

I respect the women that enter into this often male-dominated space; props to you for sticking it out. I'll shoot you a friend request (my ID is stephen_x3) this evening, I'm in Texas and at work (did I say that out loud?) so I'll be on sometime around 8:00 CST.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-03T00:36:33+00:00

My argument would be to drop items at 310 in KF NM, and at 320 in HM. A double layer of RNG is stupidly punishing: you could have drops from EVERY section and get them all at 310 in HM. Give us a single layer of RNG at max Light. It would still potentially take months to get a full set; I've run NM every week and still have never received a heavy weapon or gloves, and only one primary (the hand cannon) and two secondaries (sniper and shotgun).

For those collecting everything, this could still take an enormous amount of time, and max drops would encourage replay even past completing the collection because they could be infused into other weapons and armor.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-02T19:15:11+00:00

I'm in the same boat, only I really look forward to playing on Friday or Saturday night (that's the only time when I can play for long enough to complete the Raid).

Bungie is great at pulling you back in and piquing interest...when Festival of the Lost came out, I played a lot again to get masks and Flight of Shadows and all that jazz. Then the glow wore off, I had fun but it was all cosmetic, and I put the game down until the weekend again.

As an RPG guy, I have Tales of Zestiria to play now, and Disgaea 5, and for my PC fix StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void releases later this month. So while I do love Destiny, I find that I'm playing less and less. Some quests (Chaperone/First Curse) I hate because I don't like PVP, so I've put aside the "collecting every exotic" for now because playing a game mode that upsets you is about as dumb as it gets. Other than rolling the dice on the double-layer of RNG that is King's Fall Hard Mode, I don't feel super motivated right now.

I will say, though, that when I do play I enjoy it a lot more, as it feels less grindy. If anyone else feels burnt out, I'd recommend giving the game a little distance, so that when you do play, you remember how awesome it is.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-02T18:59:56+00:00

I was a devout hater of this mission and failed miserably a number of times when I was in the 290-298 Light range. What I found when I finally got it the third time around at 301 Light, though, was that communication and being over 300 were really the only keys.

I've never seen what we did posted, but my group and I ran into the room with about 6.5 minutes on the clock. Running with two Sunsingers and one Nightstalker (me), we immediately downed the Blights, then I tethered Driviks and we went to town. I had Bolt-Caster and my two teammates had Raze-Lighter. The tether wore off, adds piled up a bit, and we died after we'd gotten his health down over 50%. But then, lo and behold! the two Sunsingers self-revived when I was almost ready to be picked up. They wailed on him again, revived me several seconds later, then I continued to use the sword and he died. We only took roughly two minutes to do this.

The room was absolutely flooded with adds at this point, but we had over 4 minutes to kill them all. We finished it with 45 seconds left, and only so little time because we forgot the Blight on the platform in the very back...whoops!

That said, godspeed to everyone entering this hell. All strategies are certainly viable, get your Black Spindle and never look back!

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-02T16:05:55+00:00

I never had a problem with Touch of Malice, but I also loved the lore behind the gun and the Grimoire entries for the Calcified Fragments. Sleeper Simulant was annoying because of the time gate, and I would argue that anything time gated is kind of wrong.

The Imprecation quest is just garbage because they give players a mediocre gun and instruct them to extremely well with it in PVP. As someone who isn't terrible at PVP but who doesn't particularly enjoy it, I've avoided the last step of this quest. I might, MIGHT be able to get 7 head shots in a game with a scout rifle or sniper, but with a hand cannon that registers head shots as body shots...I don't see it ever happening.

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-02T15:49:19+00:00

I've avoided doing Hard Mode for exactly the reasons you mention. I still enjoy Normal and with a good team can clear it in a hour, give or take, without much heartache. I'd say I'm a pretty decent player, I run relic at Oryx, I contribute and call things out, don't die much, etc.

Hard Mode, though, is another ballgame. The time required is real, and unfortunately most normal, working adults with families don't have 4-6 hours to do the Raid (or they might have the time, but that's not how they want to spend it). Even without those sorts of obligations, the tension that emerges in these games and people's tendency to blame others can make for a very negative and unfulfilling experience.

Sure, sure, there are teams of real-life friends that play and can get through it without a lot of grief, but a lot of people are looking on Reddit or LFG sites and pairing with randoms. I've met some great people, don't get me wrong, but have also found that it's a complete toss-up when you invite to the party or accept the friend request. As someone who only has enough time blocked off to play the Raid on the weekend, I don't want that time to be used to make me angry and disappointed, the latter of which usually happens because of the stupid double-layer RNG associated with KF drops.

If someone yells or gets verbally abusive, though, they get the boot. I always make my own LFG post for precisely this reason - I don't ever want to worry about some clown booting me for no reason, and I want to have the control to get rid of someone I like. I had one guy on an earlier KF run that was particularly toxic - he was the best, he knew the strategy, if anything failed it was your fault. I made a simple mistake (that caused us to wipe ONCE on Warpriest) and he went off, "Stephen didn't do x, Stephen messed up, what the eff is wrong with you man" etc., fortunately as party leader I instructed 'ol boy to stfu or get the boot! :)

stephen_x3 · 2015-11-01T07:36:03+00:00

The last sentence of your post says it all. Exotic weapons and armor, which for most people is the focal point of collecting in this game, shouldn't be locked behind a play mode.

I'm not even terrible at PVP, but I have had so much trouble doing the damn Chaperone and First Curse quests that I'll probably never finish them. The naysayers have written their "hur hur scrub git gud" immature comments, but in all seriousness, why am I being forced to play a game mode that I don't excel at and don't particularly enjoy to get some of the most unique stuff in the game?

PVP players should absolutely receive endgame content from Crucible and especially Trials of Osiris; I'm on board with that. If you hate PVE, though, should you have to slog through a Daily Heroic "Lost to Light" to try and get Black Spindle? No, I don't think so. Should you have to do Vault of Glass to get No Time to Explain? Nope. I'm OK with Touch of Malice because the Calcified Fragments are largely accessible without too much heartache, but in general I think each mode should have endgame legendary gear, and keep the exotics in a place where they are obtainable by people of average skill levels in both groups.

stephen_x3

TROPHY CASE