On episode 82 of the Guardian Radio, the group was joined by Bungie’s Community Manager.
DeeJ had a round table discussion about the current state of Destiny. He took a lot of feedback in the chat for what the community wants to see changed, and he addresses many concerns that people currently have.[divider]
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[divider]Highlights
As DeeJ mentioned a few times in the discussion, he wanted to gather feedback for the Dev team, not make promises about future content or changes.
You can find a paraphrased version of highlights of the talk below:
Clan integration in-game, rather than outside of the game.
DeeJ: He loves the idea, he’s the ‘clan’ guy. DeeJ wants clan integration to happen and a better clan experience, and he’s advocating for it, but no promises.
Rich cinematic storytelling promise was not fulfilled. Grimoire should be in game. They’re good but not enough.
DeeJ: The feedback on the story has obviously been heard within Bungie. Many people within Bungie agree. Debates rage internally as they do externally. DeeJ isn’t big on story, he’s more about clans, people, interaction. The people creating the next story content have learned and hopefully can do better in the future.
Split screen support, anything in the future?
DeeJ: He explored this issue deeply before the release of the game, talking to people about it within Bungie. He wanted it to happen. Technical limitations meant providing that experience wasn’t feasible. DeeJ knows they want it and hopefully in time it could happen.
Referencing an old GDC talk, “Like a TV show, new episodes would come out, the game would change.” People expected different things constantly. Instead they got an experience more like Phantasy Star Online where you just run the same missions with different modifiers.
DeeJ: GDC is old. That talk is old. That infomation became outdated. That’s what they wanted to do at the time, but things changed.
Disconnect between the world of Destiny and the characters . Example, the Thorn bounty’s Grimoire story is epic, yet the way its presented on screen is barely noted, feels unimportant, and becomes a grind, with the story ignored.
DeeJ: He’s not a story guy, but he’ll take all this back to the dev team. He wants these crits. He talks about what he wants from Bungie.net. He’s looking for things that players want. He looks for 1. What Destiny does right, and 2. What Destiny can do better. He’s listing off all the common things player wants, vault space, matchmaking, private matches, he knows what’s up.
DLC areas on the disc leading to criticism.
DeeJ: People are still working on it. They are putting the finishing touches on DLC. Bungie doesn’t mind that people are getting into these areas. Feedback from the game has been considered when making the DLC.
Where are the private matches in Crucible? What happened with Iron Banner?
DeeJ: He knows that people want private matchmaking. But he’s not in ‘promise making’ mode. He can’t guarantee this stuff will get added. DeeJalso says that the great thing about Iron Banner is that it can change next time it comes back. This first one was a little too conservative.
Tighten up the net code; improve the Crucible experience.
DeeJ: Priority #1 is to make sure everyone can connect.
Patrol worlds need more to do. More variations on the patrol missions. More things to collect other than ghosts. We wanted people within the world, within patrols, to offer us quests.
DeeJ: As much as you guys can imagine all this stuff, the designers can also imagine it.
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Takeaway
Bungie is listening, and they hear you. They know about the major problems, and those issues are being prioritized. DeeJ mentioned that they don’t want to put out a new Dev Diary until they’ve addressed everything they need to.