Does Destiny need a "campaign"? (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Friday, October 20, 2017, 11:48 (2590 days ago) @ Claude Errera

I'm not sure where I land on this thought, but they do make some fantastic points in the podcast. One thing that they mention is how powerful the experience becomes in those brief moments during the campaign where you find yourself matched in with other players, and how it seems like a shame that this only happens twice during the campaign. But as Patrick says, the nature of a linear campaign makes it difficult for Bungie to lean on that kind of experience, because the vast majority of players will go through the campaign over the first couple weeks, and then never touch it again. So for the few players who do play the campaign later, they won't be able to find anyone to get matched with when they reach those sections. This is contrasted against the moments where Strikes overlap with public Patrol encounters, and how that is a more consistently reliable occurrence over time because that content is more repeated by players.

I think Bungie has partially solved this problem with Meditations - since you can earn gear from Ikora for doing them, people do them. When the city streets level came up a couple of weeks ago, I found the area filled with Guardians, as it was when I ran it the first time. I think that'll continue to be true as time goes on. (Doesn't mean I don't wish there were more of those moments - just that I think the fear of deserted streets is an empty one.)

But what about all of the people who play through when it's not a Meditation?
I think if Meditations were at least randomized for each player, there really wouldn't be so much of an issue of empty streets, since people would be more inclined to replay the missions as a group (that would mean nine potential story missions per fireteam, with the odds of one of them having the final mission being fairly solid).

Side tangent: I've noticed over the past week or two that it has already become shockingly rare to see other players while out on patrol. I complete almost all of my Flashpoint Milestones solo, without seeing another player at all. And now that we can fast travel, I hardly ever get to see a fireteam of Guardians drive by on their sparrows. Anyone else having this experience?

Nope - as a couple of other people have mentioned, my patrol experiences this week (and pretty much all weeks) include plenty of other players.

As did mine, but I did notice that last week there were indeed far less people in general than there have been during other Flashpoints. Maybe because Nessus is just really big, with multiple events going on at once...