Does Destiny need a "campaign"? (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Friday, October 20, 2017, 22:41 (2580 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I didn't particularly like that answer from Luke, but at the same time the idea that Bungie has dropped all its other story thread doesn't ring true to me. Destiny 2 includes a ton of hints and continuations to all sorts of plot threads. Really, I can't think of any character or thread that didn't get a mention in Destiny 2.

Now sure, our Ghost wondering if the Exo Stranger is alright isn't exactly the same as having an entire DLC based around Oryx coming to avenge Crota's death, but I was actually impressed at how little was truly left behind.

If I could find a transcript of all the dialogue attached to the in world scanable objects I'd make a pretty neat post talking about what they are all referencing. Just one random reference, there's a bank of monitors or some such thing you can scan on Titan to which your Ghost comments:

Shipping manifestos. Hm. Looks like they traded frequently with a settlement… wow. Way out there. It's called… Hyperion. Huh.

Seems like a bit of mostly useless information, right? Except, that in Ghost Fragment: Vex 5, Maya Sundaresh was voicing a message to her wife Chioma Esi. Maya was in Tibet working on one of those strange machines that the Future War Cult uses to give visions to its followers and Chioma? Well, Maya says in her message:

I missed you. We hadn’t been apart for more than a year since we met. I’m not a very good wife, am I? You write me every week, even with all Hyperion’s work and all Hyperion’s distance keeping you from me. And I act like it’s not enough.

Just with one word, one location name, the universe branches back out and expands again, and I love that! :)

I think, to clarify my point, it’s important to draw a distinction between “narrative” and “lore”. Destiny 2 makes plenty of lore references, as you point out. But that is never a replacement for narrative. I think lore is a wonderful tool when it comes to augmenting a great narrative. It helps add scope and scale to a created world, adds a sense of history and context to the events of the plot. But lore on its own cannot provide the meaning or impact of a central narrative. And all too often, Destiny’s “storytelling” is actually just lore dumps dressed up as a narrative. There are characters and places and events that are referenced from time to time, but none of it means anything. None of it drives or motivates our guardian, or us, for that matter (short of curiosity... we want to know more just for the sake of knowing more, as is human nature).

Now, the Grimoire in D1 blurred the lines between narrative and lore. They sometimes crossed over into something resembling folk tales or legends, in that they contained bareboned approximations of actual stories. But even at their best, they don’t provide anything close to the kind of deep, meaningful narrative we would hope for from a game like Destiny. They merely suggest the possibility of one, and rely on our imaginations to fill in the gaps. And for their intended purpose, that’s plenty. But I think D1 is proof that the best written lore is no replacement for a good primary narrative.

So no, I can’t agree with your assessment that a single-line mention counts as the continuation of a plot thread. An off-the-cuff mention is no replacement for following the actions and conflicts of living, breathing characters, and the events surrounding them. And sometimes, that’s fine. I’d be ok with some threads being left hanging. But not ALL of them, and that is precisely the pattern that Bungie has developed with Destiny so far (with the exception of Crota/Oryx, as I already mentioned).