Game mechanics and the community (Destiny)

by kapowaz, Wednesday, November 27, 2013, 03:50 (4017 days ago)

So, 2013 is nearly up. 2014 beckons, and with it the Destiny beta. I remain curious, but I have to admit that my excitement has somewhat abated. I still feel like I don't know enough about how Destiny will work.

A couple of weeks ago, Blizzard announced their forthcoming expansion to World of Warcraft — Warlords of Draenor. As well as a whole bunch of new content, (as is becoming quite common) they're also revamping a lot of in-game systems. Mostly it's about making sure things are more fun and meaningful, rather than just hoops to jump through. This expansion isn't going to be released until next year — it's probably around 10 months or so away — and Blizzard's usual caveats about how features aren't set in stone preface everything they announced.

That doesn't stop them from posting this kind of detailed announcement about how equippable items (and their stats) are being changed. A short excerpt:

• Armor pieces will always have some amount of Stamina and Armor value.
  
• Armor pieces always have Strength, Intellect, or Agility as a primary stat. Plate has either Strength or Intellect. Mail and Leather have either Agility or Intellect. Cloth has Intellect.
  
• In the cases of Plate, Mail, and Leather, the primary stat will change depending on your current spec. Specifically, casters (including healers) will get Intellect, and melee or tank specs will get Strength or Agility.

Why do I bring this up here? Because I feel like Bungie are still far too reticent to discuss Destiny game mechanics, under the blanket excuse that ‘things might change’. With the beta perhaps less than 6 months away, I no longer feel like that excuse cuts the mustard. Naturally the majority of players probably won't benefit from or participate in such discussions, but the average player of that ilk doesn't frequent forums like DBO or NeoGAF. If Bungie wishes to be to MMO FPS games what Blizzard is to MMORPGS, this radio silence can't hold forever. Blizzard understands that such announcements are part of a dialogue with the community, rather than just being announcements for players to just accept whether or not they like them.

So in short: I implore Bungie to start sharing with the community their plans for game mechanics. Destiny is intended to be a long-lived project, and I believe that's far more likely to come to fruition with the participation of the community.