Agreed. That's why I pointed out that the validity of the "source" was uncertain. Wasn't surprising, and sounds like standard "screwed by publisher" fare as well as reiterating several theories that already exist on the subject.

> Okay, so I'm wondering what person could honestly think that. Someone, either at the studio or the publisher, thought the game should be LESS like Halo and Mass Effect, two of the most successful sci-fi franchises in console history?

Assuming 404 is on the mark at all, the reason Destiny feels odd, characterless, and without a lot of personality is because the original story they cut may have been bad. Like really bad. Bad enough that half the team thought they shouldn't even try to compete with halo/mass effect. Bad enough that Joe was insulted enough to leave. Bad enough that Activision gave the thumbs up to gut it. Please leave the possibility that Destiny, extremely polished in almost every other area, may have had a poor story edited out that was never going to work. And that we might be thankful for it! But this is speculation on top of what may be totally false information. I just want people to be open to the idea they may not WANT to know what was planned.

I'm not sure I buy it. I think this guy may just be a fan who is trying to "confirm" what a lot of other people already speculate. For example with the homogenizing of character backstories, even as far back as the GDC talk where we got most of our information one of the things they emphasized is that they didn't want you to miss things or feel like you chose incorrectly based on which race or class you chose. If the story differed between races (a choice they have also ALWAYS said was just cosmetic) then you would be required to play three different races on three different characters to get the full story in game.

Personally, I would have liked that. I'm not sure why they saw it as a bad thing. I had to play through the game three times anyway just to try out the different classes, and the game is all about repeating missions even when you've finished them already. Would've been nice to change things up a bit with a different origin story. Or heck, even a single acknowledgement that my character is an Awoken in the Reef cutscenes.

What rings true to me is that I doubt many people at Bungie are ignoring criticism or are in denial about the game's flaws.

This. Even if they're not speaking out, I suspect that Bungie truly is hearing what we want/need them to hear. And in all honesty, I sincerely doubt that our reaction to the story was unexpected.

I completely agree.
Honestly though, the fact that I believe Bungie recognizes the flaws, and takes them very very seriously, doesn't make me think that they will be able to fix them. In the past they have been a stellar studio, but their current work suggests otherwise.

I don't buy being unable to prove identity. Other people from other companies have been able to do so. The guy just needs to post his work badge or whatever with any identifiers blacked out.

You might say it's an RNG roll.

In all seriousness, I don't know whether to believe this. I know I'd like to believe it, but there is no proof.

- No text -

I work for a very large manufacturing company and upper management vision squabbles are not a new thing. Mostly it results in designs getting rushed out the door with known quality issues. Several times designs have failed marketing trials late in development and enormous time and money is spent trying to tweak the design to fix things, but at that point we've already spent millions on tooling and there are big limits to what can be done. Other times there is a growing problem with a component that gets glossed over and covered up until after launch, with the hope that we can patch it later.

Feedback from the customers can reach the higher ups, but there is a large cognitive bias against learning all the lessons, and often nothing can be done with the product as is and we have to wait till the next development cycle to make changes.

It would be a credit to Bungie's leadership to recognize the customer reaction to the game and not double down on their initial plan. Step one is always to recognize that you have a problem, step two is to quantify it.

Destiny has a problem in that it's story is largely missing, and so is much of the content promised during the build up to launch. We need non raid activities for 4-6 people. We need some voice chat. Finally more exploration and story content.

- No text -

The truth probably lies in the middle. Bungie might not have a long-term plan as elaborate and thought-out as I hope they do, but they aren't winging it to the extent that post implies.

http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/70908920/0/0/1

1. Like he would confirm it
2. He didn't explicitly deny.

When your company releases a bad product, when you are known for quality, people will wonder what happened. We may never know the truth, but the end result is apparent.

At this point, I'm still a Bungie fan, but they have been downgraded considerably on the list of my favorite developers. The magic is gone.

Good enough for me. I'll trust him.

Assuming this guy is a fake and what he says is all fictitious, what is the alternative? That this is indeed exactly the game Bungie always intended to make and that they a) are surprised by the reaction, or b) knew they simply did a poor job of it and shipped it anyway?

I don't think that's the part that Bungie would be denying. It's the "details" that are the troll part about it. If Bungie reacts like they have before they will admit there were missteps, it just won't be now, and it won't be in a AMA on Reddit (or in reaction to one) from an anonymous Bungie employee.