Destiny (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Tuesday, May 19, 2015, 16:14 (3475 days ago) @ General Battuta

Just a conjecture, but I feel like the grimoire cards are what's left over from the story before it got overhauled... Probably remnants of what Staten was working on all that time.

It is a shame that a great story wasn't delivered, because the pieces are there. It just didn't happen for whatever reason.

I have to admit it rubs me the wrong way to see this time and again. We worked our asses off on those cards - I worked too hard, and it cost me a serious chunk of my mental health.

I wasn't cribbing from anyone's outline. We did the work.

e: I'm sorry if I sound snappy, I don't mean to be a grouch. I'm glad you appreciate them!

I think I'd be at least as snappy if I were you. I've said before that I don't care for this kind of conjecture, but I've also never been one to make the assumption that Staten was the fountainhead of all good storytelling from Bungie--what Ken Levine was to Irrational.* His ambition for Halo 2 almost wrecked the development of that game (not his fault alone, but Halo 2 is a flawed game). I might even say that the best writing from Bungie came before and after Staten's tenure.** I think writing for big games these days is much more akin to screenwriting--it's collaborative.

I hope you're in a good place now, Battuta.

Kermit

*Even Ken Levine delegated a lot at Irrational. I had a one-minute interaction with him at PAX, and I asked him about the nod to Frederick Law Olmsted at the beginning of BioShock Infinite. (Olmsted is considered the father of American landscape design, and was a primary character in THE DEVIL IN WHITE CITY, the non-fiction book about the Chicago World's Fair that Levine often cited as one of his inspirations for Columbia--great book!) He said, "Oh, that must have been Joe Fielder! He wrote all that incidental conversational stuff."

**I love Staten. I think he's a good writer, was a good spokesman for Bungie, and Bungie's loss was Microsoft's gain. I've thoroughly enjoyed the panels I've seen when he was there.