B.net is telling me I sunk 30 hours into my main Hunter character in the Beta. With all the limitations that had.

With another 3 areas to properly explore (I only had a hour and a half on the moon), another 12 character levels to unlock, another subclass, and two other classes (I only played with each for maybe 90 minutes) to explore, and deeper customisation with the Legendary and Exotic weapons and armour; I'm definitely going to be spending a lot of time in Destiny.

It says I also played 48 matches of multiplayer - which seems a lot compared to any other MP games I've played. I felt like I was only just starting to get the hang of it on the last night. Despite some frustrations in the middle of last week, I kept seeing new ways to play right up to the close.

Plus, what looks like space for a 3rd subclass at some point, 2 expansions in the first year, promise of more active management of both PvP AND PvE...

Well worth it.

Of course you can always want MOAR but I really, really, really want it to come out NOW.

My only concern is that the story missions won't do the gameplay mechanics justice. Hopefully they turn up the dials later on in the story mode.

2. Don't contain designed encounters, but rather roving enemy packs

I was agreeing with you on this point at the beginning of the beta. But all of the roving enemy packs have some specific spots that they're working within and appear to have a solid understanding of the environment.

So I felt like each pack was a designed encounter that I could approach from many more ways than I did in most encounters in Halo as the levels were largely linear.

Just didn't help that by the time I started understanding that, I was already Level 8 and therefor was not at risk from most of the packs.

That was a "Yes, you're absolutely right. But it'll *feel* bigger I swear". Which we've heard before from a million other debs.

Now, this is Bungie so I trust them to mean it, but still - my biggest concern all along has been that it will feel less 'mythic fantasy' and more short story.

Again, remember how Bungie said Halo 2's great Journey could fit all of the geometry from Halo inside it? That was true. But, which was more fun, all of Halo, or the single level Great Journey?

Destiny does not really get a lot of 'Bang for Your Buck' so to speak, out of the modeled areas, since they are:

1. Mostly Empty
2. Don't contain designed encounters, but rather roving enemy packs
3. Story missions are not substantial
4. Explore mode missions suck

As such, because of the way Bungie designed Destiny, it really NEEDS tons of content to stay fun. Marathon and Halo did more with less, because the games were more concentrated in their design.

It doesn't matter if we are going to play for months, if those months are going to be spent replaying the same things over and over for better loot, or to complete bounties. Again, I'd rather have a game like Vanquish that packs such a dense experience into its levels, rather than a vast expanse that is empty with missions that don't feel as substantial.

That was a "Yes, you're absolutely right. But it'll *feel* bigger I swear". Which we've heard before from a million other debs.

Now, this is Bungie so I trust them to mean it, but still - my biggest concern all along has been that it will feel less 'mythic fantasy' and more short story.

It also helps if you take the perspective of Destiny being a FPS, not a MMO. Bungie has been very careful to not refer to Destiny as a MMO. Now we see why. As a FPS, this is a beautiful, beautiful game. As an MMO, it's small. This, of course, is based on what we know from the Alpha and the Beta.

Prior to this knowledge, I was still having a blast with the Beta. Knowing it's smaller than I thought doesn't make it less fun, it just requires me to reset my expectations. Which, admittedly, is difficult to do.

Hype is reigned in (probably brought to 'non-Bunge fanboy' levels really) but I'm still looking forward to September in a big way.

Oh, hello.

Destiny's pretty big. It's the biggest game we've ever made, by far, and we're sort of known for making games you can play for months, years, and even decades if you're a little bit...dedicated.

With Destiny, we're looking to exceed what we've done before, not just in terms of scale - the Moon is our smallest destination - but in terms of scope and breadth of activities. That's true for day one, as you expect, but it also means we want Destiny to have super long legs.

If we're fortunate enough to have you playing months after launch, you still find lots of compelling stuff to do. That will manifest itself in a myriad of ways, from straight up content to cool activities we've yet to show off.

We think we did a decent job supporting Halo, post launch, but we were only ever able to cater to the competitive set. That left a lot of players out in the cold. That made a lot of the team grumpy. We wanted to do better. So, Destiny is philosophically built support every type of player, and all modes with ongoing activities and events. We look at it quite a bit like television programming, as opposed to a singular film, as we had in the past. We think it's gonna be pretty great, but we wanted to test out a bunch of our new stuff with Beta, to make sure we could flip knobs and levers live, reacting and responding with lots (and, ho boy, did we see LOTS) of players online and playing.

Beta was water wings. Level 8 is nothing. You barely scratched the surface, and it seems like some folks had fun with what was there.

If you did, good news. More soon.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=122942974&postcount=2709

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2bw74e/please_remain_calm_destiny_has_32_story_missions/

They have to limit the proliferation of playlists somewhere (Reach got a little silly), so rather than 2v2 and a 4v4, 3v3 hits the sweet spot and matches with other activities.

The biggest so far is 12 total (6v6), so I hope we get a multi team playlist. 3v3v3v3.

Bungie - please let me explore the ruins of Wellington or Auckland, otherwise pre-order cancelled /s

I guess I assumed is was server based because that's how the tower and explore mode seem to operate, since people come and go as they lease with no noticeable affect on other players.

Very true. It's incredibly smooth.

So, I guess the additional player(s) would make the game too chaotic and dis-likable. I can't see how a 3v3 gametype could be more fun than a 4v4 gametype, the more the merrier, right?

It's probably extended from this base-3 design they've got going on. 3 weapons, 3 classes, 3 races, 3 man fireteams etc. The larger gametypes are 6v6 - a multiple of 3.

They have to limit the proliferation of playlists somewhere (Reach got a little silly), so rather than 2v2 and a 4v4, 3v3 hits the sweet spot and matches with other activities.

Or perhaps it's just an excuse to avoid building large play areas that can accommodate larger teams.

WUT?

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map?

Pretty sure it's peer hosted. Don't know where people are getting the idea there are dedicated servers.

I guess I assumed is was server based because that's how the tower and explore mode seem to operate, since people come and go as they lease with no noticeable affect on other players.

Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?

Design choice.

So, I guess the additional player(s) would make the game too chaotic and dis-likable. I can't see how a 3v3 gametype could be more fun than a 4v4 gametype, the more the merrier, right? Or perhaps it's just an excuse to avoid building large play areas that can accommodate larger teams.

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map?

Pretty sure it's peer hosted. Don't know where people are getting the idea there are dedicated servers.

Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?

Design choice.

If that's all there is, is anyone else wondering where the budget of hundreds-of-millions of dollars went?

Bungie's snack bar?

Well, the good news is, it looks like you can experience all of the story mode content in very little time. So, you can get by with renting if you only want to play for the campaign.

Also, I'm a little disappointed in seeing 3v3 playlists. Shouldn't the dedicated servers easily accommodate more than six players on a multiplayer map? Why are they pushing toward three and six member teams rather than four and eight?