I want to smash your face in with a flaming hammer, Schooly. I want to swing my trusty Pike around the red dunes and see the terror on Paddy's face when he realizes that nowhere is safe, especially not curled up in his little violet shell. I want to hear the screams of Duncan, Wu, and Malagate over proximity chat as their faces melt off from my perfectly-arced nova blast.

The fact that Destiny doesn't let me murder my friends is almost criminal. I don't believe for a second that Destiny's matchmaking population would suffer if private games were introduced; players are always going to want to pair up with friends against fresh competition. But, as Destiny stands right now, I can't kill Kermit and make him cry.

And I want those delicious tears.

Just do rumble.

- m

I think what you describe was the way it was because there were a very small group of people on the planet playing Destiny that day.

Uh, no. That wasn't the case at all. There were plenty of folks playing - we're talking during their crunch time to the finish line!

Certainly Bungie can offer customs. There's a reason they didn't, I'm sure, just like there's a reason Destiny doesn't have many things other Bungie games have had. I think the plan all along was to add features in future games just as they did with Halo.

Yes, this I agree with as stated in my original reply.

- I wouldn't mind doing DBO v DBO nights from time to time. The Bungie Bounty game was great because we knew each other. I do enjoy playing with friends more than against friends though, so the lack of private matches hasn't lowered my enjoyment of Destiny's multiplayer in any significant way.

One of the most recent fun times I've had in Destiny was with Slycrel & Peaks when we played a little elimination, sucked it up & decided to drop into the rumble hopper & were able to kill each other while in party chat. It was loads of fun to be able to fight against the guys I typically fight with. It really reminded me of the days of the Halo LAN Party. Speaking of which, I think I need to figure out how I can organize one w/ some of the guys in my neighborhood. It'd have to be after the kids bedtime... & that'd interfere with the hooting & hollering, hmm...

I want to smash your face in with a flaming hammer, Schooly. I want to swing my trusty Pike around the red dunes and see the terror on Paddy's face when he realizes that nowhere is safe, especially not curled up in his little violet shell. I want to hear the screams of Duncan, Wu, and Malagate over proximity chat as their faces melt off from my perfectly-arced nova blast.

The fact that Destiny doesn't let me murder my friends is almost criminal. I don't believe for a second that Destiny's matchmaking population would suffer if private games were introduced; players are always going to want to pair up with friends against fresh competition. But, as Destiny stands right now, I can't kill Kermit and make him cry.

And I want those delicious tears.

Yup. Sitting down with 15 friends and playing Halo remains one of the highlights of my video gaming life. We could balance teams how we wanted, adjust which weapons were available, pick the maps, etc.. My favorite game mode that we invented was "whore" where one player was the sniper whore and got to use sniper rifles, and every other player was on the other team and could use anything but sniper rifles. So much fun! Unless you shared a screen with the sniper whore. Who, obviously, was whoring off your screen to snipe you.

Potentially. It would happen in the immediate term because of a brand new feature being implemented. People would naturally want to try it out, experiment, make fun things, etc.

Totally agree. Players are less inclined to exercise competitive experimentation when they have no private alternative. A big part of being competitive in Halo, was intimacy with maps, spawn locations, weapon spawns, etc. I don't play much PvP in Destiny because I feel bad going for a walk-about soul searching connection to my environment, while my team is getting murdered. Compared to Halo, Destiny's maps are more architecturally complicated and mobility greatly varies between classes. Studying maps and exploring jumps and locations is even more important to discovering advantages. A classic Halo ritual was loading up each custom map with a friend and running around it until I had we had great feel for it - kind of making a home in the environment before it became chaotic. Those moments you could spend 10 or 15 minutes here or there to see if you could make that jump, or where exactly that gun spawns constituted hours and hours worth of familiarity if you were to just learn competitively. There are still maps in Destiny I'm not comfortable in, and I don't take the risks to try everything I want to while being hunted. (I need to just man-up). The other casualty of course is local lans, the backbone of the halo social experience. I understand that there is a different focus in PvP and I think it is working just fine! But I'd love some customs and lans! =)

I want to smash your face in with a flaming hammer, Schooly. I want to swing my trusty Pike around the red dunes and see the terror on Paddy's face when he realizes that nowhere is safe, especially not curled up in his little violet shell. I want to hear the screams of Duncan, Wu, and Malagate over proximity chat as their faces melt off from my perfectly-arced nova blast.

The fact that Destiny doesn't let me murder my friends is almost criminal. I don't believe for a second that Destiny's matchmaking population would suffer if private games were introduced; players are always going to want to pair up with friends against fresh competition. But, as Destiny stands right now, I can't kill Kermit and make him cry.

And I want those delicious tears.

Hear, hear!

Maybe it would, I don't really know. But I doubt that it would make much difference to the average person. As I said, it wasn't an issue with any of the Halo games.

Has Bungie stated that's the reason for no custom games, or is that just an assumption?

This I agree with. I don't doubt that when custom MM games become a reality in Destiny, that we will see a fracturing of the community. Throw in the incessant whining that makes up current fandom, and I can see regular MM populations drop significantly. It will be a sad thing if that happens.

Wait, so do you think that pure custom games will happen (in the sense of a private lobby of sorts), or do you think that Bungie would go full on custom game matchmaking? I didn't think Schooly was implying custom MM searches.

What I saw was 6 of us sitting down in front of giant displays. Someone chose 'Salvage' or 'Control' There were, I believe, some minor tweaks allowed, and then we matched up with the 6 players sitting opposite our row of 6 displays. One group was 'in charge' of the settings, the other one wasn't.

So extrapolating from that - it's possible the MM is get a team of 6 together, line up against another team of 6, and then have at it.

So is that a 'private lobby' ? i dunno. Maybe it's like a hybrid type of thing.

Again, ths is from an event a year ago. Fair to extrapolate from that? Navel-gazing is victim-free. ;-)

- m

I think what you describe was the way it was because there were a very small group of people on the planet playing Destiny that day.

Certainly Bungie can offer customs. There's a reason they didn't, I'm sure, just like there's a reason Destiny doesn't have many things other Bungie games have had. I think the plan all along was to add features in future games just as they did with Halo.

I want to smash your face in with a flaming hammer, Schooly. I want to swing my trusty Pike around the red dunes and see the terror on Paddy's face when he realizes that nowhere is safe, especially not curled up in his little violet shell. I want to hear the screams of Duncan, Wu, and Malagate over proximity chat as their faces melt off from my perfectly-arced nova blast.

The fact that Destiny doesn't let me murder my friends is almost criminal. I don't believe for a second that Destiny's matchmaking population would suffer if private games were introduced; players are always going to want to pair up with friends against fresh competition. But, as Destiny stands right now, I can't kill Kermit and make him cry.

And I want those delicious tears.

Your words are enough. [SOB!]

The fact that Destiny doesn't let me murder my friends is almost criminal. I don't believe for a second that Destiny's matchmaking population would suffer if private games were introduced; players are always going to want to pair up with friends against fresh competition. But, as Destiny stands right now, I can't kill Kermit and make him cry.

And I want those delicious tears.

Let's say, just as an example, at any given time 25% of the people playing MM right now would rather be playing private/custom games than matchmaking. If you give them the option to do so, they'd exercise it and remove themselves from the MM environment, decreasing the player pool. This would in turn negatively impact the MM experience for the other 75%.

It would not be 25% at any given time. That number is way too high. The real number would be far lower.

I like how he picked a number just as an example and you argued with that arbitrary example.

Further, look at every other game ever made which has private matches that does fine with matchmaking (there are a ton). The impact would be virtually nil on your ability to find a match.

I'm inclined to agree with you there.

All the Halo games had custom games, with little or no effect on matchmaking quality. Why would it be an issue in Destiny?

This I agree with. I don't doubt that when custom MM games become a reality in Destiny, that we will see a fracturing of the community. Throw in the incessant whining that makes up current fandom, and I can see regular MM populations drop significantly. It will be a sad thing if that happens.

Wait, so do you think that pure custom games will happen (in the sense of a private lobby of sorts), or do you think that Bungie would go full on custom game matchmaking? I didn't think Schooly was implying custom MM searches.

What I saw was 6 of us sitting down in front of giant displays. Someone chose 'Salvage' or 'Control' There were, I believe, some minor tweaks allowed, and then we matched up with the 6 players sitting opposite our row of 6 displays. One group was 'in charge' of the settings, the other one wasn't.

So extrapolating from that - it's possible the MM is get a team of 6 together, line up against another team of 6, and then have at it.

So is that a 'private lobby' ? i dunno. Maybe it's like a hybrid type of thing.

Again, ths is from an event a year ago. Fair to extrapolate from that? Navel-gazing is victim-free. ;-)

- m