...Not that I'd be holding my breath for Forge. Having lots of interactive dynamic objects isn't exactly a pillar of Destiny, and MP featureset is sparse to begin with.

I just don't even really think Forge makes sense in Destiny, as the game is currently. I guess you could argue that it would bring some sorely needed variety, but I just don't think it fits with what Bungie has designed Destiny to be. It very much seems like they want players out there consuming content, rather than creating it.

Yeah. Sounds like forge in Destiny is a complete impossibility at this point.

The issues described in the article deal with modifying baked content. Forge involves moving dynamic objects around, and should be a different matter.

Although eight hours is extreme, it's historically been fairly normal for it to take a while to import source level geometry. Chris Butcher gave a talk called "The Technology of Halo 2" which said it took 10-30 minutes for an artist to load that data.

...Not that I'd be holding my breath for Forge. Having lots of interactive dynamic objects isn't exactly a pillar of Destiny, and MP featureset is sparse to begin with.

The state of the tools sounds horrific, though.

Yeah. Sounds like forge in Destiny is a complete impossibility at this point.

Some of their recent hires are awfully bad at writing words good, mind you. I miss Conrad/Jim Sterling.

I agree, though I find it hard to imagine that the story that Staten had written up could possibly have been worse than what vanilla Destiny got. It's mind boggling to think how bad it must have been if that were the case, and I sincerely doubt that it was going to be worse.

It sounded like it was more of a problem of the story not being written in such a way to accommodate non linear missions. Which baffles me because you'd think the first thing would be to clarify that in your pitch.

Yup. If the rejection came from JJ, where was that rejection when Staten was working on the story?

It's possible that we're just not getting quite as much detail as we need on what was rejected and why, and which bits have been kept and recycled, and what thrown out (if anything).

The state of the tools sounds horrific, though.

It sounded like it was more of a problem of the story not being written in such a way to accommodate non linear missions. Which baffles me because you'd think the first thing would be to clarify that in your pitch.

but is is linear.

• get a ship
  
• meet the speaker
  
• go to the moon
  
• meet the stranger
  
• go to the reef
  
• slay a gate lord
  
• go to the black garden
  
• ??
  
• Profit

The only thing that is non-linear is that you can do the non-story missions/strikes when they become available, or later, or never. everything in destiny is "go here, do this." Heck, if you get lost, they eventually stick a waypoint up for you. But all of that is a mission layout issue, that really has nothing to do with the cinematic team, unless they were dictating to the design team.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure what happened. Destiny turned out to be a solid game, and they are making steady progress on the story-side.

Yup. Sounds to me more like Marathon Infinity than Halo 2.

They may have rejected the supercut's story in part because they wanted a nonlinear approach, but then they didn't actually implement that approach. The story, such as it is, still largely unlocks in a linear manner, one destination at a time, with only a few places where you can choose to do missions in a slightly different order that does not affect anything whatsoever.

It sounded like it was more of a problem of the story not being written in such a way to accommodate non linear missions. Which baffles me because you'd think the first thing would be to clarify that in your pitch.

but is is linear.

• get a ship
  
• meet the speaker
  
• go to the moon
  
• meet the stranger
  
• go to the reef
  
• slay a gate lord
  
• go to the black garden
  
• ??
  
• Profit

The only thing that is non-linear is that you can do the non-story missions/strikes when they become available, or later, or never. everything in destiny is "go here, do this." Heck, if you get lost, they eventually stick a waypoint up for you. But all of that is a mission layout issue, that really has nothing to do with the cinematic team, unless they were dictating to the design team.

I doubt we'll ever know for sure what happened. Destiny turned out to be a solid game, and they are making steady progress on the story-side.

Ok I give up. You're probably right, his sources were probably the bellhop and a homeless guy who sets up shop in the alley behind the studio. There's no merit to the report at all.

Yeah, because it in no way could have been folks that cut ties with the studio under bad terms and wants to throw shit around . . .

I'm not saying that it's NOT true; it very well could be. It certainly fits with what most assumed had happened. I'm saying that I'm not just going to take it as gospel, given their record in the past, and the type of bullshit they normally post. To call them "journalists" is almost an insult to the profession (which can be said at damn near every gaming "news" site).

I agree, though I find it hard to imagine that the story that Staten had written up could possibly have been worse than what vanilla Destiny got. It's mind boggling to think how bad it must have been if that were the case, and I sincerely doubt that it was going to be worse.

It sounded like it was more of a problem of the story not being written in such a way to accommodate non linear missions. Which baffles me because you'd think the first thing would be to clarify that in your pitch.

I agree, though I find it hard to imagine that the story that Staten had written up could possibly have been worse than what vanilla Destiny got. It's mind boggling to think how bad it must have been if that were the case, and I sincerely doubt that it was going to be worse.

I don't think that's relevant to their decision, though. It wasn't a story they liked. Maybe what we got now isn't one they liked either, but perhaps they made the right call. Story decisions made early in something like Destiny's ten year plan are hard to go back on . . .

I'm perfectly happy to wait for an interview in 10 years to be sure what happened.

Imagine if vanilla Destiny had been like that. Play through the actual main story missions until the end of the story, then all the strikes and sidequests would have opened up. Hell, you could have had a few side missions and strikes open up along the way, but reserve a lot of them for after story completion. That change alone would have made Destiny feel much bigger than it actually was.