Watch Bungies CEO tell you that people like monotony in Destiny

In this interview with Bungie CEO Harold Ryan he gets asked some tough questions regarding the monotonous game-design of the title and the jigsaw-puzzle of a story. Ryan counters the questions by refering to the loot-cave as proof that some people actually enjoy doing the same thing over and over again. Bonus: He promises better storytelling and better mission-design for the DLC (the interview was recorded before its release). Something we now know to be lipservice.

[TimeSkipLuffy]

lol... The journalist is really pushing him in a corner with his question. He has no chance but avoiding the questions with telling other stuff. All I hear is blablabla :D total failure...

They do the same thing because they want to level up faster. And why want they do that? Because there is probably nothing else to do then leveling up a digital weapon :D

[joab777]

It's the crux of every mmo I have played, repetition. Other mmo's counter this with continued content patches, new and different ways to acquire things, and social tools. They also have a myriad of other activities.

It is true that that we love to chase the carrot. And we love to know that if we put in enough time, we will be stronger than everyone else.

[rdgneoz3]

Other MMOs also have a lot more content for you to level up with so it's not so much of a pain.

[Mikefizzled]

Things like this and the fact they have a 10 year deal with Activision means I may not buy another Bungie game at this rate. Bought every game since Halo CE but after mediocre Destiny and the fact the sequel has already being confirmed I'm about to abandon ship.

[Perjoss]

i think its ok for bungie fans to not buy bungie games anymore, arent some of the key team members not there anymore? not to mention you know, activision and stuff.

[pompombrum]

Feel the same way, new bungie is a joke and while we don't know just how much influence Activision have, it seems pretty obvious that the deal is clearly toxic. If new bungie want to sell me on Destiny 2 or their next game, they had better really step up their game, fool me once blah blah blah.

[realplayer82]

Actually the missions in the dlc are really fun and more in depth than the vanilla missions. I wish they had done this with the regular game. Not bashing the game because I still play and enjoy it even got to level 31 this morning just making an observation.

[Ascerendant]

How? They consist of 90% pre-existing environments, they're still "get to point A to fight of waves of enemies" cookie-cutter-designed, they're about an hour long and they use the same storytelling device - only with a female voice-over instead of Dinklage.

[Mikelarry]

its the queen bounty all over again but this time we are getting charged

[HiddenMission]

Bullshit...your full of shit! Only the starting points are places you saw and that's only from patrol can you run across these areas. Without the expansion you come across areas that you can tell had more to them but go nowhere and now it's clear that they are the starting points for the DLC areas.

It's stupid crap like the shit you're spewing that makes ignorant miss informed sheep of people who miss out on great experiences.

I'll just end up with a bubble down followed up with a comment ban or some other punishment for calling you out for this crap but guess what...it's worth it.

[TheRedButterfly]

Uh, bullshit. The majority of the locations had already been used a couple times throughout the campaign. There were 2 missions where you eventually saw new content, but for the most part, the only new content is the Raid.

And yes, Crota's End is a HUGE chunk of content. I spent all last night absolutely loving it... But the story? And the "improvements" that we were told would be there? ( http://n4g.com/news/1635660... ) Yeah, those were 100% MIA.

Once again, the Raid is the only worthwhile piece of content in the entire package.

I can only imagine how different the House of Wolves DLC is going to be. -_- /s

[HiddenMission]

Full of shit you are and you expose yourself as not have actually playing the game at all...sheep you be...

Only the starting points are from the launch content all of the DLC missions are made up of 90% content that was not accessible unless you glitches an UNFINISHED AREA!

the hell is wrong with you people bunch of sheep!

[TheRedButterfly]

@3.2.1

Haven't played the game? Here's 5 minutes of Crota's End footage for you to chew on. http://xboxclips.com/TheRed...

I think we all know which of us is the sheep and/or has the "hidden mission."

[wsoutlaw87]

I agree, i actually liked the missions. Who cares if the environments arent all brand new. What do some of you want these missions to be. I will say though that this dlc is stupidly over priced.

[Ascerendant]

1/3 of the price of the original game. So I'd want at least a new planet or WAY more content if they get to recycle pre-existing environments.

[wsoutlaw87]

Ya the 20$ price tag is just insane.

[SteamPowered]

My good friend is a Halo fanatic and I swear I could almost hear his expectations being crushed when we first fired up Destiny. About 3 hours in we stopped. And I don't think he ever went back.

[kurruptor]

Is he wrong?

Everyone says the game is so boring, but millions of people are playing the game daily.

Either the game isn't boring or the game is boring and people like it.

So, haters.... which is it?

[Dudebro90]

People say call of duty is the worst game ever, and it sells over 10 million copies every year.

[HeavenlySnipes]

The only reason I bought it was I had nothing else to play

As soon as Dragon Age came out I have barely touched Destiny at all.

If the Witcher 3 had come out like it was supposed to I probably wouldn't have even bought this game

[Jdoki]

@kurruptor

I'm not a hater. I still play destiny at least once a week.

The truth (for me) is that the game is not exactly boring - but it is repetitive.

It's a grind, and one that is almost pointless, except to get slightly fancier looking gear with slightly higher stats.

But I still play it and enjoy it.

If people don't like that repetition, then they are well justified to call the game boring. It's their opinion and it's not wrong - I would barely bother to raise a counter-argument, because I can see the flaws in this gaming model.

It's the same with Diablo and almost any MMORPG - they boil down to doing roughly the same action over and over for tiny incremental gains, and bragging rights for having rare stuff.

But if people are having fun in that repetitive / boring action - then good for them.

[Lawboy2]

I completely agre....spent tons of time in the game but there really isn't much toot....the game has so much potential it's not even funny...it runs extremely well just needs some more tender love and care

[Sir_Simba]

"Repetition is not necessarily a diminishment of fun"
Is he serious, the more you do the same the less fun it becomes. Why did people buy this, and who loves doing the same thing multiple times.

[Mr-Zex]

Street Fighter begs to differ! Along with that, there are games that with more repetition do become more enjoyable, mainly the genre of Fighting or Racing as well as going back to the 2D side scrollers of the past.

[Ascerendant]

Fighting however relies on the variety of a human opponent. Racing I feel is a good comparison. You could play Destiny repeatedly and try to perfect your "run" - like in the score-shooters of old. However that is not supported by game design. Bungie does not show a score or a time after completing a level let alone offer highscore-lists (maybe because people trying to rush things would ruin the play for "normal" players and that would mean a separating the community into different playlists). So if you play it like that you can but it is not intended for that purpose unlike a racing game and you'd have to basically use a workaround.

[Angeljuice]

"who loves doing the same thing multiple times."

Everyone in the world, otherwise sex, alcohol, drugs etc would have died out years ago. It depends on the rewards you get for the activity. But in the context of destiny I think your point is somewhat valid.

[Ascerendant]

So...your Sex is repetitive but at least you get a reward? :D

[Link2DaFutcha]

People love doing the same thing multiple times, like everybody. People do the same jobs, go to the same restaurant, order the same thing, on and on. The repetition is fun because the outcome is almost always different, and there is a lot to be said for playing with a group of 5 other friends, working together on a raid. That is where the fun lies.

[Perjoss]

Classic arcade machinces like Tetris, Pac Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong are seriously repetitive but very good fun, even after pumping crazy hours into them.

[The_KELRaTH]

I can see why you might say that but there are other factors to consider such as addictive gameplay etc.

The early Pong games were very simplistic yet highly addictive as was Space Invaders, Missile command, Breakout etc etc etc.
There's no story, no alternate endings etc just get the highest score.

Personally I would have liked to be able to explore more of the landscape including something like Patrol in Raid areas and rather than this ever changing weapon formats I think it would have been much more fun to have had to collect and upgrade all the white Auto rifles, get a trophy then be able to get all the green auto rifles, trophy, rare autos, trophy, Legendary etc as most of the Destiny weapons don't get used which is a big waste of resources.

With the DLC we now have now have added to the junk list with existing Legendary rather than just a new tier of weapons to collect.

[Jdoki]

"Repetition is not necessarily a diminishment of fun"

The fun in the repetition comes from having better gear or doing things more efficiently.

If I do a Strike the first time I have little clue what to do, and I may be too low level so wipe a lot. But I get better, I level up, I find new gear.

I do the Strike again. I get killed less. I play more efficiently. My team coordinates better. I get better gear and rewards.

I do the Strike again. No deaths. Efficient tactics.

I do the Strike again. We up the difficulty level. We struggle...

And so on.

People have been following this rough pattern for months now.

So I agree that... "Repetition is not necessarily a diminishment of fun" , and there are enough players doing that.

It doesn't mean people don't want new stuff. But the whole model of Destiny, MMO's and other loot-fest games is about getting hooked on doing similar actions for incremental gains.

[Hoffmann]

Gamestar is known here in Germany to be one of the gaming magazines, and websites which is not kissing the asses of the developers.

Kudos to them.

[Angeljuice]

I must admit it is refreshing to see a journalist persistently asking awkward (but very valid) questions like this.

[Hoffmann]

Yes, this is what I call gamejournalism without having to laugh about it silently..

[The_KELRaTH]

Wish he'd asked why Europe/UK is being charged so much more for the DLC than USA!

[Hoffmann]

Yes, that would be a good question. I bet it has mostly to do with different tax systems

[The_KELRaTH]

Even CoD, so within the same publisher, price properly (ie. Season pass $49.99 / £34.99) . This $ = £ is unique to Bungie and a real rip-off.

[Sy_Wolf]

Some people like grinding in games, some don't. It's why I didn't get the game personally.

[SharnOfTheDEAD]

'Do you knoe the definition of insanity?'

[marlinfan10]

I like how he justifies the repetitive missions by saying people liked the loot cave so they like repetitive things. I think the loot cave only shows how poorly designed the game and loot system is. The fact that people would rather spend hours shooting into a black hole rather than playing the game speaks volumes.

[Ascerendant]

People were shooting that cave for hours because they didn't want to play the strike-missions for days to get the same gear. So if that's his explanation...

[marlinfan10]

Yeah its not like people wanted to do them or thought it was fun, it was the only way to get gear that didnt feel like a complete waste of time.

[lildudexst]

We all got played that the truth if you brought it.
Now they talking destiny 2. Fool me once but you not getting me the second time lol and i believe about 70% gamer don't trust bungie at this rate. Smh a game with no good story or content and then dlc is almost 20$ and that story seem to be the shit still with no content yet. Wish a company come out and show how bungie make a real game for the fan.

[knoxin]

his eyes say something else, looks at floor side blinking, total lies bull

[MilkMan]

Destiny blows chunks of ass.

[MaxwellBuddha]

Agreed.

I originally bought Destiny in digital form, played until they patched all the loot caves (the fact that people would rather shoot into a cave than play your game proves your game sucks), then traded in my PS4 because I wanted to get the white one.

The bundled copy of Destiny is still shrink-wrapped.

[Tales RPG addict]

F this game.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

This was obviously posted by someone who doesn't understand MMO's, grinding, and leveling up. Same goes for the interviewer.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/...

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

I had a chuckle watching this, if only more journalists probed developers like this......

[Tedakin]

I remember a couple of months ago bragging about 10 million accounts. Well 3 million actual players now?