http://kotaku.com/five-months-in-hardcore-destiny-players-are-hitting-a-1684813586
This is not a bash. It comes from someone who, like many of us, really likes Destiny but is reaching a point of burn-out. The things that popped out to me are the lack of carrots and poor communication from Bungie.
If you trawl the forums, you'll find many threads dedicated to each point made, but this is a handy summation of the frustration hardcore Destiny players are, and have been, facing of late.
I'm no hater, and like Kirk, the article's author, I know there's an unbelievable game inside Destiny. I'm looking forward to HoW, but until then, it'll just have to be a strike now and again.
Edit 1: You guys all rock. It's been a very clear-headed conversation in here so far, aside from some weak trolls. And thanks for the bumps! I think it's good to read what a lot of us have been thinking.
Edit 2: I'm pretty sure the forum ninjas have buried any Kotaku-related posts so they don't trend. That's their prerogative, and somewhat understandable despite the normal levels of vitriol you can generally find on these forums.
Feel free to bump if you think others should read it but, after over twenty-four hours of pretty constant replies from you crazy, magnificent bastards, it's fair to say that we don't need an article to spur healthy discussion about one of our favorite games.
[spoiler]You guys are -blam!-ing killing my phone.[/spoiler]
-
I would honestly go down in the books as being a guy who would not play Destiny, but the thing is, I've been up and down with video games for over 30 years now and I know better then to say I don't like something when I play it even once a month. The thing is, and this is very difficult to explain to anyone who is in or below their late 20's... one must be cognoscenti of the process at work and allow it to progress at it's proper and due diligence pace. It's the EXACT same thing in the work environment. I could list a thousand different paths, options, alternatives, and potential expansion ideas to Destiny. It flows so naturally since I work with computers where, in a very broad sense, our jobs is to find multiple solutions for a single problem. However... there is the concepts and definitions of control, quality assurance, motivation, player options (menu and extension menu paths all rolled into one), and many other things, but there is also the warning signs of those who are too young, too inexperienced, and too easily fed up because of many different reasons. Maybe it's cultural. Maybe generational. Maybe it's just a matter of maturity. Kotaku. I don't know what that is. What is the norm for its content. I don't know anything about it. I see the man who wrote this, Kirk Hamilton though, was not professional enough to post a small bibliography explanation for himself like most self respecting journalists are trained to do. This might be a blogger. That's fine. Go to his Twitter... "Writer, composer, saxophonist, omnivore. Editor at @Kotaku. Video games, music, guacamole. Portland, OR, Joined April 2009". Google.com "Kirk Hamilton" Result: http://kirkhamilton.com/ I like the website. I also like anime. I see he's writing a quick article. At glance, I can immediately see this person is a quality person who writes reviews for music, as well as be a musician, and is involved with video games. Why did I do all of that for 1 minute of my time? Because if it took 20 minutes of my time? I'd still put in the effort. Knowing someone so well on a professional level is the baseline for understanding the person behind the computer screen. You don't get that from normal day to day interactions. You don't see the person so much as you see what you like in the person. The exact same concept applies to every video game around the world. The bad thing? I can already tell this writer has entrenched himself in concepts of specific nature towards Destiny which is not worth my time of day. As a review writer... especially as a review writer... I have to hold myself to a higher form of accuracy which is ultimately expressed in an age old philosophy: "I know what I know... I know what I don't know... and I don't know... what I don't know." Now I could explain the history of such a statement, but I'd rather just get on with this post. The review writer, Mr. Hamilton, is not trying to take the saying and apply it to the review. As such, it holds no evidence or integrity to me. I cannot begin to explain the negative ramifications of using source material, found in various places across the internet and in real life, when the internet and people in real life have always violated the fundamental rule of history. Destiny offers a lot of capabilities to people. It's interactive entertainment. It's not meant to be this grand scheme of things you wish it to be. Personality conflicts with a video game is asking for a shorter tunnel vision. I should know. I left Halo because of it. My last game for Halo, as well as watching anything related to it, was because I saw the quality assurance drop. I still see it. Companies NEED to innovate. Destiny is the FIRST shooter to introduce the concepts it has across the both sets of playstation AND Xbox consoles. You don't get any better then that. Forget the entire argument of content. Name one other game which can compare to Destiny capabilities. Don't think of the negative. Be mindful of it, know it is there, but realize the truth of the situation is not to break down and say how you experience one thing, talk to a few people in real life, jump on for a strike, go to a subreddit website, read a few conversations, and highlight things when the entire internet. Literally all of it... encompasses a grand total of 1/3 to 1/4 of the entire Destiny base for a single console. For all four? It's significantly smaller. It's funny I'm back to reddit.com of all websites. I left that website for good reason. It wasn't because of /r/destinythegame either. It was /r/politics. The quality assurance of that website is so far down the expectations guidelines it is widely revered by numerous professions to be the place where those who want to understand something, but understand nothing of the spirit of things and then say those who speak up are wrong, go. I would NEVER reference reddit.com. It's like referencing wikipedia.com on a scholarly paper. Your entire work would be thrown out because of it. I wish reddit to be quality. But it is a collection of articles, poorly written, by individuals like Mr. Hamilton which makes me wonder not at the integrity of a person or individual reading, but about the biggest picture of them all: If they make these mistakes... what is to happen in the future when they use these experiences to justify their own choices because no one informed them they were incorrect in doing those things at all? Where does that put societies? Countries? Leaders? I'll tell you where. In a worse place... because you repeated history. The history of not acknowledging your own biased stances. It's not wrong to be biased. You just have to be so mindful of it you allow it to change yourself. But we all know how people detest change... don't we, Destiny community?