I was really excited for Destiny. It had the opportunity to be the next big thing for me; a game perfectly marketed as a crossover between Halo’s multiplayer and fantasy MMO world building. There weren’t any launch titles for Xbox One or PS4 that I had to have, so I planned on finally jumping into current gen when Destiny released on September 9, 2014.
My calendar was marked and my bank account was ready. I couldn’t wait. But then I started hearing middling rumors about the state of the game. Weeks leading up to launch, cryptic apprehension in the tenor of my favorite games journalists kept echoing through articles and podcasts alike. I was getting nervous.
Destiny launched and I didn’t buy it. I didn’t buy a PS4 or an Xbox One. I had other great games to play at the time and if this experience wasn’t all that was promised, then I could skip it and be happy. So I did and I was.
It’s now been a month since the release of The Taken King; Destiny’s first major expansion. I’ve been playing Destiny for about three months now on Xbox One. I’ve logged 215 hours. I’m having fun.
I could see the flaws when I initially booted up Destiny 1.0 for the first time with @Skye2117 and @DJMornin. The progression system was confusing, the story was not in the game, and the writing was just bad. An MMO foundation was visible, but it lacked the polish you’d expect when spending 5 years and $300 million dollars. I will say the moment to moment gunplay was deceptively brilliant, but eventually shooting aliens gets old and you’re left with an incomplete shell. Simply put, Destiny just wasn’t what Bungie had sold me over the years. I now fully understood how many gamers felt.
I was sad when I didn’t get to dive into Destiny on day one. There’s a lot of energy around the first month or so of a release and it’s fun to be a part of that, but in retrospect, waiting for Destiny worked for me.
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| (The Loot Cave. R.I.P. September 9-24, 2014) |
Destiny has received many updates since launch to fix general issues and address player feedback. I remember reading about how the loot didn’t feel rewarding early on in Destiny’s life cycle. I’m glad to say that I’ve never felt that way. Bungie heard the complaints and patched the game as online game studios generally do with time. This is just one example of an issue I imagine I would have experienced had I been there during the first couple of months. Waiting to purchase Destiny allowed me to enter a smoothed out experienced thanks to day one players who tested the waters for players like me.
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| (not waiting vs. waiting lol) |
I paid $80 for a digital collector’s edition of Destiny that included everything I’ll need to have for the foreseeable future. In comparison, if you bought everything as it was released, you’ve spent at least $140. The latter is still a good deal if you’re talking about Destiny post Taken King, but many customers felt burned with the value they received early on in Destiny 1.0. Like I said before, I understand this sentiment, but it’s not one I share. In a very measurable way, I have received immense value in waiting to play Destiny.
I wasn’t the only person who waited. @DJMornin did too, and since we both decided not to play at launch, we made sure to coordinate when we were finally ready. I’d like to think that I would have made friends with other players in Destiny even if I had no real life friends playing, but nothing beats exploring a multiplayer game for the first time with your brother.
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| (One day we'll recount the tale of Skolas, bringer of copious cursing and stationary sweating.) |
In summary, there’s no right or wrong way to play a game. Sure, I wanted to be one of the first Guardians landing finishing blows on bullet sponges, but looking back I think the longevity of the game in my rotation was increased because I waited. I waited for the version of Destiny I wanted to play. The version that included my friends taking those first steps with me. The version that had 10 months worth of bug fixing and quality of life patches. The version that had a very promising expansion on the near horizon. I waited and it worked. It might work for you too.
Sincerely,
@drockalexander
Sincerely,
@drockalexander
Pros of Waiting:
- cheaper ($140 vs. $80)
- general updates (bug fixes, balancing, dlc/expansions)
- community content on youtube, podcast, twitch, etc. (tutorials, strategies, reviews)
- no pressure to “finish” a game in x amount of time
Cons of Waiting:
- probably missing out on collector’s editions and/or exclusive dlc
- you end up getting led through group content, such as The Vault of Glass, rather than solving the puzzles with a group of people for the first time
- the internet spoils everything
