I'm going to start off by saying this is the first time I've ever created a post on Reddit. But, this event has me to the point of breaking my norm. This will be a long post, but it's been brewing for a while. I'm not expecting a bunch of responses, it's just venting to the interwebs.
I'm a 42 year old gaming dad who has a 2, 12, and 13 year old. With so much going on, and my family's love for games, we spend a lot of time playing them together. We've been to PAX East (2017) and travel whenever we can to be a part of the community. Destiny, since it was created, was our game of choice. They both wanted to dress up as hunters, warlocks, and titans for Halloween every year. They made their pumpkins like the Taken King emblem and made ghost shells for arts and crafts at school. None of this was ever my asking.... they just loved everything the game had to offer in its own world, and I'm sure us getting to play it together probably had something to do with it. Regardless, it was a major part of our lives. I even take off work when major releases happen.
Having at least 3 consoles for this type of gaming requires at least 2, and sometimes 3 copies of the game. Most of the time, I bought at least 1 copy of a limited release edition with all of the swag, etc, which didn't allow for using the license in 2 places. Regardless, every piece of software was on XBOX and pre-ordered at least twice. Every. Single. Time. Of course, I didn't mind it because we all enjoyed it together. It wasn't until last year when I walked my son through completing his first Raid. We're not really good at the game, but it didn't really matter. We completed most of the raids after that, but it started to get a little difficult after a while.
During this time, I had at least 20 friends who joined us in playing. We complained about how it sucked to only have groups of 3 or 6. Taken King came out and revitalized a lot of interest in those who were wore out with a bit of grinding, but it was still #1 in our play time, and I had what xbox said was thousands of hours. After D1 began to diminish and my friends moved on to other games, I still dabbled a bit with my kids and we ended up firing it up months before D2 release just to get back in the flow.
Of course, D2 wasn't exactly what we had hoped, but we let it slide. A few of my friends passed on buying it until the reviews, and I still had enough that we would have too many to run a raid at any given point, even if we really sucked at doing it. The grinding ensued, and we didn't know exactly what the game was up to. I slowed down with playing a bit, my friends dwindled and didn't buy some of the expansions. My kids got tired of playing it with me, because after a few runs of infinite forest and Osiris, they weren't too interested. Warmind was pretty good, but after a while it was frustrating to wait around for anyone to hand out and compete against hoards. In fact, any hoard for any expansion was just dead.
By this time, I only had 1 other friend that hung on. I got my son to play a few hours at a time, as we waited for forsaken. I bought one buddy a copy of the game so that he would try to play it with me, and he got bored with grinding after a couple weeks, even with me being a Sherpa. I purchased a I was bummed, but still played on longer than any of my friends. Keep in mind, I'm not a hardcore Destiny gamer, and I'm not a pro at any type of gaming, but this was my thing. I liked it, and I'm in it for the long haul. I've been here for all of it, and I feel like part of it. In fact, my kids still ask if there's anything new occasionally.
Forsaken released, and I bought pre-order deluxe copies for all of us. It's not cheap; none of this is. I was amazed at the amount of content. The Dreaming City... all of it. This is what I remembered. This is the imagination at work at Bungie. I told everyone that used to play, but they said they gave up on it. My son and I played every moment that we could. My daughter loved it, but got burnt out before we did. In the end, I only had a single friend buy Forsaken... and he lasted a week.
My son quit playing because he wasn't leveling up to keep up as much as he had time for. I played as long as I could, until it involved too much grinding. I would sneak on my son's account and level him up, just to get him interested in it again, and keep up with me. I got us up to 550, then it became an unbearable time vampire. I didn't have anyone to play with to help me with a lot of the quests that required it. It seemed as if I could only level up maybe 8 points per week, so I was burnt out. There's only so much playing and waiting for prime engrams to drop without any significant exotics to enjoy, before you're just.... done. So, I thought I would just give it a break and wait for the new content to drop.
And here we are. I yelled for my kids to come in and watch me fire up the Black Armory. It's always awesome to see a new story unfold. We share new trailers and such, and I had seen the latest, but they hadn't. Regardless, it didn't come up. There wasn't a link to watch it on the destinations map, so I told them the new stuff was on if they wanted to see it. My daughter walked out, and my son stayed for a second to watch. I got orders to go look for something and complete a few things and fill it up, then return to the tower. He watched me until I got to the Armory, and waited for something to happen. We started up the Forge... waited for players to join, and we all died. We repeated that a few times, then I sadly turned it off and went to play another game after he walked away to go play Halo.
I got online to the forums to see if I was missing something. A lot of people were upset, and of course you had your share of people saying that this is what they'd been waiting for... endgame content, etc. Content for everyone who played hard.
But, what about me?
I understand the need for endgame content. I understand catering to those who are loyal to the brand. To give something extra to those who stuck it out the entire time and were there even when times were bad and reviews were horrid. I know there's content out there for the youtubers and twitchers to give those of us who don't have the skill to envy over and hope that maybe someday we'll get to experience it when we reach that point. ....but will I ever get there?
You used to get a little bump to that point. It pissed off a lot of people who worked hard to get there first. That's understandable, as I was one of those people the first go-around. I understand. But... is all that's left hardcore gamers and youtubers? Is that it? Am I just a lame complainer because I like the story and love to play with my friends who aren't interested in crucible or grinding endlessly (giggity)?
My friend asked me later in the night how the new content was, especially since he was planning on getting it and forsaken got decent reviews. I didn't know what to say. I knew this was to be part of a content release that spanned over a year and pieces dropped every couple weeks, but I was 5 weeks out of being able to beat the first round in the first hoard of the forge. So, I told him I played it for 45 minutes... ...there wasn't a story line... ...I will have to grind too much to even get through the first part... ...so, it sucks. He looked up a couple articles and found the same experience with people who were 600 power. So, my last chance of having a buddy play was gone.
The posts about "people don't understand this wasn't an expansion but a year long release of content for end game", are fine. Asking me why I didn't read that it was endgame content when I bought it, was dumb when I pre-ordered and buy everything by Bungie. I just didn't expect this. I feel like I was held back a grade in school and all my friends are gone... and all the students in my grade are telling me I'm stupid for not learning new math. A bit of a stretch, but I'm disappointed in so many ways.
So... this.... ....this is the endgame. Releasing content that is far out of reach for the majority, to help those who feel like they're the heart of the game. They keep it alive, when in fact, it's dying... slowly. Followers are leaving, and now we cater to the best. I know they'll drop the power requirements to try to appease those who didn't put in enough hours to make it satisfactory, and to please the critics who say it was too much. But, is it just too late?
You can correct me if I'm wrong, but Destiny was always about hardcore gamers as much as casual. For youtubers, twitchers, and Dads drinking beer while babysitting and cooking. Something you could join into that didn't seem like work, that got you away from the shitty world and enjoy new stuff with friends... and sometimes meet new people who are younger than your own kids who have beat the raid 20 times when you still need their help. I didn't care, and I enjoyed it..... But... I did it. Now... not even some squeaker can help me when I don't have that kind of time.
This lost the magic for me. I want to stay. I just... can't. I'll be surprised if there's anything close to a D3. Maybe just keep adding content to this and call me in a few months. The mechanics are solid and there's a good base for D2... it's just.... bad decisions. I hope all of the people who consider themselves hardcore gamers love it, because I'm starting to this this is the nail in the coffin. I hope it's not, but it feels like it would take a miracle for them to make a good decision after this.
Sincerely,
Mockylock: Dad and Casual gamer.
Submitted December 06, 2018 at 02:53AM by mockylock https://ift.tt/2BSCSOd
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