Interview with Hopped-Up Gaming Podcast

[Bodie]

I got interviewed by the Hopped-Up Gaming Podcast this last weekend and the episode is now live. Enjoy~~

http://hoppedupgaming.com/post/99010894 ... pment-life

[inclining]

This was pretty entertaining. As someone casually playing Destiny (warlock, lvl 12 right now), I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on that. I would love to know what you think about some of the more vocal and negative players out there: I've heard people knocking everything from the voice acting to the plot to the amount and variety of missions. Personally, I think the game is fun, beautiful, and has an intriguing setting, and I honestly like Dinklebot. Then again, I don't have 16 hours a day (or even a week!) to play it, so maybe that's why I haven't gotten bored yet.

Good interview, thanks for doing it!

[Bodie]

Overall, I think Destiny is absolutely amazing. I do have some gripes, though. Mainly, I feel like Dinklage's delivering + the writing for his lines is super painful to listen to. Perhaps it's bad writing, or maybe bad acting, or both. Also, I feel like the main storyline really lacks any punch- perhaps it's caused by the Ghost omniscient-ly spoon feeding you the plot and the current things happening. The setting and lore of the worlds is really intriguing, it just feels like the story didn't live up to their glory.

Hopefully the new content will be even better! I hope they have more of the Exo lady, she's an interesting character with great voice talents to boot.

[inclining]

I agree that it's awesome overall! I know I'm in the Dinklage-appreciating minority. I think his delivery is actually pretty good, but I have some problems with the writing. As many others have pointed out, the lines that fail for me are exchanges to the effect of:

SPEAKER: Of course, you've heard the legends about the--
GHOST: Yes, naturally, everyone knows that.
YOU: Hey guys, been dead for 150 years, kinda don't know what you're talking about?
SPEAKER: Given all that, I need you to go and shoot some dudes.
GHOST: On it.
YOU: Guys?

The criticism I don't agree with is people hating on the content. I don't know if people remember how barren WoW 1.0 was compared to today, but games like this take time to evolve. For now, it's got a great setting, beautiful scenery, and fun gameplay, so I'm happy. I'm confident Bungie can find some enticing drama to flesh out the story in upcoming content.

Another favorable comparison for Destiny, imo:

FFXI: Airship? Please, come back when you're level 20. Also, good luck even getting to Jeuno, you'll probably die during the 30 minute walk across totally inhospitable zones. n00bz like you should take a boat, and hope you don't get killed by a sea horror.
DESTINY: Here's a spaceship. You're level 5 and haven't gone to the Moon yet? What are you waiting for?

[Bodie]

Haha, right. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the game and I think that it's great. Griping is still fun, though ;D

Also, lol about FFXI. That game did not know shit about an easy play experience. Although, strangely, the difficulty curve gave the game a nice flavor to it- something I haven't really seen in other MMOs since then.

[SHODANFreeman]

My biggest problem with Destiny is that every single mission is just "listen to Ghost talk for 2 minutes while you kill inconsequential enemies, deploy ghost, defend ghost, run down hallway, kill boss, wait 30 seconds"

Also, unskippable cutscenes that I couldn't possibly care less about. Ugh.

[Heart]

I've heard from my friend that the story of Destiny leaves something to be desired, and that how the mixing of players wasn't up to par. As in he was at a high level and was getting placed with really low level players, all the time. But I don't know about now, considering that was a long while ago.

[Jistuce]

I've heard from my friend that the story of Destiny leaves something to be desired, and that how the mixing of players wasn't up to par. As in he was at a high level and was getting placed with really low level players, all the time. But I don't know about now, considering that was a long while ago.

The versus-mode area, the Crucible, matches by apparent skill, not by level.
Which is not a huge problem, since damage bonuses cap anyways, and I don't think those bonuses affect the Crucible at all.




The biggest problem with Destiny to me, as a solo player, is that the amount of content doesn't match the amount of playing it takes to get the gear you need for the higher-level missions. There's an ironclad belief baked into the game that I actually WANT to go fraghappy in the Crucible to get better gear, then get five friends to buy the game on my platform so we can spend all week trying to run a raid.
(As I refuse to pay a monthly ransom to have my ethernet port turned on, I own the game on PS3. All my friends are on PS4. That I don't own a PS4 is irrelevant, since I would never PLAY it on PS4.)

Also the expansion missions don't have any player-ghost dialog at all. It makes for a startlingly different feel.
My huntress and her "little light" no longer feel like a living PART of the world, just a remote-control humanoid gun turret.

Even worse, the existing plot threads are completely ignored. There's nothing moving towards any sort of resolution to anything. The Stranger is most likely a time traveller. But why? Who were the allies she was talking to? What's my importance to her? Who cares, go frag some people in the crucible and stop asking questions!


Yeah, I have problems with Destiny. Especially since it's got such promise. The moment-to-moment gameplay is solid, and I like what I've seen of the world. But video games have always been a solitary experience for me, so party-exclusive content is frustrating. And dear god, I hate grinding, and it's such a grindhappy game.

I'm also really sad they're redubbing the Ghost. I LIKE him as he exists now.