With the release of “The Final Shape,” the main storyline has concluded, and it seems like the developers are now just churning out random content and seasonal passes without a clear direction for the game’s future. I’m genuinely curious about what motivates players to stick around. Are there aspects of the game that still offer value or enjoyment, or are players simply holding on in hopes of something more substantial? What keeps them engaged with Destiny 2 despite its apparent lack of a clear path forward?
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I would still play it… If they allowed Linux gamers
my friends play it.
TL:DR-I like the story and gunplay most of all. The social aspects of the game also keep me coming back to help friends and strangers.
Background: I started with vanilla D1, then picked it back up after Taken King and have been playing ever since.
For me, the game has become more about story than actual gameplay, which I still feel is one of the best around. I’m super excited about the 3rd Episode especially, seeing as the Hive still has Xivu to deal, and whatever is going on with Oryx’s body.
I still play every week. Once I’m done with my story stuff for the week, I like to help my group get their raid clears and other tasks completed. If they’re not on, I sometimes boot up LFG and help blueberries as best I can. I genuinely like to play the game, even if it’s helping others.
When story stuff is slow, I actually do like PVP, although, within the past year or so, I’ve noticed that I’ve either gotten worse or the average (remaining) player ha gotten better. No longer can I pick up any random weapon (another boon that Destiny offers, IMO. The ability to take a weapon in PVE/PVP and use it ANYWHERE, with varying degrees of success. But where was I?) and do “OK” with it. Everyone uses “easier” weapons or loadouts, and as much as that irks me (it’s quick play, FFS), that’s their right. Is that contributing to the barren, desolate landscape that is the Crucible? Possibly. I’m not, and never have been, good enough to “carry” in the Crucible, and that goes double for Trials. I tried helping a clan mate recently get the Adept Draw Time mod since it only drops from the Lighthouse. He plays on PC. That session didn’t go well.
I got a bit rambling there at the end, but I guess to answer your question, the story and gunplay of the Destiny series are the reasons I like the game. One made friends playing this game. Already been to one wedding, with another coming later this year. Wouldn’t have happened if I never decided to try the game.
My partner and I gave up destiny before witchqueen dropped, played pretty consistently since house of wolves with a pause just before forsaken until shadow keep. Absolutely loved the core mechanics and the PvP is some of my favourite, but it just felt so stale, barely any new maps, sunsetting old ones, lack of committing to ideas (4v4 was actually solid, some of the maps do not play well in 6s, 3s are fine though), rotating gamemode playlists like d1 had (for 6s I find control annoying after a while, 3s I liked relic in d1, mix in elimination and I’d be good)
It’s a shame because as I said, core mechanics rock, slug shorties and hand cannons feel amazing, and fusion rifles are legitimately awesome as well. I have really solid memories of doing stupid things with stuff like the Le Monarque and No Land Beyond. Wasn’t a huge fan of some metas but had some fun times with the games.
What keeps them engaged with Destiny 2 despite its apparent lack of a clear path forward?
There is no alternative. The First Descendant is p2w. Once Human has different structure and resets your progress every season. Warframe is pretty different and similar to First Descendant. Overwatch basically cancelled its pve. Darktide is clunky.
And none of these games have the polish and shooting satisfaction that Destiny has. If people want a pve game, with long term progression that has enjoyable shooting, Destiny is all there is. What keeps them playing? Copium.
Slowly but steadily Destiny will die. And thats when Marathon will come out. But Marathon is very different, so i am not even so sure that most Destiny players will migrate to that.
I am not even playing Destiny. Destiny is the game that i want to love so much but always shits on me, so i gave up. It seems to me that the easiest thing in the world, is to keep Destiny going and address its minor issues. But somehow Bungie doesnt think so.
I play games for the gameplay, don’t really care about story.
I haven’t played Destiny in a while but if I did it would be for the same reason a person keeps buying new sudoku books: I like solving the puzzles that the levels represent.
I think Destiny is cool in that it’s co-op and you can encounter other players and temporarily team up with them.
I really wish we had the computing power to make a game that was basically massively coop Halo: one big war against the Covenant that everyone can fight in on the side of Humanity.
It’s a good and compelling game.
I still play it for the same reason I play og super Mario.
It brings me enjoyment.
As for the rest of you pompous asshats, no one is forcing you to play it. If you don’t like it don’t fucking play it.
Because the gunplay is really good. I never had a shred of interest in the story.
I don’t still play because the level and enemy design tanked when they went into expansion treadmill mode, but “a path forward” was never something I cared even a little bit about. “The path forward” is what killed my fun.
Confirmed. The gunplay is amazing. I haven’t played for a year or two but I would jump back in today if The Final Shape included all the catch-up/prior DLC packs.
The gunplay is SO good. There’s just something about the way it feels that makes it so distinct from any other shooter.
I haven’t touched Destiny in two years. And every shooter I played (first person and the gears of war third person), nothing has yet scratched my Destiny 2 itch.
I see this posted a lot, what does it mean? What is “gunplay” and what is so good about it in this game?
Generally shorthand for animation, sound, and somewhat game balance. As for what’s good about it I couldn’t tell you because I came into the game jaded. IMO the visual design is nothing standout and the aim assist on mouse aim makes the entire experience sleep inducing.
I could pop cabal heads with [insert high impact scout, bonus if firefly] for days. Hell, I pretty much did on D1. Then D2, in addition to all the other bad design stuff to satisfy live service, also decided they wanted to try to dictate your gun choice in certain game modes with all the bullshit seasonal modifiers on untouchable enemies without specific perks.
All I want to do is run strikes on the basic races by myself. But they can’t milk me for money like that.
because they enjoy it?
Because it’s fun and I have friends I play it with.
The thing with destiny is that there are somewhat diminishing returns in terms of time invested vs in-game advancements.
The min-maxing and endless search for God rolls and the best builds can push you that extra 10% or so over the gen-pop player base who doesn’t spend 20hrs a week on the game.
But gen-pop and casual can still approach end game content without feeling like a total noob.
That said, there is still end game content that is geared towards “power users”… master nightfall, master raids, etc.
Also, as a D1 year 1 player who actually kinda gets what’s going on, story-wise, it’s great. But admittedly comprehending the story is very difficult given where they drop you in if you just started the game.
I will also applaud Bungie for making adjustments over the years. For sure it’s a lot less addictive than it used to be, and less of a grind. Or maybe its as much as a grind as you want it to be. The changes over the years have made the core game more approachable while they still held some high-level end game stuff for the die-hards. They tried to do the same with the story and it kinda works a little.
Also, for me, the raids are really great. Haven’t really experienced that sort of game play, teamwork, puzzle solving, and requirement for perseverance and gaming skill anywhere else. they’re just plain fun, especially if you have a good group to play with.
Something along the lines of hiring an expert on gambling. There’s a lot of game mechanics in games like Destiny 2 which lock you in through little feedback loops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIuAeFu84kY
It’s a good looking game with decent movement and gunplay, but it fully disrespects your time. RIP if you ended up buying the game in 2017 with the first few expansions because that shit gone now.
Seems like most live service games these days are built off of addiction or gambling. For example, gacha gaming is becoming more popular everyday, with their rolls and gambling loops. You can see this in games like Genshin impact. Kind of makes me miss the old days where we had games like battlefield and Call of Duty old school style, just running around playing something that we enjoy for fun.
Yup. The gaming industry got lucrative enough for the bean counters to swoop in and bastardise.
There is no competitor, and no other game offers the same raid experience as d2
I feel as if the “lack of clear path forward” is a bit over an overreaction from the community.
They dropped Lightfall, and people feel burned, saying they’ll stop playing after Final Shape because Bungie never learns. Add the 2 layoffs into the pot, and the player hemorrhage isn’t about the path forward. This is just the first time the players haven’t known the 3 year plan in a long time.
Bungie is still announcing plans at the same rate they used to, the only difference from pre-TFS is they gave the community the names of 3 expansions ahead of time back then.Now all we have are leaks from some twitter accounts and the title of the next year of content.
AFAIK, they are talking about what “Codename Frontiers” is either today or tomorrow. So yeah, no future plans is not really the issue. They have been saying for a long time there will be more D2. The reason people haven’t wanted to play is everything else surrounding the the game (Bungie layoffs, etc).
Source: 3500+ hours of D2, and the ability to read and retain information. A seemingly rare trait in the D2 community.
I feel as if the “lack of clear path forward” is a bit over an overreaction from the community.
I don’t think it’s an overreaction considering the fact that they have been building up to the end of this story for about a decade now, it was the grand finale of everything in the entire game’s overarching dialogue, and frankly, no one even considered what would come after that other than the release of Destiny 3 if there even would be one
Bungie is still announcing plans at the same rate they used to
This is just the first time the players haven’t known the 3 year plan in a long time.
Now all we have are leaks from some twitter accounts and the title of the next year of content.
You’re contradicting yourself. You’re saying that they are still announcing things at the rate that they used to, but players don’t know what’s going on, and all we have are leaks from Twitter accounts. How does that make any logical sense? We have no idea what’s going on, but we also know exactly what’s coming, but we also don’t because it’s just leaks and rumors… ummm
Destiny 3: They have said several times over the years that making a Destiny 3 would not make sense, so there were no plans. Only thing that ever mentioned there was work happening on a D3 were leak accounts.
Considering it an overreaction is a bit subjective I suppose, but since what said was they are announcing things at the same rate, save for pre-TFS, all we had were the names of upcoming expansions… I don’t see how I’m contracting myself. Unless you mean the leaks, which should always be taken with a grain of salt if you are to believe them.
I say it is an overreaction because, sure, they had a decade long story, but more than half of that was by the seat of their pants, *constantly * needing to stop moving forward and needling to fix core elements of this game. Curse of Osiris infamously almost killed D2, and without the Go Fast update and Forsaken returning everything people loved from D1… Game would’ve died.
I implore you to look back on Forsaken and see that it was just… Fixing D2. The campaign, while having some incredibly memorable story beats, was just… Not good. A bulk of the campaign consisted of Lost Sector like missions in the world that had you killing most of the Barons, with some bigger set piece missions spriklnkled in there.
All I’m trying to say is the only difference between now and then is that we had expansion names up front. Otherwise, about 6 months out, we would get our reveal, and them more info from there as we got closer. If anything, they are talking about Frontiers ahead of schedule. Usually wouldn’t expect anything until like… November/December.
They are in damage control mode, trying to push update son content faster, but with less staff to do it. I imagine it’s hell in Bungie HQ for the devs. Fuck their leadership though.
I’ve always enjoyed the identity of the three classes, and the abilities they have, plus gunplay has historically been pretty fun. That said, ever since i’ve started playing, the three things i’ve enjoyed were 1. the raids, 2. the story, and 3. my friends.
Unfortunately, Bungie make it overwhelmingly difficult to have fun in this game, by both making moronic decisions at times, and drip-feeding paying customers content, as if it’s a f2p game on life support. The latter alone has practically made me stop playing recently. You have to pay money to each each season, and all you get is a 30 second cutscene for the weekly story, plus a 10 minute adventure in a zone you’ve already been to a thousand times? Come on
People play the game because they like to play it? Just because the main story is over doesn’t mean that people don’t enjoy the game anymore. There are plenty of games without a clear and direct story that are very popular because people just enjoy the gameplay.
