The Destiny Diaries – Episode 10: How to Fix Destiny in 2015
The Destiny Diaries is a periodic retelling of the experiences of GameFront’s days in Destiny, imparting our impressions as we work through the game.
Check out the rest of the Destiny Diaries right here, including The Destiny Diaries – Day 7: Raiders of the Lost Vault, The Destiny Diaries – Day 8: The Day the Loot Died and The Destiny Diaries – Episode 9: Kicking Crota’s Ass (and Other Parts)
Before Destiny released to the public, it was all, “This is going to be the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard of. It will stab your eyes with amazitude. It will crack your skull open and lick the epicness center of your brain.”
Then there was the beta, and Destiny was all, “Haha, ‘That wizard came from the moon,’ right? So hilarious. Don’t worry, it’ll be better than that.”
And then Destiny hit shelves and it was like, “Yeah, okay, I know, but just wait — wait for the Raid. The raid is like peeing directly onto the electric fence of next-generation video game evolution.”
After that, Destiny shrugged and said, “Yeah, that Cryptarch’s a dick. Fixing him. Gonna be great.”
And now that the first expansion, The Dark Below, is out, Destiny’s going, “Got some great ideas for Destiny 2!”
—
There have been a few times that Destiny has been a little bit full of shit, and after three months and an expansion, it’s a game that’s seen a lot of changes. But there are still many improvements Destiny can and should make if it wants to be the long-lasting pseudo-MMO it claims to be. And in my benevolent wisdom, I have prepared a list of notable changes that would greatly improve upon the experience of Destiny.
Here’s how to fix the game everyone loves to hate, and also hates to begrudgingly kinda love, in 2015.
Get your torches and destroy Motes of Light
There’s very little in Destiny that makes me as crazy as those goddamn son of a bitch useless idiotic infuriating Motes of Light.
Motes are a form of currency that players start collecting after they hit the experience cap at level 20. Instead of leveling up past 20, every so often, you generate a Mote, and there’s a chance you’ll collect them from all the high-level stuff you do, like decrypting engrams and completing “Strike” missions.
This would be fine if Motes of Light weren’t absolutely fucking useless.
Motes of Light are like Monopoly Money. Only two people in the entire game accept them in exchange for stuff (three, if you count the Iron Banner guy who only shows up for periodic events and only accepts exactly one Mote for exactly one thing). One is the Speaker for the Traveler, who only sells new hoods and emblems to go next to your name when players look at you. The other is Xur, who trades Motes for exotic engrams when he shows up on Fridays and Saturdays in the Tower.
Okay, so at least you can get exotics with Motes, right? The Speaker might sell superfluous aesthetic stuff no one needs that’s not even especially cool-looking, but Xur is chucking out engrams that can, potentially, unlock some of the best gear in the game. Your brain’s saying to you, I’ll just throw all those stupid Motes at him!
By submitting a comment here you grant GameFront a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate or irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin's discretion.
5 Comments on The Destiny Diaries – Episode 10: How to Fix Destiny in 2015
Rick
On December 24, 2014 at 4:01 am
Wow. This article nailed it. After looking at this list, I realize there are a lot of things this game needs to fix if it wants to keep me playing long-term. Yet the gameplay (gunplay) itself is very addicting.
Eddie
On December 24, 2014 at 8:17 pm
Preach. Also, I would say among other potential fixes, getting rid of light levels is my favorite. It was a cool idea, but the fact that if I want to level a new piece of gear, I become less able to play high-level content is a bit much.
Michael
On December 25, 2014 at 7:18 pm
I say stop playing it and move on.
Phil Hornshaw
On December 26, 2014 at 7:52 am
@Michael
Yes but then what would I write the jokes about.
R.J.
On December 30, 2014 at 8:22 am
It would help so much if the mystery items you can acquire were class-specific. Honestly, how hard is it to have the game check your class before handing something out? If I’ve collected enough resources to get an Exotic item, I shouldn’t have to risk that it will only be good for scrap, which has happened to me more often than not. Alternatively, maybe implement a function that lets us swap items with friends. Then, at least, incorrect items would still have value in trade. I suspect this won’t ever happen since that would mean that players could be more efficient and do less grinding, and let’s face it, grinding is this game’s crutch.
The sheer amount of different resources also makes it apparent that the game is relying heavily on the MMO approach of making you grind just to give you a reason to keep playing. As Phil said, this wouldn’t be so bad if the upgrades made a more noticeable difference.
And yes, PLEASE, Bungie, don’t talk about a sequel when you haven’t even finished with this game. So far, the game has inspired little confidence that a sequel would somehow live up to expectations, so maybe use some of those ideas you have for a sequel in this one so it seems like you care.