The game developers Bungie have just unrolled a brand new update for Destiny 2 and the user base is really angry. The latest edition of the “This Week in Destiny” series has brought news about the exotic live mission Heliostat, the updates of Power Reset, the return of Arms week and some TwitchCon activities along with the announcement. However, players are only interested in one matter: the incredibly unpopular changes to the portal system and the power progression, which are scheduled to go live on Tuesday. It was only a matter of time before the feedback from gamers was described as nothing less than volcanic by the developers.
So, what really is the situation? Bungie’s decision to apply the power deltas across a greater variety of activities means that nobody will be able to content anymore and thus no one can over level content. The maximum power of the Renegades expansion is currently at 550 and players are usually stuck in the so-called “GM portal slop,” a situation in which everyone is confined to thirty levels below the activity where they are participating. People think that this will be the way to create the progression to be more meaningful or something like that? But the community is very firm in its opposition to this.
The responses to Bungie’s tweet serve as an excellent summary of the whole thing. A user named Albin0 stated with no hesitation that “I’ll stick to other games thanks” as soon as he got to know about the forced deltas. Another user, Random Guy, presented the matter in the best way possible: “When there is no way to over level any activity, power grinding loses its value completely. Grinding only for the possibility to struggle less is a poor design choice.” I mean he couldn’t be more correct, could he? What would be the point of acquiring better equipment if you are going to be constantly treated like a weakling regardless of the activities?
What about the exotic mission Heliostat? Even before most of the people have tried it, it is already being called a “huge disappointment.” Christian tweeted that he was going to attempt it but later he changed his mind after reading the criticism and simply said “im good.” Ouch! When the players cannot be even bothered to try the new content and the dominant view is that it is so bad, you can safely say that there are problems.
Also, is it true that the vault is not working properly and some players are affected? Sinistar2077 was wondering if the vault was down or perhaps they were “tripping”- and honestly, I’m feeling the same way. Moreover, Bungie has not yet specified when it will be fixed which adds to the annoyance.
Undoubtedly, it is quite perplexing observing players fighting over the matter in the reply section. There are gamers wanting hardcore content on one hand and the others who just want to be empowered on the other. DjCrazee made a good point regarding the choice issue: “The Portal was built for choice. If you want a casual run, go for it. If you want a hard as hell run, go wild. But because some didn’t know how to use mods properly and were overtuning, we all lose that choice.” Conversely, the other half of the people are like “you are getting T5 loot quicker and the game is easier.. you people aren’t real lol” according to Mi7iTiA. So, there is a clear divide but the prevailing feeling is still negative.
Changes to power progression seem particularly baffling. Why reset power right before new progression systems are introduced? It seems like Bungie is forever altering the game’s fundamental rules and players are left in a state of confusion. One input from the user XenoNihilism very accurately summed it up: “The community is in chaos and the game’s long-term vision and its systems are unclear. These changes could be beneficial, but in the current system, they make no sense. We need to be informed about the future direction.”
And that is the crux of the matter, isn’t it? To put it simply, gamers have invested countless hours into the game, have customized their characters, learnt the systems, and then bungies just…changes everything. The Portal system had been already a point of contention when it was introduced, and now they have decided not to relent on it while at the same time taking players’ choices over difficulty away.
Yet, some players cling to an optimistic view. Tekzolltv1 came up with the suggestion of linking tiers to every delta level: so, master difficulty would yield tier 3 loot, GM will provide tier 4 loot and ultimate will yield tier 5 loot. This idea does actually seem reasonable? But the concern is whether Bungie will be open-minded to it.
The return of Arms week is not really a big thing. It is like, cool, more temporary events while the main progression system still is in a mess. Also, the whole BungieLove at TwitchCon might be great for them but it seems to be a distraction from the actual problem, which is the game needing to be fixed first.
The situation of Destiny 2 is just so upsetting. Changes like these result in players literally saying they will quit the game because it has become “dead to them” now. Matt made the comment “As there is still nothing about legacy raids and dungeons, the game is still dead to me. The portal changes were the biggest mistake in the history of Destiny.” Indeed, a very powerful statement.
The power fantasy, which was a major factor responsible for Destiny’s charm, seems to be fading away being substituted by incessant trials and imposed difficulties. When you strip grinding and character development of the feeling of getting more powerful, what’s the point? There is not much difference between playing something else where your time investment is not wasted and where you actually reap the benefits.
Bungie definitely has a tough job ahead of them to regain the trust of players. The changes that will take effect next Tuesday are most likely going to decide whether a large portion of the audience stays or finally moves on to other games. The community has been very vocal about its preferences – let’s see if Bungie takes note this time around.
