Bungie’s new Inkdrawn shader event was a so-called quest but it left a trail of perplexed and irritated players. DestinyTheGame’s official account tweeted a last-minute notice saying that only a few hours were left to receive the cosmetic by taking a challenge on Discord and playing ‘Renegades’ for thirty minutes. However, the timing of the tweet and the purpose of the quest created great player discontent. They were stating that they got the alert only after the event was over.
To be honest, Bungie was attempting to do something beneficial for the community through Discord, and that quest was part of it. You sign up, play the new Lawless Frontier section of the Renegades update for thirty minutes, and then, bam, you get a code for this outstanding black-and-white Inkdrawn shader. It does sound easy, right? However, nothing is ever that smooth in Destiny’s true style. Just like that tweet’s original post could have been a flare shot into a cave filled with asleep Hive, the reply to was fast and loud.
The main issue for players was Timing. Countless players came back with the same experience and claimed they got the notification after the quest had closed. User DecortePan63940 put it very well, “Wtf there was no notification of this until now?! Showed up only an hr after it was expired!🤬”. Others, such as MetroidPrime_20, expressed the same reaction: “I got notified about this after it was already over ☹️”. This instantly generated a mix of FOMO and frustration, especially about a shader that was called “one of the nicer shaders released recently” by a commenter DanTheNoob.
But it still gets more complicated. Even for those players who were aware of the quest on time, it’s a whole different nightmare to complete it. There were technical issues everywhere. User De_Vice posted, “It isn’t worling for me, tried everything, even disconnecting and reconnecting. It recognizes I’m playing D2, but if I go to the quest it doesn’t.” TKtheblacksmith told a similar story: “Doesn’t show up for me anymore… And two days ago when I attempted to do it, it would tell me I wasn’t playing the game even though I was and wouldn’t progress… So stupid…”
TheWLinden commented, “Loving that all three times I’ve tried to do this, it doesn’t work. Now it’s not even on the Quests list.” So it was not simply late notification; the system set to monitor playtime was presumably completely malfunctioning for a large part of the community. Some players, mdmthibeau and cbrobinson89, were trying to back each other up in figuring out the problem offering link refreshes and game resets. Some succeeded while others did not. This kind of peer support is a customary thing for the Destiny community who are helping to fix problems caused by Bungie’s own systems.
Then, as is always the case, replies turned into a general bug report session for Destiny 2: Renegades. Players took the opportunity to voice their unhappiness. Vipereon27 pleaded, “Please for the love of God fix the rubberbanding enemies in both the lawless frontier and in the dungeon shit is getting old”. Take_the_Bait_ asked for fixing the Covert Ranger Helmet for cloaks, justifying that they had spent real money on it. GaborKrancz talked about a broken antenna task on Mars. It was a total incident.
Oddly enough, there was also some silly, funny arguments. User Esseaghost commented, “Nice. Now please remove feats, they are stupid.” WiddelyRedComet merely answered that with, “Just get better buddy”. This chit-chat led to a discourse about “defending the poor billion dollar company.” It is a very dramatic and very, very Destiny-like experience.
What can the latest events teach? On one hand, it is cool that Bungie is doing all the extra, community-oriented activities for earning unique loot. The Inkdrawn shader is definitely a good one, and the way it is distributed—playing the new content—is said to be friendly to players. But the execution…oof. The breakdown of the notification systems along with the buggy quest tracking resulted in more discontent than good faith. Regrettably, it is a pattern that players on PlayStation and Xbox have to get used to: a nice concept stillborn due to technical difficulties and communication issues.
For those who missed the opportunity, it is a pity. Such limited-time cosmetic quests are always frustrating when they fail. And in the case of Bungie, it is an additional example of how a simple reward could easily turn into a PR nightmare if the road to obtaining it is cluttered with mistakes. The community’s tolerance is being tested not by the grind but by the completely non-functional systems.
