Bungie launched its weekly Destiny 2 update, as usual, only this time it’s packed with so much information. Some of the latest news coming out of Bungie include the announcement that the Desert Perpetual Epic Raid shall be opened for players on the 27th of September at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. There’s new evolution of the World First race, a fresh overlay for streams, and pressing Raid Night with elites; with some big changes to Portals, and level progression itself. Typical info dump, huh? But a quick glance at the comments reveals that the community is having none of that- like, none.
Let’s admit it: the raid comes really cool and is always a big event. The World First race is basically life and death for hardcore players, and updated overlays for streamers? Definitely cool. The return of Raid Night with better gear drop? Absolutely. But then the Portal and Progression changes come in, and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
The outpouring from the players is…intense. It’s not a fun vibe, if you ask me. An individual named Uprising is simply straight to the point: “Why do we have power caps? Whats the point of getting to 550 if i got no activity to be overpowered in? We just running around in circles… and hence why i wont step into the raid.. dont want to ve there for 4-5 hours and achieve nothing….” Those sentiments are echoed in many places. It looks as if the changes would remove the ability to overlevel activities, which in fact was the only thing some people liked about the power level system.
Then there is Jenpensive who is not very subtle: “Horrid changes to the portal this is a joke honestly just kill the game now. You’re not listening to the community. No on wants to play the game at – 30.” The “-30” refers to the difficulty scaling where you will be under-leveled by 30 power, making everything much harder. This is definitely the epicenter of controversy.
Things develop strongly into more higher difficulty. The equally entertaining argument religions continue with voiD_ashen and fake Kurt Russell. Classic Destiny community argument: “What is the grind really for?” voiD_ashen states that he thinks level grind has always been Destiny’s way and now it’s just a larger grind: “But destiny has always been about the level grind. That’s always been its formula now it’s just a larger grind.” He is arguing that if they remove the grind, what will the community do for six months between expansions?
fake Kurt Russell retaliates on the other hand: “The community has never known what they wanted, but numbers don’t lie and I see less and less of my friends playing because any time they fall behind they feel like they can’t catch up with the new system.” He’s suggesting that the new systems may actually be pushing players away, especially those who can’t keep up with the constant power climb. He brings up a great example with the Conqueror Seal, a prestigious seal for completing hard content. He’s saying the new changes are “continuing to add gilding progress to a seal that worked in a completely different manner before,” which essentially means they’re changing how you work toward a reward that players have previously been actively working towards. That is going to sting some.
That is not even touching the rest of the can of worms that is the Portal system. Some players are suggesting ideas, for example, crazysztof says, “imagine playing normal difficulty with matchmaking and you could increase your power all the time… and then if you want you could use modifiers to get t4s and t5s…”. It appears there is a desire for more options instead of a best-fit-everyone approach.
Even the World First raid reward gets some heat. ThisOmar called Bungie “clowns” because Destiny Rising gave the top team rings and pins, but players have to pay for finishing a raid on harder difficulty.
So, what’s the real story behind it? A weekly update informing about the new raid and some tweaks, on the surface. But whenever you go beneath the surface, you’ll find an alienated community laying claims as worthless. The roots of that problem lie probably differentiating ideology in what the endgame for Destiny 2 should be. Is it supposed to be some form of cruel power grind that gates players from the content? Or are the activities supposed to be challenging, while power is secondary? Bungie wants the trend desired along the latter with changes, but a huge chunk of the player base is strongly rebelling against the view that they are moving the goalposts once again.
That’s a messy situation for sure. You’ve got a new raid which ought to be an item of celebration, but instead, it has been overshadowed by arguments over systems that impact the entire game. Players are frustrated; they are arguing amongst themselves, even throwing a few harsh criticisms directly to Bungie. The optimism surrounding what’s to come has been overshadowed by apprehension and anger as the exploration of the future of the game’s progression begins. That’s just a classic Destiny moment. One step forward, two steps backward, and a ton of talking on Twitter about what the next step should even be. Only time can tell whether this change will last or is just the beginning for another rocky patch on the road for the game. But for now, the community is loud; and loud, they are not very happy.
