When you say the "Destiny is my one game" community is huge, I understand you. It feels huge to me too, since everyone I hear from seems to feel the same about it. However, "everyone" for me is you guys plus the louder voices on Reddit. The entire Destiny subreddit is just half a million people. Activision claims that Destiny 2 was the second highest selling game in North America last year. They didn't release total sales numbers, but one source (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/166065/destiny-2/ ) has PS4 global sales pushing 3 million units. So let's guess total sales in excess of 4 million units across all three platforms.
My point is that there is plenty of room for my hypothesis that Destiny purchasers are mostly of the "three week" variety, whom Bungie is terrified of alienating. I'll share my thinking one step further. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but let's think for a moment how Bungie might try to keep both populations of players happy, both "three weekers" and "one gamers". They could release a great three week game, then wait for the "three weekers" to leave, and then launch a proportionately lower resource attempt to make the "one gamers" happy. I'm not saying that I can read their minds, but their actions fit this pattern with both D1 and D2. Don't they?
Yeah Krak, I certainly see your point and it's an interesting theory. I would have to wonder though if Bungie went through all the work on D1 to get it to where it was at the end - what sense would it make to do basically the same thing with D2?
If Bungie wanted us to leave and come back for expansions, it doesn't make sense for them to keep updating the game with major fixes and redesigns.
We all knew D2 would sell big and Bungie/Activision already knew they had our money. But they new the game was thin and had to know it was a timebomb. Well, now we are experiencing the fallout. The 3-weekers are long gone and the "one gamers" are throwing in the towel too.
I'm just treading water too with the game. I do my milestones and that's about it because my friends list is almost empty of Destiny players.
Yeah, bottom line is exactly as you say. I think most of us still play, but so little there are only one or two of us on at a time. I dunno. I just can't see Bungie signing up to create a vibrant long term grind just yet. Of the games I occasionally play, only Warframe (space ninjas!) and Neverwinter Online (D&D MMO) seem committed to doing that. Both free to play (i.e. pay to win), but I never pay and have no problems with that. EA's Anthem will be interesting for this group to watch, since it seems very Destiny-inspired, and MIGHT go with an MMO-like, long grind route. But...EA.
I'm a "one game" player. Usually play in the evenings, and most of the times I'm on there are a couple of pages of people active on my Destiny roster.
I still have endgame content I haven't conquered yet so I'm still engaged. I enjoy both playing with fireteams and playing alone. And I just enjoy PVE and PVP so... it's a habit and I keep playing. Until something else catches my interest I'll be in there.
Do you mostly play with pick-up groups from your friends list, BLAM? Or do you have some good regular groups too? I've thought about doing the "assisted" raids and nightfall, and did in fact do the assisted nightfall exactly one time, but have not felt motivated enough to do more. Still think about it from time to time, though.
Nightfalls are usually pick-ups from my friends list, although I haven't been doing nightfalls much since D2. Really just started doing them on a semi-regular basis a couple of weeks ago, and last week I ran two of my three toons through guided games. Guided games for raids - forget about it - last time I looked it was a 45+ minute wait for a fireteam.
I do flashpoints and PVP with pick-ups or solo queueing.
I don't have a regular raid team, but I belong to a large pretty active group on the100.io that runs raids etc. Got my first Argos clear last night with a the100 fireteam.
One of the things that made me laugh after reading this is that I can wait till the last of the rallies in this season and weapons/armor from the earlier ones will be available LoL!
You are 100% correct Achy. There is not much of an incentive to play in the Faction Rally at this time. The "ornaments" aren't really worth the time and the nerfed rewards are just lame.
This Faction rally is a real turd with this new "system". Just as the dumpster fire that is Destiny 2 starts to die down, something else gets screwed up and the flames get hotter.
You are 100% correct Achy. There is not much of an incentive to play in the Faction Rally at this time. The "ornaments" aren't really worth the time and the nerfed rewards are just lame.
This Faction rally is a real turd with this new "system". Just as the dumpster fire that is Destiny 2 starts to die down, something else gets screwed up and the flames get hotter.
What is going on over there?
The New Monarchy ornaments IMO are awesome. Best looking armor set in the game to date on my Titan. Just gonna run a nightfall to finish the set.
I've been doing all the daily faction challenge tasks on my hunter pretty much just for the fun of it. Got matched with some pretty unskilled players during the strike challenge yesterday, but that actually made the strikes more interesting, since we had to fight harder to get through the infinite forest. Speaking of the forest, I think maybe they have been messing with its algorithms. We got a really weird draw yesterday where the building blocks were very often widely separated in height. So lots of massive man cannon blasts. Fun!
I did a few strikes yesterday and on more than one occasion I was with parties that either did not know the mechanics or were too lazy to do them. They didn't jump through blue columns or flick switches - just run to the end and wait. The game also glitched and started the Vex Mind end boss encounter before I was in the tower so it didn't properly warp me. I got to the top of the tower (with no bad guys to shoot on the way) and then was insta-killed trying to make the final jump while the Mind circled the tower. I had to wait until the two other guys died and then suicide to get things reset. Whee fun ....
It's funny (not funny) how many angles we can gripe about Destiny from. The Strikes and strike matchmaking is a sore spot for me.
I bought the digital edition of D2 so my son and I can play together. It's impossible for us to enjoy the strikes, because the 3rd is always running ahead killing everything and pulling us through the encounters. I think there's actually a story in some of these, but I've never experienced it because random strike teams just blitz through everything. If I could just choose to play the strike with only the 2 of us, it would be so great.
Hammer: Some of the guys in my old clan tried to get around this problem by intentionally undergearing in the strike queue. You'll almost certainly get paired with new players (after a little wait). Put on the worst (lowest power) armor and weapons you dare and give it a shot!
The newer strikes that go through the Infinite Garden are awful for people just skipping content. I don't know why they didn't make it so you had to kill a daemon to proceed through each section (similar to the Osiris missions). Instead, you get people just running past everything and heaven forbid you stop to shoot stuff or mess up a jump and die.
Too bad I can't loan you the noobs from my last strike team. They were dying like crazy, so we had to actually fight our way through the forest. And amazingly, it was fun!
I just picked up The Division last weekend due to all of the recent press about how much the game has been improved. I am slowly making my way through the campaign. The game is a lot of fun and the city is incredible. I got a used copy from GameStop for $15 and it seems totally worth the purchase.
I'm a total noob though, so I would welcome some assistance from any of you that might know how to actually play this game...lol
I just picked up The Division last weekend due to all of the recent press about how much the game has been improved. I am slowly making my way through the campaign. The game is a lot of fun and the city is incredible. I got a used copy from GameStop for $15 and it seems totally worth the purchase.
I'm a total noob though, so I would welcome some assistance from any of you that might know how to actually play this game...lol
Hit me up sometime. I picked it up for a net of $3.50 with a coupon and some credit from GameStop. I'm not sure how it scales if I jumped in with you. I had it previously and completed the campaign, I have all the DLC, but haven't played any of it. I'm pretty sure Krak has it too.
I never did any co-op, but I bet it's even more fun when you can change up tactics in combat.
Yep, I have Division, and still like it too. Something about the shooting scratches an itch nothing else seems to scratch, so I jump back in now and again. I never made it to the tippy-top world tier, but I'm pretty close. I also have a low level alt or two. I'll try to watch for you guys!
Yep, I have Division, and still like it too. Something about the shooting scratches an itch nothing else seems to scratch, so I jump back in now and again. I never made it to the tippy-top world tier, but I'm pretty close. I also have a low level alt or two. I'll try to watch for you guys!
I am also in this situation. I have one guy in World 5, but two others that I haven't played since the big patches came out.
Went on The Division yesterday to check out some of the latest content (the piers). Turns out my best character was not as far as I thought in world tier (or something got changed in the update), just the very bottom of tier four (out of five). Was dying like mad just a block into the zone. The spawn rates are really crazy. But I had a lot of fun, and every other fight dropped an upgrade for me. Might be a blast to take on the piers as a fireteam.
For me the only thing that would keep me in the game -- given all the problems -- is the social aspect of it, playing with friends; and since everyone has disappeared (including me) that is pretty much a "dead horse" now.
Yeah, I think that article pretty much covers it. I have one local friend who just recently purchased Destiny 2 and loves it, but he dropped out of Destiny 1 before House of Wolves due to major personal time commitments. Having missed all the improvements in D1, he has nothing to be disappointed about and may be the exception that proves the rule. As for myself, I'm mostly just playing the various story missions to build up my other characters. I played Iron Banner just once with friends -- it was still fun, but I have no desire to play it solo.
There's a leak about the next expansion on Reddit this morning courtesy of Gamestop. Not sure how much of this is really new if you follow Destiny closely, but the release date looks to be May 8 with a story centering on Warminds and set underground on Mars. Despite feeling somewhat low energy about D2 at the moment, I have to admit that I am still curious to learn more about the Warminds. https://imgur.com/a/8ka9E
When you say the "Destiny is my one game" community is huge, I understand you. It feels huge to me too, since everyone I hear from seems to feel the same about it. However, "everyone" for me is you guys plus the louder voices on Reddit. The entire Destiny subreddit is just half a million people. Activision claims that Destiny 2 was the second highest selling game in North America last year. They didn't release total sales numbers, but one source (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/166065/destiny-2/ ) has PS4 global sales pushing 3 million units. So let's guess total sales in excess of 4 million units across all three platforms.
My point is that there is plenty of room for my hypothesis that Destiny purchasers are mostly of the "three week" variety, whom Bungie is terrified of alienating. I'll share my thinking one step further. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but let's think for a moment how Bungie might try to keep both populations of players happy, both "three weekers" and "one gamers". They could release a great three week game, then wait for the "three weekers" to leave, and then launch a proportionately lower resource attempt to make the "one gamers" happy. I'm not saying that I can read their minds, but their actions fit this pattern with both D1 and D2. Don't they?
Yeah Krak, I certainly see your point and it's an interesting theory. I would have to wonder though if Bungie went through all the work on D1 to get it to where it was at the end - what sense would it make to do basically the same thing with D2?
If Bungie wanted us to leave and come back for expansions, it doesn't make sense for them to keep updating the game with major fixes and redesigns.
We all knew D2 would sell big and Bungie/Activision already knew they had our money. But they new the game was thin and had to know it was a timebomb. Well, now we are experiencing the fallout. The 3-weekers are long gone and the "one gamers" are throwing in the towel too.
I'm just treading water too with the game. I do my milestones and that's about it because my friends list is almost empty of Destiny players.
Yeah, bottom line is exactly as you say. I think most of us still play, but so little there are only one or two of us on at a time. I dunno. I just can't see Bungie signing up to create a vibrant long term grind just yet. Of the games I occasionally play, only Warframe (space ninjas!) and Neverwinter Online (D&D MMO) seem committed to doing that. Both free to play (i.e. pay to win), but I never pay and have no problems with that. EA's Anthem will be interesting for this group to watch, since it seems very Destiny-inspired, and MIGHT go with an MMO-like, long grind route. But...EA.
I'm a "one game" player. Usually play in the evenings, and most of the times I'm on there are a couple of pages of people active on my Destiny roster.
I still have endgame content I haven't conquered yet so I'm still engaged. I enjoy both playing with fireteams and playing alone. And I just enjoy PVE and PVP so... it's a habit and I keep playing. Until something else catches my interest I'll be in there.
Do you mostly play with pick-up groups from your friends list, BLAM? Or do you have some good regular groups too? I've thought about doing the "assisted" raids and nightfall, and did in fact do the assisted nightfall exactly one time, but have not felt motivated enough to do more. Still think about it from time to time, though.
It varies.
Nightfalls are usually pick-ups from my friends list, although I haven't been doing nightfalls much since D2. Really just started doing them on a semi-regular basis a couple of weeks ago, and last week I ran two of my three toons through guided games. Guided games for raids - forget about it - last time I looked it was a 45+ minute wait for a fireteam.
I do flashpoints and PVP with pick-ups or solo queueing.
I don't have a regular raid team, but I belong to a large pretty active group on the100.io that runs raids etc. Got my first Argos clear last night with a the100 fireteam.
Apparently Bungie has bungled (pun intended) the current faction rally. My interest level was already low on this but geez...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/01/17/destiny-2s-latest-fac...
One of the things that made me laugh after reading this is that I can wait till the last of the rallies in this season and weapons/armor from the earlier ones will be available LoL!
You are 100% correct Achy. There is not much of an incentive to play in the Faction Rally at this time. The "ornaments" aren't really worth the time and the nerfed rewards are just lame.
This Faction rally is a real turd with this new "system". Just as the dumpster fire that is Destiny 2 starts to die down, something else gets screwed up and the flames get hotter.
What is going on over there?
The New Monarchy ornaments IMO are awesome. Best looking armor set in the game to date on my Titan. Just gonna run a nightfall to finish the set.
I've been doing all the daily faction challenge tasks on my hunter pretty much just for the fun of it. Got matched with some pretty unskilled players during the strike challenge yesterday, but that actually made the strikes more interesting, since we had to fight harder to get through the infinite forest. Speaking of the forest, I think maybe they have been messing with its algorithms. We got a really weird draw yesterday where the building blocks were very often widely separated in height. So lots of massive man cannon blasts. Fun!
I did a few strikes yesterday and on more than one occasion I was with parties that either did not know the mechanics or were too lazy to do them. They didn't jump through blue columns or flick switches - just run to the end and wait. The game also glitched and started the Vex Mind end boss encounter before I was in the tower so it didn't properly warp me. I got to the top of the tower (with no bad guys to shoot on the way) and then was insta-killed trying to make the final jump while the Mind circled the tower. I had to wait until the two other guys died and then suicide to get things reset. Whee fun ....
It's funny (not funny) how many angles we can gripe about Destiny from. The Strikes and strike matchmaking is a sore spot for me.
I bought the digital edition of D2 so my son and I can play together. It's impossible for us to enjoy the strikes, because the 3rd is always running ahead killing everything and pulling us through the encounters. I think there's actually a story in some of these, but I've never experienced it because random strike teams just blitz through everything. If I could just choose to play the strike with only the 2 of us, it would be so great.
Hammer: Some of the guys in my old clan tried to get around this problem by intentionally undergearing in the strike queue. You'll almost certainly get paired with new players (after a little wait). Put on the worst (lowest power) armor and weapons you dare and give it a shot!
The newer strikes that go through the Infinite Garden are awful for people just skipping content. I don't know why they didn't make it so you had to kill a daemon to proceed through each section (similar to the Osiris missions). Instead, you get people just running past everything and heaven forbid you stop to shoot stuff or mess up a jump and die.
Too bad I can't loan you the noobs from my last strike team. They were dying like crazy, so we had to actually fight our way through the forest. And amazingly, it was fun!
I just picked up The Division last weekend due to all of the recent press about how much the game has been improved. I am slowly making my way through the campaign. The game is a lot of fun and the city is incredible. I got a used copy from GameStop for $15 and it seems totally worth the purchase.
I'm a total noob though, so I would welcome some assistance from any of you that might know how to actually play this game...lol
Hit me up sometime. I picked it up for a net of $3.50 with a coupon and some credit from GameStop. I'm not sure how it scales if I jumped in with you. I had it previously and completed the campaign, I have all the DLC, but haven't played any of it. I'm pretty sure Krak has it too.
I never did any co-op, but I bet it's even more fun when you can change up tactics in combat.
Yep, I have Division, and still like it too. Something about the shooting scratches an itch nothing else seems to scratch, so I jump back in now and again. I never made it to the tippy-top world tier, but I'm pretty close. I also have a low level alt or two. I'll try to watch for you guys!
I am also in this situation. I have one guy in World 5, but two others that I haven't played since the big patches came out.
Went on The Division yesterday to check out some of the latest content (the piers). Turns out my best character was not as far as I thought in world tier (or something got changed in the update), just the very bottom of tier four (out of five). Was dying like mad just a block into the zone. The spawn rates are really crazy. But I had a lot of fun, and every other fight dropped an upgrade for me. Might be a blast to take on the piers as a fireteam.
More stuff on the way:
https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/Update/46612
This is a really good read:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/03/08/this-destiny-despair-...
For me the only thing that would keep me in the game -- given all the problems -- is the social aspect of it, playing with friends; and since everyone has disappeared (including me) that is pretty much a "dead horse" now.
Yeah, I think that article pretty much covers it. I have one local friend who just recently purchased Destiny 2 and loves it, but he dropped out of Destiny 1 before House of Wolves due to major personal time commitments. Having missed all the improvements in D1, he has nothing to be disappointed about and may be the exception that proves the rule. As for myself, I'm mostly just playing the various story missions to build up my other characters. I played Iron Banner just once with friends -- it was still fun, but I have no desire to play it solo.
There's a leak about the next expansion on Reddit this morning courtesy of Gamestop. Not sure how much of this is really new if you follow Destiny closely, but the release date looks to be May 8 with a story centering on Warminds and set underground on Mars. Despite feeling somewhat low energy about D2 at the moment, I have to admit that I am still curious to learn more about the Warminds. https://imgur.com/a/8ka9E
I'll be into the spring DLC for awhile. After that, is up to Bungie.
Same. Hope it passes the smell test.