In an unprecedented move, Bungie Game Director, Joe Blackburn, addresses the Destiny 2 community via a brief video on Twitter. (I’m not calling it X, Elon.)
Final Shape Reveal Expectations
Joe starts off his video with a bit of expectation setting for the Final Shape reveal. He says the showcase is “not a reaction to the State of the Game last week.” The showcase was recorded weeks ago and Joe clearly wants players to understand that it is not going to address any feedback that came after Bungie’s State of the Game post or the video he just made.
In fact, Joe goes on to clarify further: “Its a pretty focused reveal.” It will focus much more on the story and selling points of the expansion rather than on new systems that may come with it. The showcase is an experience for anyone to come into the show and fall in love with the content rather than a big reveal for everything that will change that the veteran players will want to know about. He did mention that they will briefly touch on how the live service aspect of Destiny will change after the Final Shape. This is something most players are curious about.
Addressing PvP Feedback
Coming in with a very hot topic, Joe starts with explaining Destiny 2’s PvP focus with Lightfall’s release being balance. They wanted to make sure Strand played nice in the Sandbox. He goes on to talk about Weapon Sandbox tuning that they have strived to put out twice a season, which, to Bungie’s credit they have managed to do. While there are still outliers, the pvp sandbox has seen a lot of tuning this past year.
Joe goes onto mention the biggest debate in the PvP community: Maps. Joe admits that there current approach to PvP maps isn’t working. Next year they are changing their philosophy. They are going to be shifting from a slow trickle of maps. Instead, they are going to be dropping a single drop map pack. This is a big shift, but he did mention he didn’t think even this was enought to address player feedback.
Crucible modes are the next topic he talks about, something needed for a strong PvP “foundation.” Joe talks about his excitement for the new modes coming in Season 22: Checkmate and Relic. He also touches on changes to current modes shifting out of the Competitive Playlist and moving other modes into their core PvP playlist. A big change coming is a change on how Competitive Division points will be changing.
Joe brings up one last interesting thing for PvP improvements. Bungie is going to make a “PvP Strike Team” to focus on Crucible playlist. He goes onto to describe how that will work. We don’t have a lot of information yet on it, but its sure to be interesting.
Destiny 2’s Armor Philosophy
The Game Director speaks to the other hot Destiny 2 topic next. Joe addresses the big armor controversy first by breaking down various armor categories:
- Aspirational: Raid, Trials, and Dungeon armor. Players should be proud to wear these.
- Silver: Purchasable armor. Players should feel like its worth their money.
- Narrative: Seasonal and Destination armor. Players should see the themes in the armor
- Ritual: The core armor. Anything that is your everyday guardian.
Joe then talks about a shift in priorities with armor. They went for a more quality over quantity approach, and to their credit it was successful. That being said, Joe admits that their failure came not from shifting the priority, but from not communicating it to the players. They are even going to take an a set that was going to be an Eververse set and make it an earnable set for Ritual playlist in Season 22.
And Finally Communication in Destiny 2
Joe admits the communication could be better right off the bat stating that they have suffered. He wants more open communication with the community, but stresses that Bungie has to keep their Community Managers and developers safe. So he states they will be using their branded accounts a lot more and also will be personally streaming himself playing the game and talking to the community.
Its clear that Bungie is listening to the feedback from the Destiny community, and its very refreshing to see the man at the top talk to us so directly. I look forward to Joe’s streams (even if I think he’s a little crazy for doing them.) The Destiny community is waiting with baited breath, and I know they will be watching the Showcase for all of the new things coming with the Lightfall expansion. Check out their page on the reveal here with all of the times and promotional material out right now. And if you want to watch Joe Blackburn’s video yourself, you can check it out here.
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