In spite of a lot of criticism, Destiny ultimately went on to be successful, and become a fixture in millions of players’ now playing lists- a lot of this owed itself to the endgame in Destiny, which introduced real loot based stats, grinding, and exclusive content, such as the raids, which led to a self fulfilling, self perpetuated grind, which kept players playing. The best part of Destiny was considered to be its end game raid, the Vault of Glass. And when its first expansion, The Dark Below, was widely panned, the raid, Crota’s End, kept people playing.
Given, then, that Destiny’s success so far has owed itself entirely to the end game raids, you would think Bungie would be doubling down on those, right?
You would think wrong. The upcoming expansion, House of Wolves, will have no raid.
‘House of Wolves will not have a Raid activity,’ Bungie said. ‘We didn’t make this decision lightly. Our team has been humbled by the reception of Raids in Destiny and we are creating a new Raid for a release later this year. House of Wolves will have a new cooperative end game activity focused on variety, replayability, and skill – a new battle Arena called The Prison of Elders.’
What I don’t understand is… why? Bungie, after Destiny and The Dark Below were criticized, specifically delayed House of Wolves, because they wanted to incorporate player and community feedback. They specifically promised that the new expansion would reflect community sentiments about the game, and double down on what was good about it, leading to a fresh new direction for the game. Then why is this expansion the exact opposite of what was promised? What has Bungie been doing all this while? Why exactly was House of Wolves even delayed?
House of Wolves will launch for Destiny later this year, on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, and PS4.