After a full year, a tough year, but a year marked with tangible success, Destiny finally seems to have found its footing, and begun to deliver on the potential that it initially hinted at. A lot of this has to do with the recent release of the Taken King expansion- an expansion which Bungie treats differently than the previous two ‘expansions’ The Dark Below and House of Wolves, which were glorified DLC packs more than anything else. Something which it seems that Bungie is now ready to admit.
In an interview with Planet Destiny, Bungie’s Luke Smith differentiated DLC packs like The Dark Below and House of Wolves from full fledged expansions like The Taken King- as the price point should reflect, one is a bigger deal than the others (the DLC packs were $20 each, The Taken King is $40). This is because, in Smith’s view, the DLC packs only add more content to the game- an expansion like The Taken King reflects a full and substantial overhauling of the game at every level (which is what has fixed so much of what was wrong with Destiny).
Bigger updates like The Taken King take time to develop- and so, they release infrequently. But to ensure the game world keeps developing, and remains dynamic and alive, Smith stated that more of the smaller updates to Destiny will keep on coming.
Smith also discussed the game’s RNG governed loot grind, which is simultaneously the most criticized, and most addictive, part of Destiny’s design. Smith rebuffs the criticism, and states that some rewards should be hard to gain by nature- that is the point. He also discusses farming and farming methods, such as the Three of Coins, as something intrinsic to the game’s design- it is not an exploit, the development team knew exactly what they were doing when they did it.
It’s something that keeps players invested in and returning to Destiny, that is for sure.
