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Huge drop in player retention for Destiny 2
The latest news from Bungie, or rather about Bungie is the huge drop in player retention for Destiny 2. Mind you, this is before the PC version of the game came out just a few days ago. The admin site for Bungie has recently taken down the statistics that would show how many gamers are still playing. This is due to the fact that it was reported 80% of gamers actually stopped playing and most likely moved onto other games. I’m also a bit disappointed in how everything turned out and here’s why:
The game started off with something that was missing from the first one. Can you guess what it was? If you said an actual story then you’ve guess it! Destiny 1 had absolutely no story, nothing to really dive into and get emotionally invested in. This time around there was actually something going on in the game. The opening scenes pretty much show you that all hell’s broken loose in a place called The Tower. That’s basically the central hub to do everything, pick up bounties, decode engrams, buy weapons and armor, etc.
You come back to fight somewhat along side three main characters in the game and find out towards the end that some jerk named Ghaul is the one to blame for everything. At the end of the intro to the game, you lose your light(the one thing that basically makes you invincible) and get your butt kicked. The entire game revolves around you getting your light back and defeating Ghaul. I liked him, you can relate to this guy as an evil, conquering character. He was a big creepy dude that actually has a past consistent of struggles and the rise to power. Something like a gladiator that makes his claim to fame and freedom. But that’s it! the story is too quick and it didn’t really make you emotionally invested in the characters. At least it’s better than having absolutely no story.
Only after you beat the story are you allowed to do different things. You can do player vs player(PVP), some strikes, and even gain access to the raid which is supposed to be the most challenging thing you can do in the game. All of which help you to level up your guardian by getting better weapons and armor.
The maximum level you can reach as of right now is level 305. Once you beat the different parts of the raid and even the boss you’re supposed to get armor and weapons that boost your level. This is how you max out at 305. The raid has two modes of which are normal and prestige. Prestige mode has a recommended level of 300 therefore being harder to complete. Normal mode has a recommended level of 270. Now the plot thickens. When you complete the raid on prestige you don’t get anything to boost you past 305! All you get for your efforts is armor that looks cool but has sucky stats, and maybe some good weapons if you didn’t get them already. On top of that, when you’re done with the raid there’s nothing left to do.
My question is why would Bungie put in two different modes and not reward you for the hardest one? This is just my opinion, and others might feel the same way but the point of completing a harder challenge is to get a bigger reward, not the same thing you can get from doing a raid on normal.
Not to add onto the problems this game has, but unless you’re heavily invested in PVP there’s nothing else to do. Especially since Trials of the Nine stopped due to being hacked with a stupid emote. These are some of the reasons why people have stopped playing the game, and Bungie should’ve accounted for this. It’s to be expected of everyone who bought the game, with no shadow of a doubt, will play this game like there’s no tomorrow. There’s a method to leveling up faster by having 3 characters which shortens the amount of time spent playing the game.
Now I will say this, I like this game overall . There are some things that they can change and make better but I doubt Bungie will listen. Their pattern is to get feedback from players and do the opposite. I’ve invested $80 into this game so I have no choice but to wait around for the next season of DLC to come out and see what they have to offer. The next DLC package is scheduled to come out December 5th, which was confirmed at Sony’s press conference at Paris Games Week. This DLC looks interesting, as it’s taking place on Mercury and will involve a rogue guardian named Osiris. At least that’s what the trailer shows us, and this time we’ll be fighting the Vex.
What I hope to see but I doubt will happen, is some interaction with the NPC’s besides buying gear and weapons. So far that hasn’t really happened. Not to give away any spoilers for people who are new to the game but you do see Ikora, Cayde-6, and Zavalla in the field. Let me know what you guys think about what’s going on over at Bungie, and what you think the future may hold for the Destiny franchise. Until next time Guardians!
Watch The Curse of Osiris trailer here
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A great and honest review! Enjoyed it!!
I stopped playing on console because I was waiting for the PC release, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a similar story for a few people .
There seems to be this running theme with Destiny 2 that we must all be able to play it constantly for hundreds of hours and are then disappointing when we have to replay stuff. The amount of comments I’ve seen on reddit from people who say they’ve played for over 100 hours and have nothing left to do is crazy. What do they expect? Why do we have to play it constantly? What’s wrong with dipping in and out of it.
I’m enjoying my time with the game, but I know I’ll hit a wall at around 50-60 hours I’m sure. But that’s ok, I can come back later.
I agree with you about dipping in and out of games. I do that now even with my new ones lol. I didn’t max out in destiny so I still have some more grinding to do, my personal problem with this how they structured the game. I personally feel like the max should’ve been a little more than 305, maybe 310 or 315 at most. I’m at 299 I think and I didn’t really spend as much time as everyone else so even for me that’s way too quick. What they could’ve also done was put in something to hunt for, like the grimoire cards that can be stored in an in-game archive so people can get more involved in the lore.
There are issues with the game for sure and it’s pretty weird how some things have been overlooked – not being able to see friends on maps, being one obvious one.
The grind for gear and levels is always going to be a difficult one to balance I think and whilst the pacing of it might be a little off for D2 I’m not to put off by it.
A specific way to grind for specific loot would be a nice thing to see, having random drops from collecting tokens the only way to really earn gear isn’t great. Too many people are opening 20+ packages and getting 10+ duplicates, but still miss, say, a helmet.
I have faith in the live team that these issues will be sorted and the game will continue to get better.
I hope so. I’m already all in for the next two expansions so I don’t really have a choice lol. The Curse of Osiris DLC looks good, but I’m not putting anything past Bungie. We’ll just have to see how it turns out. How do you like it on pc?
I love it on PC. It feels really different in a good way.
Destiny 2 has a the problem of being a game that just will never satisfy everyone no matter what it does. I think the overall design of the game is inherently flawed because a lack of general focus as to what Destiny really is. The mmo shooter hybrid idea hasn’t found its sweet spot yet. It doesn’t offer enough on either end to keep players engage for a long time.
Also the landscape of how people play games has changed dramatically. Streaming and YouTube have allowed people the play video games as a full time job and with the internet it’s always a race to play something first and finish ASAP. Also, there used to be a time in gaming when just playing something challenging was its own reward, but with Destiny and loot games in general we need more gear or tangible rewards. It’s not the fault of the gamer necessarily, but it would take too long to analyze everything about the game. It’s almost a phenomena.
Of course not everyone will be satisfied, but this was supposed to be a bigger and better game than it’s predecessor. There are other issues with the game that I have but even with those problems I still enjoy it. Not as much as before with the first one but it is what it is. Peep the comment I left under Will’s post and you’ll see my main gripes with this one.