The reaction to this second chapter of Bungie’s new seasonal style approach to content in Destiny has been more mixed than the first. Named the Season of the Drifter, it primarily focuses on the game’s newer competitive mode: Gambit. Something that, while a fantastic addition to the game, doesn’t hold appeal to the player base as a whole.
I’ve always personally felt it odd that some people invest themselves into a game and its community for this long, and yet only interact with a sliver of it. There are people who play a lot of Destiny but avoid any form of competitive play at all costs. In hindsight though, it’s as valid way of approaching the game as any, especially with the extra content added over the past year.
But this is probably why response to this season has been somewhat cooler. Some people simply don’t want to interact with Gambit, the idea of a rogue player invading their game to spoil their fun is abhorrent to them. As of this moment, there doesn’t seem to be much new content for people who don’t want to have to interact with Gambit or its newer, bigger brother; Gambit Prime.
The thing that many of us already seem to be forgetting though; is that the season has only just started. The most passionate, and thus vocal player base are the people who want to live their lives on Destiny. The problem being that, with Bungie’s new approach and the new style of content rollout, the game isn’t really meant for that anymore.
You’ll notice that Bungie themselves have started to change the way they describe their content. Nobody is using the term “Joker’s Wild” anymore, instead they’re describing all of their future content as Season of the <blank>. It’s because they don’t want to give players the wrong impression about the roadmap of content going forward.
A struggle that is still falling on many deaf ears. People seem to be forgetting that we’re only just now one week into this three month long rollout of content. It’s designed to come at a trickle, while many players still want to just jump right into the pool. The misunderstanding extends to the seasonal vanguard, crucible and gambit pinnacle rewards.
These are unique guns given to the players for interacting with the content steadily, over a long period of time. That doesn’t stop some facet of the player base from running hundreds of strikes within the first week and them complaining about what a grind it was. When the fundamental counterpoint is that they weren’t designed to be acquired within the first week.
Which is why all of my complains about The Reckoning are mostly moot.
I’ll be transparent here. I started writing this article as an extended rant about how little I think of the secondary new mode to accompany Gambit Prime; The Reckoning. But the more I sat and thought about what Destiny are trying to do with their content, the more I realised that my complaints about it will cease to be an issue a month from now.
I’m struggling with it for a number of reasons now, sure, in the same way I struggled with the Blind Well when Forsaken first came out or the Nightfalls right after the changes to them. As tough as they seemed then, now they’re just another piece of content I work through while watching Youtube videos or listening to a podcast.
I’ll stand by my complaints you never heard me make, reguarding the Reckoning being a mostly uninspired piece of content without anything especially unique to differentiate it from the other modes. But as of the time I’m writing this, the second tier has just recently become available and the third tier is still coming. Its too soon for me to really hold anything against Bungie when I haven’t seen the full scope of the content they’re putting out.
As players we’re simply too greedy, theres a desire to be the first to get one over your friends and enemies alike, I know I’m certainly guilty of this. It doesn’t help when you have Youtubers and Twitch streamers reviewing the hard to get pinnacle weapons and curated rolls on weapons that most of us normal players don’t have a hope of acquiring this early in the season… maybe ever in some cases.
It’s funny, what started out as a first impressions of a new season article ended up turning into an extended explanation as to why, given Bungie’s new approach to doling out content for Destiny, a review at this stage is almost utterly pointless. I could have spent a thousand words complaining about how the Reckoning is too difficult, or the random grind for the four new sets of armour to be collected over three tiers of play makes the grind even worse.
But it’s all reactionary to content in the game that is still undergoing its development. As much as people like to bash Bungie, I trust that they know what they’re doing, and even if they make mistakes, they’re more honest than most developers about coming out and admitting that and then fixing things. I might be frustrated with parts of Season of the Drifer thus far, as are many others like myself.
But it would be unfair to try and tell them to do better when the true scope of what to come is still a total mystery to all of us.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 