DESTINY is Bestiny (Patreon)

This isn’t a column, it’s a little love letter.

For so many years I wanted to be an MMO person. Perhaps it’s because I remember halcyon days of the internet being this new weird invention and the idea of getting to play video games with people who were not in your living room, but somewhere else seemed a dream too good to be true. And as MMOs started to grow it just seemed like so much FUN dammit, like you could play in these whole worlds full of possibility (many of which had growing pains, of course). But I was especially envious of the World of Warcraft boom and I made these fleeting attempts to play, I just never found a way “in” if that makes sense. But all that MMO non-participation technically changed when I began playing the first Destiny (way back when Peter Dinklage was still voicing with complete boredom). I liked it, but still went in and out with it from time to time. It wasn’t until Destiny 2 and in particular my more devoted playing the last few years that it has become a genuinely big part of my life.

And I adore it.

For those who aren’t familiar, Destiny is a first person shooter from Bungie (who made the original Halo trilogy) and a very popular MMO. Story-wise, it’s set in a future world where our solar system is the landscape for battles between warring alien factions that are all after “The Traveler,” which is basically this big powerful orb that has come to future earth. The main scenario is purposefully simple (the lore is not). But how does this translate to a weekly MMO? Well, there’s story-based missions, various games where you compete against each other, along with all sorts of multi-hour dungeons and raids which will be familiar to anyone who has played these kinds of online games. Sounds a bit hardcore, no?

Well, one of my favorite things about Destiny is that it allows you to be bad at it. Like, seriously, I am not very good at all. In crucible matches I get 5-15 kills. The occasional match where I break out with a great K/D ratio is a miracle. But I don’t care about being great at it. Because the game is so good at rewarding my effort anyway. There’s all these little boxes and achievements and bounties and things that give you those little pangs of satisfaction that make video games so damn enjoyable (and casinos and mobile games so addictive). And most central of all? The core shooting mechanic feels sooooo damn good. There’s the right weight and balance and elegance and difficulty in getting every satisfying little pop. Even the core game loops feel just as good.

But my absolute favorite thing about Destiny? The social element, which I realize is probably the biggest obstacle for some because you may not know people who play. But I only had a few friends who did at the start, too. But soon you can pull more people into orbit and eventually get enough folks to make a little clan and that’s where the fun really begins. Not just because you help make each other better at the game, nor even because you get to play with the benefit of constant communication, it’s the aforementioned social element. A lot of times we just hop on after work and space out and talk about our days. There’s something lovingly communal to it all. And none of us are that good (okay one person in our clan is ACTUALLY good, but he doesn’t mind that we bring him down), but we’ve made this real strong improvement and have been getting really good at tailoring our character builds, which is all the fun stuff that comes with really starting to get the details of the game.

But the reason I’m so high on it this particular week and wanted to write about it? Well, we just beat our first Raid together! The Deep Stone Crypt!!! Again, we’re not very good so it took a long time (we’re also pretty busy with jobs), but this was a huge accomplishment for us, especially given how much our success came down to the wire. But beating it was honestly one of the most satisfying game accomplishments in my entire life. And I’m feeling just nice and glowy about it still.

For those of you who already do play Destiny, I know I could go into all the loving details of what makes it a special game, particularly the satisfaction of getting the special exotic armors and weapons. Like how I was grinding the legendary missions to get my Loreley Helmet, which allows that insane Solar build where the incandescent fire pools end up healing you and ahhhhhhh! I’ll spare the rest of you the details. It’s just been such a help while playing and so much fun to go down the rabbit hole with intricacies of the game. Especially because I know it’s also the kind of game where I can dip out for a few weeks, even a few months and that’s totally okay, too. It will always be there and it’s always easy to get caught back up.

For all of it, I just genuinely wanted to issue this bit of thankfulness to everyone who makes this game, from the story team, to the designers, to support, along with all the people who play this game and make the community what it is. Because sometimes there isn’t a criticism to offer.

Sometimes all you have is a little love letter.

<3HULK