All right.. i'll give them that. Class A posing and trolling (just look at the scoreboard on the lower right corner) However i have a life besides Destiny so i'll probably never get some of their good stuff and i'm ok with it.
It's a bit like going into the Warsong Gulch battleground in WoW with a pre-made group of decked out raid characters in 2005. No skill required, just pewpew-oh-look-everyone-is-dead-LOL, now let's dance on their graveyard and camp the shit out of them. Good times.
Sadly, my love for Gearbox has gone out the window after the way they mishandled Aliens: Colonial Marines. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed A:CM, but it fell far short of what it was supposed to be in the minds of many gamers, myself included. I will never listen to Randy Pitchford ever again. This is my boycott of Gearbox games past A:CM. At least Creative Assembly didn't misspend Sega's money when it came to developing Alien Isolation...and it turned out to be the superior Alien game.
NPD numbers are in, standalone Destiny on XBONE outsold PS4, which is a bit of a surprise. Sony did very, very well with their limited white PS4/Destiny bundles though, which don't factor in the NPD software sales. Needless to say, digital is also not included as NPD only registers retail sales. Aaaaand these are US number only. ETA: Also, do keep in mind Microsoft was offering a free game deal with XBONEs sold at retail during the Destiny launch, which obviously a lot of people used for Destiny, and these copies do count towards the NPD numbers.
The Raid is f*ckin amazing. I don't even want to know your opinion on Destiny until you've done the Raid. Everything else is prologue as far as I am concerned.
Two things: Yes, the raid is very well designed. No, that doesn't cancel out a general lack of depth and breadth of content.
3. It also doesn't cancel out a lack of quantifiable and substantial reward for completing a raid (let alone a strike or Crucible match). So there's certainly nothing special or incentive based about raids.
Well, once you hit a certain point in the game, all you really care about is getting Ascendant materials, which the Raid offers in droves, so it's pretty rewarding from that perspectives. That's a perfectly legitimate opinion but I can only disagree. Opening the door to the Raid was the most fun I've had in a videogame in more than a year, easily. I love it because it doesn't just encourage teamwork, communication, tactical thinking, strategic thinking and careful, intelligent use of resources- it demands them. Nerfing the Raid would be a serious misstep, in my opinion. I can think of no other FPS that demands strategic play in this manner. Battlefield 4 certainly encourages and rewards strategic play, but you can still tool around doing whatever and not lose. If you simply 'run and gun' you'll never even open the door to the Raid, let alone finish it. It's bold enough to say: "You have to be damned good to do this."
Different people will always play games for different reasons. The old philosophical divide (loot vs. being there to enjoy the content/gameplay) is as old as MMOs themselves. Personally, it has become less and less about the loot for me, although I do still very much enjoy it. Challenging, fun content and fun gameplay are much more important to me these days, and in that regard VoG is a good experience. It's just not enough, and the upcoming DLCs aren't likely to fix that in a very substantial way.
Aye, I get that, DB. And, in most respects, I'm right in tune with you. It no longer surprises or frustrates me that I don't get some kickass reward for doing well in a Crucible match. I know it's all random. Hell, I have two exotic helmets with the rest of my armor being legendary, two exotic primary weapons, and an exotic special weapon. Overall, I'd say I've done pretty well. But there are those out there who are expecting BL2 quantity (and quality) loot from Destiny, and it's just not in the cards. And as you pointed out, upcoming DLC is likely not going to substantially affect the loot and rewards situation in any positive way. Anymore, when I play Crucible, I have really only two conditions for happiness in my performance: 1. Score over 1000 points in a match. 2. Get at least a K/D ratio of 1. All other considerations are just bonuses.