“How are you feeling?” I asked one Twitch streamer. “Nervous,” she says. “Why, are you presenting?” I ask. “No, I just don’t want the game to suck.”
It was the most honest exchange I had all day at the Destiny 2 reveal in Los Angeles. An interaction based on the reality that the majority of people in this room derive their livelihoods from YouTube channels and Twitch streams that rely on this game to do well. If the reveal bombs, so do their prospects.
There’s a lot riding on this for the developers, but in a strange way there’s even more riding on it for the men and women who make content for it. So when I say there’s a certain tension in the air, you see what I mean.
At 10:00 AM, it all began. The pre-rendered cutscene outlined the mythos of Zavala, one of the leading characters in the Destiny universe. We learned of humanity’s last stand, its fall, exile into the wilderness and the rebuilding that followed.
It’s wonderful. The heroes of Destiny are some of its best assets, but Destiny has always struggled to let that light shine through. It’s burning bright here in these moments, and the crowd loves it.
To my left, a Spanish-speaking YouTuber is making noises that could only be described giddy-breathing, punctuated with gasps so loud I worry people nearby will tell him to shush. In front, a very well known Twitch streamer is losing his shit at alarmingly regular intervals.
People are happy with what they are seeing, and I’m right there with them. I love this damn game, and seeing all this blatant fan-service in these opening moments is just what I was hoping for after a 14 hour flight from Australia.
The details of the new gameplay systems are met enthusiastically, but it’s decidedly more measured. The new subclasses have an air of familiarity to them, there’s no mention of 60 FPS on consoles, no announcement of dedicated servers for PVP, and the match-making for raids is different than what was expected, though most would agree it’s a better solution.
It felt like the room was waiting for a knock-out moment that didn’t quite come.
When the presentation concluded, we were ushered into an aircraft hanger with over 100 hands-on stations. The PS4 Pros were running at the standard 30 fps at 1080p, while the PC master-race were enjoying themselves at 60 fps at 4K resolution. And I cannot over-state how much of a game changer the PC platform’s performance was; it truly looked incredible.
Throughout the day, I constantly checked sub-Reddits, forums, Twitter and the news. From what I could tell, the general sentiment that emerged was Bungie had done a ‘good-but-not-great’ job. They played it safe and delivered more of the same. That this felt like Destiny 1.5 more than Destiny 2.
But you wouldn’t know that from the people in the hanger. I spoke to at least 20 content creators; not one was anything less than ecstatic. And it was towards the end of the day that I realised Destiny 2 is for the people in this room. It’s for the faithful, for the devoted, the true believers, the fans. Destiny 2 was never trying to be a new thing to a whole new group of people – it was trying to be the best version of itself for those that already love it.
Destiny 2 is coming, and while it isn’t the violent re-imagining that people were hoping for, it’s going to make a hell of a lot of people very happy indeed.
Ralph Bianco is an independent Australian YouTuber behind the channel “Skill Up”. He attended the Destiny 2 reveal as a guest of Activision.
Comments
24 responses to “YouTubers And Streamers Are Ecstatic About Destiny 2”
Well, every streamer and YouTuber has to move onto another case cow sooner or later.
I wish Bianco well, he serves his audience pretty good and judging by his channel they respond to him positively enough.
The game isn’t on my radar, and I never played the last one. More power to those are into it.
This sort of writing is exactly what I reckon we should see more of, got an article idea, put it forward.
Translation: it’s for Destiny stans infinitely more willing to forgive Bungie for trotting out the same old. Which isn’t new, the same peeps have been forgiving Bungo for their divisive moves and suspect practices since the game came out.
Full disclosure – I have enjoyed playing the game, but I am very aware of its deficiencies and what I’ve seen so far hasn’t impressed me at all.
The idea that this game is “just for the fans” just doesn’t ring true. You mean to tell me Bungie and Activision have no aspirations of growing their player base? Sure.
Nobody wants a series they are committed to to tank, but I am seriously burnt out on Destiny. The enemies seem to die faster, but that was also the case in low level vanilla play, they coule end up just as spongy at level 20 as they were in the first game.
Looks to be more of the same so far. Possibly focusing on the shortcomings from the first game?
I played a LOT of destiny, not sure I’m up for more of the same but I’ll keep my eye on it. Might chuck down a deposit to play the beta at least.
I am a diehard fan of Destiny (the sort of person Ralph says the game is for) and the 1.5 vibes were very strong.
But what I chalked it up to was them trying to address one of the biggest (and wrong…est?) complaints about the first game – no story. Of course by no story, they actually meant no plot (Destiny’s bursting at the seams with story), but it’s a widely understood sentiment. The problem is, by addressing this in a way that is easily understood by most players, they’ve simply shown off an incredibly narrow and scripted hallway shooter akin to Call Of Duty in the campaign mission they showed. This actually doesn’t play to Destiny’s strengths at all, and it doesn’t feel like the right tone for the campaign to take.
I think almost any hardcore Destiny player would tell you, of all the repeatable tasks in the first game, heroic story missions are the least appealing. And that was when there was minimal plot-points and cutscenes getting in the way of your enjoyment of collecting loot and killing enemies while talking with friends. With plot-heavy story missions and scripted sequences, they’re actually harming the replayability of the game. It’s a solution that throws the baby out with the bathwater – you’re making concessions for the people who might play the campaign once and then trade the game in at the expense of the diehard players who are going to be playing for years.
Destiny 1 revealed itself with a patrol mission. A single guardian walking through a freezing, ancient traffic jam and in the shadow of a massive man-made wall. We were drawn in immediately by the mystery of this game. Then, suddenly, another player appears in the game world; a friend to play with. They travel through the dark interior of the wall and out the other side, only to find another friend and an emergent gameplay experience. A huge spider tank drops down as the skybox explodes and enemies spawn all around. And then, all of a sudden, half a dozen more players jump into the action, taking down the boss together. The mystery, the shared world and the loot were the stars of this show – Destiny’s best features placed front and centre.
It was this reveal that generated the kind of fervour that’s all but required to eventually sour into to hate. Only when you fall in love with an idea can its failure make you angry.
I know Destiny 2 has so much more to show us, systems and changes that are going to justify the number in the title. What I don’t know is what they were thinking showing what they did. It’s too similar to convert a detractor, and too similar to excite a true fan.
You really encapsulated my feelings very well. I played a lot of Destiny in the day. But I eventually got sick of the grind and the lack of content and eventually came to realise, hey, this is just a four player coop corridor shooter pretending it’s not, and I was having far more fun with 4 player coop shooters that weren’t pretending they were anything else, like Vermintide’s manic L4Deadness and Earth Defense Force’s insane oneupmanship and crazy scale. Playing them was like, “oh, this is what fun feels like again.”.
4 player co-op? You have played the game right….
Destiny is 3 or 6, never 4
So I got the number of players wrong. I’ve played a lot of other games since then. It’s still essentially the same bloody thing.
You could quibble raids are fundamentally different, but they’re a small 1-3 per week part of it and frequently turn into one of the most tedious aspects.
My PSN profile, showing one trophy short of the platinum: https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/2874-destiny/Doktor_Molotov
very well put and I agree with you.
That first time in the Cosmodrome exploring and seeing other players and combining for an event etc….man, those times were magic. Was really great gaming.
I still love Destiny. Loved the teamwork required for Nightfall and Raids, loved helping lower level players and the general camaraderie you felt when you come together on an event.
Yeah same. I have no doubt I will love Destiny 2 because of how similar it already looks to the first game, I just don’t understand what the thought process was for this reveal.
Eh, I feel like the steamers and youtubers are always excited. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a preview for a game that wasn’t anything but breathless. Their subscriptions depend on hyping it up, having people tune in to figure out how to get past the raids, get all ghosts and so on. And then if consensus falls their view numbers depend on them having the shrillest rant about it.
It’s possible I’m getting old, but man I hate youtube. It’s possible my views aren’t in line with what the majority of what people want, so it’s likely a lot of people won’t agree with me. But I saw youtubers hyping The Division, and then I played the beta and thought it was merely okay, a stopgap to a better game. My nephew and niece want to play my PS4, and they really only want to play the games they saw a youtuber play; Ark and Escapists respectively. If I suggest some other games, they don’t want to play. “Recently I heard, oh my god you got goat simulator!” That is like the worst game I own.
I did not know Skill Up was Australian :O
I guess Destiny 2 will be new to the (a lot) of PC people, so maybe there’s that. after the disappointment that was The Division, there really isn’t RPG shooter mmo esq game in the PC market
I’ll be playing it on my Xbox in all its 30fps glory. I’m not a snob. I don’t care. I’ll be enjoying it for what it is.
Good luck to the streamers. If anything it feels like a solid nod to ‘relegitimising’ Destiny as a game.
I find it cute that the people who make a living off playing someone else’s hard work is worried their cash cow was possibly going to tank.
I’m guessing you don’t have money in stocks with an attitude like that.
You are correct. I earn a wage and have savings.
Well presumably you have superannuation so at the risk of presuming too much, your super is likely invested in at least some shares.
Your super would then be benefiting from the profits of companies ‘doing all the hard work’ while all you did is give them a bit of money,
Your money is the YouTuber/streamer’s time.
I think you underestimate the amount of work that goes into maintaining a YouTube channel that produces decent content, let alone high-quality content. If you spent 9 hours a day working your regular job only to then go home and work another 5 hours to collect footage, edit, script and voice a video – whilst juggling a wife and other family commitments – I feel you have every right to hope that the subject matter of your content is going to resonate with your audience.
I didn’t mean to sound overly terse in my initial post to you but I feel you dismiss far too easily the hard work of these creators that try to put out high-quality content.
You have a point however it feels like any chick with make up and a low cut top can be a YouTube/Twitch star these days.
Totally agree, but then again in this instance I wouldn’t say that their viewers would be all to phased if Destiny 2 is a piece of trash anyway.
Those very same youtubers and Streamers were the same excited when Destiny was about to launch. Dont get me wrong, Im looking forward to Destiny 2 as a current Destiny player. But Content producers will get excited/ Produce content about any game that has hype.
As a Destiny fan im very excited, i didnt want a “new” Destiny, i wanted a continuation and refinement of the current Destiny, I didnt want the deep lore thrown away, just coz number 2. While there are disappointments around the technical stuff (p2p and dedicated servers) the actual gameplay and things that make Destiny great seem to be back and i couldnt be happier and from what ive seen in my clan and group of friends, they feel the same.
So a reskin with some extra story, cut down PvP and a 3rd ability.
Yep. I can understand the hype.
By the sounds of that it’s definitely not for me, I got bored pretty quickly with the last one.