oh shit look at this Iron Banner highlight video that Blogger bitcrushed to fuck

 

Destiny 2 Is Good, Actually: FAQ

Hello and welcome back. I wanted to take a second to address some concerns regarding the title and general thrust of my website, Destiny 2 Is Good, Actually, And I'm Tired Of Pretending It Isn't. 

The last thing I would want is for anyone to take the purpose of this website and misconstrue it, so I've decided to put together a "Frequently Asked Questions" page that will hopefully assuage any doubts. 

1. So Do You Think Destiny 2 Is The Best Video Game Of All Time?

No the best video game of all time is Ace Combat 7. Or maybe this.

2, But What About All The Bad Shit That Happened In And Around Destiny 2?

I understand why you think I'd be upset about things like "Lightfall not being all that great" and "the PVP environment being wrecked for half a decade" and "the Destiny Content Vault sitting as the most baffling game development decision I've ever seen." And I genuinely am upset by the layoffs back in October. But here's the thing. none of that shit made me stop playing the video game for longer than a few weeks. I don't know what to tell you, man, I think Destiny 2 is a good video game and even if it dies after the launch of The Final Shape, even if Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to be an evil megacorporation about shit and forces Bungie into more layoffs and turns the game into a gacha farm or something, I think an ineffable part of me is gonna continue to be like "no I liked playing Destiny 2 otherwise I wouldn't have fucking done it for six full years." 

3- Okay but what about-

Shut the fuck up about Nimbus they're fine. I don't care if you think they're cringe or woke or whatever, just shut the fuck up.

4.) what specifically about Destiny 2 are you a fan of? 

so there are a couple of angles I can approach this from. the first angle is simple gamefeel. The experience of playing Destiny 2 from a tactile and sensory perspective I find enjoyable. I like the way it feels to move around in the world, the sense of physics and momentum in friction with the supernatural powers I can employ through the course of gameplay. Lately I also really like buildcrafting: learning which weapons, weapon perks, gear, gear mods and subclass configurations work best together to beat ass with. I can and have run around inside the various sandboxes of Destiny 2's pocket universe for hours, just getting into fights and having fun with explosions. Strand also deserves a special, specific mention here, because the additions to gameplay it's made alone almost completely turned me around on the game last year, by itself. 

the second angle of approach is story. narrative. plot. lore. whatever you want to use to describe what's going on in the world of Destiny 2, the careful and meticulous and daring and inventive output of the myriad writers who work and have worked at Bungie over the past decade or so to make Destiny and its sequel feel both real and fantastical, full of legends and allegories and also stuffed to bursting with seemingly-mundane day-to-day life shit. The way the story has gradually evolved to be much more complex, nuanced and full of contingencies and compromises than ever expressed in the first entry in the franchise makes me so happy to this day. Even when the narrative swings and misses imo, I'm able to appreciate the fact that they made the swing anyway. I have nothing but love and respect for the writers. 

finally, I think I'm just enamored by the ambition of this game, by the fact that even a decade on, with a bunch of shit working against it, there's still this little glimmer of potential in everything the game does. In a games scene that is steadily rejecting live service games, and despite a few fairly rocky and troubled years, Destiny 2 somehow still has the juice.

I could stand to live without quite a few of the big influencers and about 60 percent of the community, though.

VI. You've written some critical words about Destiny in the past, sometimes harshly critical words. What's changed?

Nothing! The stuff I've written in the past and my current project here are on the same critical wavelength. Every word I've written about Destiny has been from the perspective of someone who broadly enjoys the video game but doesn't vibe with a particular narrative beat or does not like some of the possible directions the game could head down. One thing I've had to learn over a half-decade of becoming a critic - and something I am still internalizing - is that as long as I'm not out here trying to be an armchair game developer, it is better to vocalize my criticism rather than pretending that any criticism of my favorite game somehow does damage to it. 

Ultimately it comes down to this: I am not out to convince anyone, necessarily, that Destiny 2 is good or bad. To borrow my least favorite tendency from academic writing, I am really more out to show that Destiny 2 is an interesting game to examine, that it's worth the time necessary to dive in and examine what makes it tick. The substance is there, and it's worth sifting through cruft to get at. 

five. you suck at Trials

eat my ass

Destiny 2 is Good, Actually, and I'm Tired of Pretending it Isn't

are you tired of being nice? don't you ever wanna go apeshitt? 

hi, I'm Kaile, and for six years I've played Destiny 2 like it was my job. for a little bit there, it was! but I'm tired of pretending that for most of that time, I haven't had an absolute shit-hoot playing the video game Destiny 2 by Bungie Inc. 

this is a fansite I'm making for Destiny 2 in honor of Critical Distance's Fansite Jam. it's going to feature older writing of mine, newer hot takes, and never-before-seen terrible decisions I'm making about the video game Destiny 2. Thanks for stoppin' by!