The Destiny 2 Game Developers Conference (GDC) is making the rounds on Twitter as players speculate that Bungie is actively stifling developer ambitions for the game’s development.
A presentation about the current online FPS titled “From Boxed Items to Online: How Destiny 2 Transformed Bungie” first appeared in April, just a few weeks after GDC in March, but only garnered the attention of the Destiny community recently. . In particular, players latched on to the Truman train analogy after telling the game developer audience that “it’s HARD to tell a team that they have extra cycles and energy and want to do something awesome, that would be awesome and great for them.” the game, we shouldn’t.” We will not ship this as it is an oversupply which will lead us to miss out on future trains. »
Reading the full presentation reveals that the statement is part of a much larger picture. The report outlines Bungie’s difficult transition from making games that shine with one-off major releases to adding content expansions to online games. This shows how the Bungie team has learned how to productively develop a live service game that thrives on new content. One aspect is to reduce the overdelivery of content to prioritize player satisfaction. He calls making a game a “boxed product”, like assembling a train that is built and then shipped in its entirety, whereas a live service game is more like a train station that dispatches trains at regular intervals.
Based on the train statement above, some players have concluded that Bungie is not working as hard as possible to provide players with the best content. In fact, Truman says the opposite.
Particularly when the current content cycle feels stale, it’s easy to correlate the aforementioned mindset with player perceptions. However, the big picture shows that some players underestimate the challenges of software development. Burnout is a serious problem in the video game industry. Many veteran game developers have stories to share about how the crisis has impacted their lives. It affects people’s mental health, relationships, and even physical health. These challenges aren’t unique to game development, but the industry seems more willing to embrace them because management teams see gaming as a “fun” work environment.
In his speech, Truman highlighted Bungie’s commitment to delivering content that meets player expectations. His overdelivery statement simply points out that it’s easy to design content to “wow” players and then be forced to deliver it at an unrealistic rate.
It’s easy to assume that development teams should encourage unbridled creativity. However, Truman says that limiting innovation to planned and predictable capabilities can keep teams from working overtime to implement new features and activities when releasing a finished product. Truman addresses this issue and how to properly fix it, pointing to the “Legendary Campaign” option in Destiny 2 introduced alongside Witch Queen, noting that the team assumed it would be successful and built it as a repeatable content model. .
Software developers know that there is always a pool of ideas, feature enhancements, efficiency improvements, or user interface upgrades that they can incorporate into their work. Well-meaning people often come up with great ideas, and it’s hard to focus on basic implementations without getting distracted by additional features. Take a look at Star Citizen, a game in development for over a decade as the ambition grows with each new idea, but it’s still far from finished. Taking on too many projects at once is a recipe for failure, so it seems only natural that Bungie would have to drop some great ideas to keep the content engine running. Failure to do so leads to overtime, meltdowns, and burnout. Ultimately, developer burnout will hurt the live service game. Exhausted developers have little incentive to continue creating great content. If they don’t meet player expectations, they will also receive negative feedback, which can further demoralize the team.
Bungie benefits from implementing a strategy that allows the company to deliver on its promise, and to do so at a pace that respects the health and well-being of developers. It seems that many Bungie team members stay with the company for a long time because of this.
It’s natural to think that Bungie has gotten too carried away with its seasonal model. But as it is, the developer continues to create a new story, in-game activity, and raids or dungeons every season. The team is also showing off social events, new weapons, new ways to acquire, craft, and mod those weapons, new cosmetics, fancy new armor sets, and more. The view that the content is outdated does not reflect a desire not to overload it, but rather hiccups in the overall seasonal schedule.
IGN reported on Bungie’s toxic work environment just two years ago. Despite many problems, the creak was the main theme. Taking steps to mitigate this may only fix some of the issues, but it certainly sets the stage for developers who aren’t overworked to do more with regards to Destiny 2’s upcoming Lightfall expansion, which will also introduce a new subclass. : Destiny 2 Strand Darkness. and much more.
Source : PC Gamesn
