There are few things in gaming more satisfying than unleashing your well-deserved super into a mob and seeing all the orbs, glimmer, and engrams raining upon you and your fireteam. It’s a great feeling to be instrumental in your adventures and Destiny 2 rewards you in spades. It may be a low-level gear or a token, but you’re still being rewarded, something Bungie has been perfecting since the first one. Mechanically, Destiny 2 is still as solid and frenetic as we remembered and the gunplay remains to be a hallmark of Destiny’s fluid controls. It’s frustrating then, that even with all of the variety in terms of planets to explore, weekly milestones, crucible, and strikes, Destiny 2‘s ongoing blemish is how we as players interact with each other.
This is an issue that can rapidly discourage others from playing again or even having fun. This isn’t to say the Destiny community is a heaping pile of assholes ready to bring you down; I’ve been fortunate enough to have met great people through Destiny, but there’s always a pocket of people that can really sour an experience. This happens in every game but it often feels a lot worse when playing Destiny.
Not-So-Guardians of the Galaxy
I was once on a fireteam that was starting a fresh raid. We fought our way through the beginning and reached the pleasure gardens. I can already hear the sighs heard around the world; it isn’t pleasurable at all. At that point, two players admitted they had not done this portion of the raid before, and immediately the fire team leader brutally berated them for not having experience even though the group was open to newcomers as well as experienced. Clearly, the fireteam leader wanted to run through the raid in a timely fashion but couldn’t be bothered with explaining instructions to the new people. I could almost feel the humility and tension reverberating through the voice chat as the two new players pleaded they were willing to learn.
After some convincing and deliberation, the fire team leader decided to explain the rules and how to proceed through the gardens. His instructions were vague and poorly constructed with me and another player filling in the gaps to better relay the information. After just one run in which one of the new players got spotted by one of the dogs, the fireteam leader lost control and called them gay and demanded they should leave the fireteam. He quickly removed them himself shortly thereafter. As soon as they were kicked, I left the fireteam myself and joined another. I invited the two that were booted and we ended up completing the raid that night while they all learned on the job.
Play Nice, Play Fair
Destiny 2, like the first one, is a team-based game and at times requires diligent coordination. This is no different in the raid since it only takes one player to screw everything up, so the penalty is a lot more severe. This is still no excuse to be nasty to fellow players who haven’t done it yet. The raid is only about two weeks old; not everyone has done it yet, and some probably won’t get to it until much later because everyone has varying schedules. There was another instance in which my fireteam made it to the gauntlet and almost half the fireteam lost their minds because one person couldn’t figure out the mechanic. The gauntlet is structured in a way that even those who cannot contribute on the outside can still help out as a runner, but such was not the case for this poor guardian. He was also unceremoniously booted off the fireteam.
Why do we do this? This is a game about having fun with other people, whether they’re your friends or strangers trying to accomplish the same goal. It’s why I played Destiny. Playing with my friends is a big part of the experience, and that interaction with other players is crucial to my enjoyment. Of course, you could always play Destiny solo, which many people do, but sharing the experience with others takes it up a notch. The raid is serious business, but it is also supposed to be fun and exciting. It shouldn’t be a place for shaming others.
We’re in this together, and while varying skill levels may not be compatible, we should help those that need it. The Souls games excel at this. Even though they both have their share of assholes, most players are willing to help newcomers along, and players like myself take great pride and enjoyment from assisting new players. Destiny 2 has a lot of great people playing, but why can’t we all just play nice? This a wonderful game, so let’s not ruin it.
