Sleeper Simulant
Given that most players have been complaining about some aspect of Destiny 2’s microtransaction or paid bundles for years now, it’s always rare when something actually changes for the better. But yesterday, when the anger over a new “Starter Pack” for the game consumed the conversation on a seasonal launch day, it seems Bungie felt the need to do something drastic.
Bungie has already de-listed the infamous Destiny 2 Starter Pack from all storefronts, first spotted by one of my readers on Steam. Later, they confirmed that yes, this was intentional, and in another shocking move…talked about the situation on the long-dormant Destiny2Team Twitter account.
The Starter Pack was overpriced for what it contained, $15 for some not-good exotics, three cosmetics and materials it might take you an hour to get in-game, but a big problem was the name, a “Starter Pack,” suggesting to new players that spending money on this would be a good way to get your foot into the game. It’s not. $15 can buy you the whole current season. Some of the on-sale expansions are $15 or so right now. The Forsaken Pack, which contains two dozen exotics, a raid and a dungeon is currently $5 (and a while ago we were talking about that as a bad microtransaction, and how all that stuff should be free five years later). It felt actively deceptive to new players in a time when Bungie desperately needs them.
It was a rare instant reaction from Destiny 2, which players begrudgingly gave them credit for, but others believe that pack should exist and just be free (I mean, sure). But to everyone’s surprise, the Destiny2Team account kept tweeting and touched on a whole matter of complains or things people were confused about. Among them:
- They recognized feedback about how no one wanted to be thrown back into Blind Well immediately. They said they were just trying to show that it had had its difficulty rebalanced and had new loot in its pool. But they said it wouldn’t be a part of the seasonal quest going forward outside of one optional part down the road.
- They talked about how while they were pleased players seem to like The Coil, the new seasonal activity, but they said they’d be making some changes in terms of needing to get every pot on the map essentially for a Platinum score completion that gives you a sprawling room of six bonus chests.
- They talked about how people weren’t thrilled with having Anti-Barrier Sidearm as the Anti-Barrier mod for the next six months. They said the new rocket sidearm archetype debuting in the new dungeon would be a fun way to change that up (albeit this is a $20, sold separately part of the dungeon pack). They also mention current intrinsic anti-barrier options and radiant mods from the artifact to help. I’m not quite as sure about the response to this one.
- There were a lot of Crucible points from the newly formed Crucible Strike Team (although a number of them were just laid off). They said Control will be a selectable mode when Checkmate Control is active. Checkmate will not completely take over Crucible. It will get a better special ammo drop system and they will fine tune TTK. They said instances of the new Comp weapon not being rewarded are being looked at.
- Perhaps, most importantly, they realized my long term dream, as Destiny 2 Year 1 Iron Banner Ornaments will be sold during Iron Banner this season (for Iron Banner engrams and glimmer, not Silver, don’t worry).
So all of this, except maybe the sidearm thing, is very good? But mainly it’s not just the fact reaction and future changes, it’s the near-instant communication about this stuff, which Destiny has been lacking for a long while now (through no fault of its now-fired CMs and social people, as they need approval for that stuff). But again, this is one day, and it needs to be a pattern of behavior, not just an emergency button to push because Destiny 2 is negatively trending across five different subreddits for something. It’s a start, I suppose, but I feel like I’ve said that a lot before.
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