Bungie wants you emotionally invested in Destiny, new screenshots emerge

Bungie and Activision have taken a massive gamble by investing in Destiny. The gaming market is unpredicatable, and even the biggest of games can bomb badly. But Bungie is also banking on the fact that players will be starting an emotional savings account for Destiny, when the game arrives later this year.

Speaking on the Bungie podcast via Polygon, Destiny’s investment lead Tyson Green explained that they wanted players to get emotionally invested in forming online communities.

“Investment is not about experience points, it’s not about item drops, it’s about having an enduring attachment to a game and to a community so that, that community can exist and thrive,” Green said.

If you unlock new abilities and you give people different weapons that are balanced but different, then those are valid rewards that don’t change the game or ruin the game but they broaden the game, they give people more interesting opportunities, they give people more varied experiences.

Green also elaborated on Destiny making use of several genres, which he said would help draw players in, alongside a reward structure where players were given incentives for playing a game in a manner that would be out of their comfort zone. “We are going into an interesting space, where we are a shooter, we are an action game, we are a game that a lot of people out are really familiar with and they love and they spend a lot of time playing and we are trying to bring some additional elements to that,” Green explained.

The goal isn’t to make you want to play the game for a thousand hours. The goal is so that you have this game that you come back to and that your friends come back to, and when you’re all coming back to the game, and you all feel like you want to keep playing this game. Then you have a social game at that point. You actually have a cooperative experience, a community experience.

Destiny will also be a game where the quickest trigger thumb won’t save you in a fierce firefight, according to multiplayer deisgn lead Lars Bakken. Players will need to know their equipment, learn what their guns are capable of and grow a character through choices that will resonate throughout the game.

With that bit of news, comes a bunch of new screenshots. Feast your eyes on ‘em and gawp away:

Destiny is out in September, with the first beta period beginning on PlayStation consoles soon. It’s one of the games that I personally have high hopes for, so consider me invested already. And financially so when it does release eventually, much like every other gamer keen on playing.

Last Updated: January 20, 2014