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Bungie is looking for Designers to create "player progression behind lootboxes"
- Thread starter Ragona
- Start date
Every game with a combination of premium and non-premium reward systems is designed so that players will place value in both systems. Therefore, both incentivising engagement with the game, and the MTX. Seeing that described in a job role shouldn't surprise us. Every major game developer that has sold you MTX in the past 5 years will have someone working a similar position, with similar responsibilities.
Nothing in the job listing suggests that the sole purpose from Bungie's end is on pushing the former, Bungie are attempting to increase retention and I'm certain a big part of that is making players value the rewards that aren't tied to MTX.
Some are also objecting over the time 'sustainable player progression through Bright engrams', however, they likely just mean giving people a sense of progress towards earning what they want (either through MTX or playing the game). The article also discusses the need to understand the difference and value of balancing systems between being too random and the appeal of variable rewards.
This is not at all uncommon and this is backlash is precisely why most developers avoid being open with their consumers. Games are designed to make you like them, reward systems are designed and validated, so that players appreciate them, MTX is designed to offer appeal to players that engage with the rest of the games systems.
Gamers are reacting this way because they don't like how microtransactions have encroached on the game. There is a game that was comparable to this: Destiny 1. Destiny 2 has taken a bunch of loot that previously could be earned through various activities and has locked them behind a lootbox system where you either grind for hours for XP or purchase yourself. No sane person will deny that the length of the XP grind is to encourage people to buy more lootboxes.
Companies are not being open because they know they are doing things that are unpopular and make for an objectively less rewarding experience. Gamers hate this change. This is not an example of entitlement.
Again, the point is that in Destiny 1, the end game cosmetics were earnable through specific activities. In that job listing, it elevates Eververse from a side, inconsequential thing, to equal with the games loot, almost synonymous. They are asking someone to design the loot progression in a loot based game based on credentials purely about lootboxes. This is not something gamers want. And with good reason. The game has suffered for it. Many features and rewards are now missing. Do not turn this around and blame gamers. The devs made choices that negatively impacted the experience in order to make more money at the expense of the customer. You don't get to blame the customer here for any of this.
The seasonal armor sets are obviously designed with much more detail and originality than the many duplicates or small modifications among base game gear sans Trials and the Raid. It's obvious why this is.
Ghosts, ships, sparrows, and shaders are now gone as rewards. In a game like destiny, once you've gotten the tangible loot that you want, the only thing that remains is cosmetics. Destiny 2 has largely removed the grind, resulting in a grind that is now mostly about cosmetics. Cosmetics is now the real end game to grind for. Unfortunately, literally half the cosmetics, and virtually all ghosts and sprarrows sans the one you get for beating the game, and all ships are now within eververse. There is no raid ship to grind for once you get the raid gear. There is no strike armor set except for one lazy one which is also a reskin of like three others, and that is a general one just for the vangard. One. There is no armor specific to strikes like there used to be.
It's obvious why the game has been changed from a game about actual tangible loot you can grind forever for, to a cosmetic based system you can grind for. Bungie has said it's a collection game. This sure sounds like a lie given that there are no kiosks and the vault space is super small and wasn't even updated with the expansion. There are no random weapon rolls to grind for, and none of the armor sets have any major tangible benefits. It's all cosmetic, and most of the major cosmetics are in the Eververse. Eververse has tangibly made the game less rewarding due to its implementation and the focus on it.
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