Destiny 2 The Final Shape Game Director Message.
The Destiny 2 community has been increasingly frustrated over the past few months as Bungie has failed to respond to balance concerns, failed to address community concerns, and failed to provide any updates on future content. A community showcase for The Final Shape expansion is scheduled for May 1, and game director Joe Blackburn just dropped a personal video message on Twitter to serve as damage control ahead of the event.
“Hey, it’s Joe, game director of Destiny 2, here to talk to you about our plans for the community. I want to build on what Deej said in his letter, and I want to share with you what we’re working on and where we’re going,” Blackburn says in the video.
Blackburn goes on to discuss his role as game director and his plans to start streaming the game. He also mentions some plans that the team has for The Final Shape expansion, which includes a new enemy type, a new destination, and extra super abilities.
“We get it,” Blackburn says in reference to the community’s concerns that the team is focusing too much on expanding the endgame and less on improving the core gameplay. “We have to focus on what the game does well. Destiny is made by people who love the game, and we don’t want to disrupt what the game does well to make some really disruptive changes.”
He discusses the challenge of capping off the decade-long story in Destiny 2 and the desire to make changes that actually have an impact on the player’s loadout. He brings up the Forbearance grenade launcher that changes the way Guardians approach their grenades and offers a completely different way of thinking about grenades.
“We want to keep pushing that,” Blackburn says. “We want to make things that force you to change your loadout and force you to change the way you play the game.” He also mentions the use of different eras and rotating perks and artifact mods to keep the sandbox fresh.
“When we look at the sandbox and we see a place where we think there’s potential, we tend to look at, ‘Well, how can we create a new weapon sub-archetype?’ or ‘How can we offer weapons with different kinds of utility?’ That’s what we did with the Forbearance grenade launcher,” Blackburn says. “There’s some more of that coming.”
He also mentions the return of the Gjallarhorn as an example of how utility matters to players. Blackburn talks about new perks like Heal Clip and the Banner of War aspect that provide support and utility to players.
“We have a new set of light supers that focus on teamplay,” Blackburn says. “You’re going to see a lot of Guardian-based utility built into the super.” He then reveals that the new Golden Gun-themed sniper rifle will go in the energy slot, which is major news.
Blackburn talks about the possibilities of future sagas better and explains why they haven’t dropped the “2” from the name. He talks about the possibility of an all-black shader and what it means for other shaders. He also emphasizes that Destiny is made by people who love the game and mentions the challenge of teaching people how the tools work.
“We want to do better and plan future sagas better,” Blackburn says in response to concerns about the direction of the game. He also mentions the importance of getting more people to use certain items to get ornaments made for them.
He also addresses concerns about the new solar super and its potential impact on the Well of Radiance. “There’s a lot of people worried about what this means for the Well of Radiance,” Blackburn says. “It’s something we’re going to have to balance, and the primary way we’re going to balance it is by making the super not very good if you’re not in the Well of Radiance.”
He mentions the need to balance utility and handcuffing players in terms of gameplay choices. “We don’t want to give you boring choices. We don’t want to force you to be in the Well of Radiance all the time. There’s some soft counterweight to that, and we’re going to have to balance that.”
Destiny 2 The Final Shape Game Director Message.
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