It's been quite some time since Destiny 2 received much positive press. The game's been getting hammered by both the media and its community for weeks, if not months now, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon unless developer Bungie takes drastic action.
Over the holidays, Destiny 2 players started a campaign on the official forums, and rather impressively, that campaign is still going strong. Basically, the official forums are currently swamped in demands to remove the Eververse, an in-game store that primarily deals in microtransactions.
The Eververse has been at the heart of the controversy that's surrounded Destiny 2 since the title launched in September last year. Following the release of the game's lacking first expansion, Curse of Osiris, criticism has snowballed, and we're now at a point where it feels like something has to be done if Destiny 2 is ever going to repair its currently tattered reputation.
We've seen user campaigns similar to this have an impact before, but how far are Bungie, and indeed publisher Activision, willing to go to stop this from potentially escalating further? Only time will tell.
Are you still playing Destiny 2? How do you feel about the Eververse? Keep that wallet closed in the comments section below.
[source bungie.net, via destructoid.com]
Comments 41
People should just stop playing the game. That'll give Bungie a message.
I did look at the forum a week or so ago, how many of those are just duplicate accounts making these threads? I didn't bother checking post histories etc.
I think, to be honest, this will only get removed if they aren't making much money from it or the player base drops too low to make it a viable business prospect. Hopefully this movement will make it reach that point and the game can and its fans can move on.
Did not even buy it i just dont understand €60 + €40/50 seasonpass i that not enough?
I ply destiny everyday and I have only ever gained bright engram through play and dust from breaking down my hard earned items... You don't have to buy silver. Just play the damn game and earn your special items...
@Seppy Please mate its a rippoff no matter how you look at it the complete game is €100 plus already plus the DLC is a dissapointment.
@Flaming_Kaiser Can't you accept that he just enjoys playing the game?
@Grawlog The main problem people seem to have with it now is that Bungie has fed so many items into it — items that you can't get anywhere else. For example, you don't get ships or ghosts or sparrows from Raids or Strikes or any other activities at this point in time — they're all Eververse exclusive.
On top of that, you had Bungie butcher the shader system so that it could make them into microtransaction items.
The main gist of this is that the Eververse is becoming the focal point of endgame rewards, which is obviously a very slippery slope.
@kyleforrester87 I can but its a slippery slope first seasonpasses now its seasonpasses with microtransactions whats next oh yeah lootboxes in a singleplayer game to be fair there is no decent singleplayer in there also.
I play nearly every day and haven't once been tempted to buy silver. Personally getting good value for the money spent and enjoy playing with friends.
I don’t see the big deal- the items are all cosmetic and the revenue allows Bungie to continue to support the game in between the paid expansions. I rarely play the game these days, but it’s not because of Eververse.
@Hoodie718 oooohhhhh "its just cosmetic"
If its "just cosmetic" why do people/gullible saps pay for them in the first place and why were cosmetic items freely a part of games long before but are now locked behind mircotransactions? (cheat codes, daft modes and cosmetic items used to be freely part of games and now almost always now they are extra paid for items) and try not use the excuse of game development costing more as these are billion dollar grossing games which more than pay for their development and handsomely pay shareholders even before the money from MT's come in to play.
Its not "just cosmetic" in a throwaway sense that it doesnt matter and that it doesnt make the game any worse or better, its a part of the game and its all nothing but greed to lock as much as they can get away with behind a paywall AFTER paying £100+ for the base game and DLC.
Do you believe every player in an online game uses the exact same avatar and they'll be happy? Its not "just cosmetic" It defines your very existence in an online world: Just imagine for a second everyone walking about online using the same stock avatar.
It would be ridiculous. And if Activision/EA and others could get away with doing just that.. and locking all other cosmetics behind paywalls then you can bet your ass they would. Which is why people need to stand up to them.
@Flaming_Kaiser replying to your first comment about £50/60 plus season pass of £25-40.
I have zero problem with that model in an mmo esque game at all. Its when thats supplemented by micros that I get fed up.
There needs to be more transparency and micros / lootboxes in a full price game plus seasin pass game is just disgusting.
Whats worse the publishers and designers keep pushing this 'player choice' line which we all know is complete bs and just winds us all up!
Destiny 2 - great game. Glad I played it and had fun throughout. But I also sold it when this nonesense began to unwind, the front men are sales / spinmen and I dont want to listen to their bs anymore.
The problem with this "campaign" against Microtransaction, People complain, threaten, and post things up on forums. But then they turn around and load up the game and plays for hours. These are the same people who spend money on Eververse. Nothing going to change if people continue to play the game and continue to spend money on this game.
@Grawlog
I dont think its about stuff being cosmetic or give players an advantage. Its about Bungie putting items that should have been given as rewards for raids, strikes, mission, etc... Instead Bungie put these items behind Eververse. There is no longer an incentive to play the activities in Destiny 2. You can just buy your item and call it a day.
This is a systemic problem in the video game industry. Microtransaction laden AAA games are just a part of a bubble that will soon burst causing some major damage to the industry as whole. Regulation against these practices is getting MAJOR traction here in the US, and you can bet publishers are watching that very closely.
If you see no problem with these deceptive and anti-consumer systems then I suppose that's fine. I personally don't see any problem if you choose to spen your money on dumb, useless, and detrimental purchases. It's your money.
Just don't be surprised when people call you out. It goes against the social tabula rasa. It's rightly stigmatized, and you will have no choice but to feel ashamed the more you interact with your peers. Sure you can lock yourself in an echo chamber with like minded people, but the door has a pay wall.
Social psychology is a *****. I think Bungie is starting to realize this when they tried to implement systems utilizing this doctrine. It's pretty short-sighted on their psychologists part to not realize that an artificial community created by a corporation is vastly inferior to a natural one created by outrage.
Idiots.
I think the major problem is a lot of the game revolves around eververse now which is depressing. I think I read something there were more items added to Eververse in December then there were legendary guns at the start of Destiny 2 which is shocking.
There has also been job listings on bungies site for people to extract more financial gain from Eververse so can't see it stopping anytime soon. Played over 1,000 hours of Destiny 1 played just under 100 hours of Destiny 2 and I am done didnt buy expansions and probably wont go back to the franchise until they change there business model.
I'll be honest, as someone who stuck up for Destiny 2 a lot, and played a huge amount, I can't excuse their behaviour anymore. The ideal situation would be a full boycott of the game until Eververse is removed entirely and the loot system is restored to being fair. I can't see that happening, but if Activision want to restore faith to their core fans then something has to give.
I've not played since before Christmas, and it seems like I won't be back in a hurry. The clan chat is dead now, and the whole thing has soured my experience to the point where I'm not sure I want to bother with D2 anymore.
@solocapers Ok, then: they’re not “just” cosmetic. However the only effects that they have are cosmetic. And Bungie probably wouldn’t have developed so many cosmetic options if they hadn’t planned to monetize them. AND there are still ways to dress up your character without spending money.
On top of that, games are more expensive to develop and yet cheaper than they’ve ever been. When Chrono Trigger came out in 1995 it cost $80. With inflation it would be almost $130 today.
@Hoodie718
You are missing the point, Bungie removed/moved stuff from the first game and put it basically behind their pay wall. Also see Konami with the tux in metal gear. In every game before.. Now locked behind a paywall.
It's like selling a mobile phone that's able to, I dunno let's say set a wallpaper then releasing a new version where you have to pay extra to do that. There would be an uproar from the general public. How is that any different from what modern developers are doing?
I knew someone would bring in game cost so ill humour you. How many copies did chrono trigger sell compared to say destiny 2? Inflation alone doesn't alone work in that way when things sell more..
You be aswell saying computer manufacturers make no money now due to the fact a standard pc cost 2 grand upwards back in the day when you can now buy a similar specced (in terms of how good it is in relative times) machine for a few hundred today. You've totally forgot about scale economics. Games were profitable then when selling much less copies
Did you not see ea in an earnings call state that their earnings target for bf2 would still be the same (and incredibly profitable without Mt's)
The bottom line is that game makers big and small still put out full fleshed games and make a tidy profit without Mt's. The likes of ea and Activision are just being greedy and locking previously available content and let's be honest most of it takes little effort to create in case of cosmetic items, behind a pay wall.
People that say "it's just cosmetic" are normalising receiving less content for their money and thats just pure madness and imo stupidity. Lambs to the slaughter, so to speak.
Personally I still play Destiny 2 and still enjoy it, but that’s probably due to the solid clan I run with always being active. As far as micro-transactions, has it ever crossed anyone’s mind that Bungie may be contractually obligated to keep Eververse in there? Anything associated with Activision seems to have the micro-transactions. Bungie is the developer, but they answer to Activision on the business side. Maybe the hate is slightly misguided....
@solocapers My point is that games are much more affordable to the consumer than they have been in the past. And a game like Destiny continues to generate expenses after the disc has been sold, due to things like maintaining servers and a “live” team to continually update the game. If a few pieces of armor are paywalled to pay for that, it doesn’t really bother me. I do wish there were better incentives for playing the game though (aside from it just being fun). It hasn’t captured my attention nearly as much as D1, but maybe that’s a blessing in disguise. There are so many games to play!
Just because it's more affordable doesn't mean it's any more reason to let them off.
Go back to your chrono trigger argument. It sold 2m copies in its lifetime on the snes.. Going by your 80 dollars thats 160m dollars total lifetime sales.
Compare that with around 500 million for destiny DAY 1 before any dlc and copies after day 1 were sold.
They can afford the server costs its a drop in the ocean and allow their live team to tweak the game so that it gives you the xp it should be giving.
How do free to play games which use the same mechanics as now lots of full priced titles like destiny 2 manage to break even? Something tells me that full priced titles which use Mt's just use them to generate even more money and to top it off some baci ally make it pay to win. In a full priced title
Like I say it baffles me that people are fine with it. It's bad enough dlc.. I can just about tolerate that but microtransactions are a stain.
Its like a restaurant charging for condiments.
ALL KNEEL TO TESS AVARICE AND SQUIRM FOR YOUR BRIGHT DUST!!
i would have thought a campaign for a meaningful endgame would have been a better use of people's time. it's not as if removing the eververse is going to make the game all the better.. or maybe a large section of the destiny community that use to care about the game have simply moved on and lost interest. i had people on my friends list who played thousands of hours of destiny 1 that simply moved on from destiny 2 after a month or so..
This makes me happy that gamers are finally beginning to take a stand against the big publishers and their micro transaction crap.
@themcnoisy The seasonpass is a joke now and it's €35 they upped the price from €30. And it's all cosmetic yeah they are testing how far they can take it. I was looking forward to the game but this game was/is a joke. Overwatch is a great example to we are reducing the duplicate items so lets drop in a insane amount of sprays and still with 5 points per spray i get from 1200 to 3400 points with a lot of stuff still locked.
I never had a problem with eververse until the dawning. You can’t even break down what you do get for free to get brightdust, that’s taking it too far. To me it’s not so much complaining about eververse it’s to send a message to all gaming devs/publishers out there that this needs to stop in full price games because it’s slowly starting to become the norm and get worse.
Sure am glad I didn't give in to the hype.
Destiny 2 will be a good game in 2020.
I'll get it then, for a fraction of the price, with all the DLC.
@JesWood13 it’s not the publisher people are taking it out on/attacking though.
@Hoodie718 "My point is that games are much more affordable to the consumer than they have been in the past."
Sorry mate you make fair points for the rest of the comment but consumers have been paying as little as £3.99 for cassette 8 bit games,
£14.99 for 16 bit multi disc games, £25 for ps1 games, £30-£45 ps2 / xbox and ps3 games and now £50+ AAA for the current microtaxation crop.
You cant compare cartridge prices as they were charging for the parts in the cartridge and Nintendo were fined for price fixing with n64 carts.
As for the costs involved in making games you just need to look at info for companies that trade and its all bs. Across the board games are expensive to make but delivery costs are way down.
The publishers actually spend even more than on game development on marketing.
Just like the film industry work in the game industry is volatile. But actors in the industry arent limited to games as the skills they use shade into other areas like IT, Architecture, Running servers etc etc. And just like the average joe the staff are paid the minimum for their role at point of delivery after sales is something else completely. Its not about keeping the lights on, microtransactions are funneling dough into stock holders pockets.
I loved the first game, but Destiny 2 is just boring for me. I don't think Bungie or Activison will do anything about Eververse; the game is dying and they know it, so they will say "may as well make money whilst we still can". :/
I can understand people pre-ordering D2 because they enjoyed the beta but after D1's first two expansions being rather average and disappointing, you'd think that people would think twice before pre-ordering D2's season pass.
@WanderingBullet its year 4, why would we assume it'd be worse than year 1
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Uhm, because it's Bungie and Activision...
@WanderingBullet that's right, they're one of the worlds biggest publishers because their games continually get worse
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Just because they're a big publisher and developer doesn't mean or guarantee that they'll make good games. D1 has thought me that they're willing to take players for granted with some of the content they released during that time (and they did it again in D2). I was willing to give them a chance with D2 eventhough I didn't had a 100% faith in them. Unfortunately the beta didn't impress me at all. To be honest, I think D2 is more D1.5 than an actual sequel. And now, you see some critics changing their initial opinions after 3-4 weeks of the playing the game.
Just don't play these games...there are thousands of other games to play with no micro transactions....
I stopped playing a couple weeks ago, but not because of the Eververse. More because it's still hard to get a fireteam together, and a few of my friends have moved over to Divinity 2 for their co op fix. I don't know, i guess I just feel like my time is spent better elsewhere until they release all the DLCs and work out the major issues.
Activision had the COD coins patched into WW2 a week after EA got slaughtered over star wars BF2, they will not be swayed by anything that isn't money.
@Flaming_Kaiser it is a rip off.. Activision rip off every game they publish... That's why I don't put anymore money in than the original game purchase.. I grin for the rest of the gear... 😉
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