With the launch of PC, much attention has fallen onto Destiny's competitive community. The inclusion of PC opened the door to eSports, something many players had been clamouring for. With popular talent populating Twitch, and thousands of viewers eagerly watching, it seems near certain that such a venture would be met with success.
Unfortunately, Bungie removed custom games with Destiny 2, effectively making such games impossible. With only two Crucible playlists, as well, players grew tired of the game faster than expected.
Thankfully, Bungie declared their intentions in returning custom games in their weekly update. Game director, Christopher Barrett, placed the feature's ETA as "early 2018."
In addition, he cited a number of updates that Bungie is currently working on:
"New systems and rewards to give our most engaged players additional, optional pursuits.
Better incentives for players who complete challenging Prestige activities.
Better rewards and replay value for strikes, adventures, and Lost Sectors.
Private matches for the competitive community (we are targeting early 2018).
Crucible tuning like adjusted Supremacy scoring and better spawning rules.
Better incentives for completing Crucible matches (and penalties for quitting competitive games).
Continued improvements to Iron Banner and Faction Rallies, including uniqueness of rewards.
Changes to make the mod economy more interesting and impactful.
Ongoing improvements to Exotics, including adjustments to reduce instances of duplication.
New ways to spend surplus currency and materials (looking at you Legendary Shards).
An emote interface that allows players to equip Salty, Spicy Ramen, Six Shooter, and Flip Out all at the same time."
A few of these stand out. The last entry seems to indicate that players will be able to equip multiple emotes, which is a very fine change. Additional rewards and incentives are also welcome, as I previously wrote in an opinion piece: Destiny doesn't have a content problem, it has an incentive problem.
A few quality of life changes, including tweaks to Supremacy, changes in the mod economy and a reduction of Exotic duplicates, are also encouraging.
Bungie's built a fine game, and with the PC release, one that's dominated Twitch charts. For better or worse, this is a game that millions will play for a very long time, and Bungie is showing they're up to the often thankless task of keeping them entertained.
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