Our Questions On The Future Of Destiny
This past week, there was a lot of controversy surrounding Destiny, a video game in which players travel through space collecting unique resources such as Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, and Red Bull.
But before the firestorm started, most Destiny fans were pretty damn stoked about how the game has been evolving. House of Wolves, the latest expansion, is excellent, and there are a lot of indications that Bungie has learned quite a bit over the past few months about what players actually want. They still need to work on their communication skills—big time!—but additions like Trials of Osiris have gotten hardcore players psyched in a way we never have been before.
So let’s forget about the controversy for a little while. At E3 last week, before any of the drama began, Kirk Hamilton and I had the opportunity to sit down with Destiny: The Taken King director Luke Smith for a long chat about the State Of Destiny and what’s coming this fall.
Smith, who is snarky and boisterous, is clearly a big fan of the game he works on. (He says he’s got three level-34 characters and has played some 800 hours, not unlike the rest of us. Destiny power leveling make upgrade quickly.) He was honest and candid about some things, yet he wouldn’t answer questions about many others. At the end of the conversation, we all agreed that we’d like to chat again soon—maybe this fall, after The Taken King is out and we’ve got a long list of new problems to complain about.
(It’s probably also worth noting that Smith briefly worked at Kotaku many years ago, before either Kirk or I started.)
The interview is long and sprawling, so I’ve broken it up into segments for easier reading. Let’s do this.