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By now, I’m sure you have witnessed the Destiny reveal ViDoc (video documentary). I, for one, was disappointed with it — the reason being that we didn’t learn anything substantial. Sure, we got some details about platforms, that the game is an always-online experience, and different character classes. But did we get to witness any actual gameplay or substantial in-game footage? Not really. All we got was concept art and lofty promises.
Developer Bungie’s first ViDoc for Destiny felt less like a reveal and more like a Kickstarter campaign. Maybe to some this isn’t a big deal. I’m sure these people are just excited to hear some news about what Bungie has been up to. I, on the other hand, can’t get past the fact that the team invited journalists from every publication to their HQ and told only them about the game. They revealed the game on a Sunday — a day that traditionally doesn’t generate news in this industry — and this way Bungie knew that Destiny would be the only game-related news for the day. It went out of its way to make this reveal big, but all it gave us were promises and more promises. One phrase from the video that stood out to me (and I also believe it sums up the entire reveal perfectly) was, “We are blazing tons of new trails.” What trails? So many promises and concepts, but nothing to back it up.
Please don’t get me wrong. I want Destiny to be everything Bungie promises. I am optimistic about what the final product will be. But when all we receive are lofty ideals with nothing to back it up, I become skeptical. Bungie should be wise and not wait too long to truly show the world its game. I hope it will be showing Destiny at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and if we are lucky, also at PAX East.
Plain and simple, the ViDoc was a bad idea. It gives us all this information that we don’t know what to do with. This makes conversations on websites and social media like Twitter all about what was promised. Bungie should have just released a shiny 30-second story trailer. This way, all we would be talking about was how cool the trailer was, and the buzz around Destiny would still be high without blowing expectations of the game out of the atmosphere. This is much like someone running for political office. A candidate should never purposely raise expectations of himself because if he can’t meet those expectations, it looks really, really bad. And now, Bungie just took its already pretty high expectations and raised them to the moon.