Destiny Community Summit is Collaboration in Making Destiny 2 Better

Yesterday, a flurry of comments on the Destiny Reddit and Twitter indicated that members of the Destiny 2 community would be headed to Bungie in a couple of weeks to play some of the upcoming content. At first, this invite-only gathering, called the Destiny Community Summit, simply seemed to be an early look at Expansion 2, but digging in revealed a different motive. Dr. Lupo, a well-known streamer and content creator, clarified the reason for the meeting on Twitter.

Let me be super clear about this @Bungie thing – the goal of this appears to be what CRAPLOADS OF PEOPLE have asked for, for a while – us telling them what we love, what we dislike strongly, and discussing ways to fix it.

This isn’t a smoke show.

The goal is a game to love.

— DrLupo (@DrLupoOnTwitch) April 5, 2018

If there was any doubt that Bungie was looking for feedback from the community, today’s This Week at Bungie blog post explained further.

Our goals for this gathering are to get people from the community more involved in the way we make games, and to do that sooner in the creative process. We’ll be previewing some of the things we’re working on to gather feedback before they’re locked. Our guests will also play some things that you’ll get your hands on in the coming weeks. We’ve hosted community ambassadors before to see and capture new content, but this ain’t DRE (the Destiny Reveal Event). This gathering is more intimate and more tactical.

Bungie Community Manager DeeJ said that invites have gone out to leaders in the Destiny community, new faces, solo players, hardcore elites, and more casual fans that simply love the game. The intent is to gain a large cross-section of the community from all facets and angles, in order to get the best feedback possible directly to the development team.

DeeJ concluded with a commitment to be more collaborative with the community and less secretive.

This is a new step we’re taking to be more collaborative, more transparent, and a little less worried about keeping secrets. This is not the first time we’ve welcomed players to see where we work and meet the people who make our games. It won’t be the last.

Yesterday, Washington Governer Jay Inslee stopped by Bungie’s Bellevue offices and took some pictures from the studio, though it’s highly doubtful that he was providing feedback about future updates and content. The Destiny Community Summit is a huge step in the right direction towards Bungie being proactive about changes and updates, rather than reactive. Allowing top members of the community an early look at ideas and prototypes can quickly squash bad ideas and build up the bigger ones. Where the studio is laser focused on certain content, the community can help them take a step away and see things from different angles to fix and improve.

Numerous other games have taken similar approaches, seeking community feedback to completely rework their games into all new experiences. The Division initially met with a poorly received launch period. Massive invited the community to help them rework the game, and the entire experience changed for the better. The Destiny Community Summit shows Bungie’s very real commitment to make Destiny 2 the best game for the players first and foremost.

What do you think of the Destiny Community Summit? Does this give you faith in Bungie’s willingness to adapt the game for the players?

[Source: Bungie]