Discussing
Destiny: a video game blind to its own beauty

Drew Dixon

Drew Dixon
September 23, 2014

The video game Destiny is in bondage because it presents a mysterious world that can only be experienced down the barrel of a gun.

Jonathan Downie
September 23, 2014

Might it also be the case that game worlds reflect some issues with our own world. Despite the fact that we live in a beautiful world, there are always reminders that it is fallen and there are always attempts to distract us from revelling in it. In that, the game might be less of a metaphor and more of a mirror. Only this side of the mirror, killing enemies is much less powerful than forgiving and reaching out to them.

Drew Dixon
September 23, 2014

Certainly. In fact that is part of what I was trying to get at in this piece. Destiny very much reflects the brokenness of our fallen world. What I was driving at is that the game studios with the biggest budgets aren't doing very much to transcend that in any meaningful way. In other words, they are doing little to show their worlds worth redeeming. Games like Destiny are endless feedback loops of shooting things and collecting loot and doing it again.

I think games can do both. They are really good at the latter but not so good at the former (at least big budget games aren't).

Chris
September 23, 2014

Esoteric gobbledygook and irrelevant world-building has long been a staple of Bungie storytelling. The immediate narrative has never been particularly good, either.

I don't think Destiny fails in design because all you do is shoot aliens; it fails because the level design is terrible, progress is chained to a repetitive and mind-numbing MMO grind, and the writing is just bland. I don't think exploring a pre-paradise state through warfare is at all a bad thing, however. If anything, that's the most literary part of the whole darn game. Chronicles of Narnia, LoTR, Revelations etc.

SilverMindTrix
August 28, 2015

If you truly analyze Destiny you see a Christian story kinda. You got the Traveler(Jesus) who sacrifices itself to protect humanity from the darkness, and to guide humanity after the traveler is gone is the Ghost's(HolySpirit). To guid and train guardians(believers) to use the light.

Just my perspective while playing destiny.

Joanna
January 22, 2016

Curious if you can tell me about warlocks being on the side of the ("Righteous") the good guys?

Dominick Funaro
March 12, 2016

Adding to SilverMindTri, you also notice in the begining, to start the game the (holy)ghost finds his Guardian and puts a new spirit in him ( he's born again) . I see the speaker more like the church head and the city as the body of christ(the church). You foe that you battle are the taken (demonds) the fallen(people who once pretended to be believers) the vex (ones that cause distress). The best heavy weapon I have obtained as of yet is the Sword (bible). I obtained the sword after defeating a heavy boss which was once concidered to be good ( Protestant Reformation). There are countless comparatives in this game that coincide with the Christian walk. You even wield your weapons against fellow Guardians in The Crucible in order to increase your skill. Like iron sharpens iron.
You also can go into battle with other Guardians in pairs of 3. (The bible says: when two or more are gathered in my name I am with you). Can all this be coincidental?

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