#If I'm not playing D2

[circesoracle]

Destiny 2 is a silly little looter shooter but also its a story about love and it did matter and continues to matter at every turn. Destiny 2 is the opposite of that post about the love being there but not changing anything. the love is there and it changes everything. we succeed because Elsie tells her sister that she's there and she loves her and she trusts her and she won't leave again. we get Mara back because Shuro Chi loved her. we defeat Savathun because she cares, because she feels betrayed, because she feels her sisters were betrayed with her and that care and love blinds her. we live because Mara learns to open herself up to love and refuses to walk away from her brother again and turns back for him this time. we win because Eramis loves her people too much to fully buy into the Witness and we win because Eido believes there's good in everyone and refuses to live in a world where people can't change. we win because Taranis loved Riven and their children and defied his own nature and starved himself to give them that love. we win because Rasputin loves humanity so much even though he was never meant to because Ana loved him so much she taught him every beautiful thing she knew. we win because despite their differences Ikora loves Zavala and Zavala loves Ikora and they couldn't live without each other. we win because Eris loved her fireteam too much to let phantoms of them ruin that love and she lived because Brya loved her enough to give her one last chance. we win because our ghost loves us. just because he loves us so much. and because we love him. and because Cayde loves Sundance and wants to spend eternity with her. we win because at every turn the characters choose to love and trust and forgive.

[vanade]

sound idea tbh

[kaiserouo]

Well someone has to give it its driver updates, Gabriel

[galasgamingcorner]

Diablo 2 Scenery | Lut Gholein

[sercj]

Alright, I'm finally typing it out. Gather around, all, for the tale of the time my friends and I kidnapped a blueberry and drug them into the Vault of Glass.

Once upon a time, I used to have friends I would play Destiny 2 with regularly. None of them that feature in this story still do, to my knowledge, but at the time we were pretty cracked on the PvE side of things. At the time, we were raiding semi-regularly (when schedules lined up), and as Vault of Glass had just been added to D2 recently, it was our raid of choice that one, fateful evening.

We, like any sane PC player, were using Discord for comms, and so I had hopped into the channel to wait, and headed to the Cosmodrome for my favorite time-killing passtime - blueberry watching. For those of you unfamiliar, blueberries is an affectionate term for new destiny players, named after the color of the low rarity gear they end up decked out in, blue. The Cosmodrome, being the first public area a New Light ends up in, is often a place where you can see adorable new players getting the hang of things.

At this time, the voice channel began to fill up, and one of my compatriots joined my fireteam. We initiated some hug emotes with a blueberry and were just all-in-all chilling when we got word that one member of our team would be unable to join us. Then someone (I forget who) suggested 'hey, what if we took this blueberry along with us?'. It was a patently absurd option - we had no communication with them. Their mishmash of blue armor and crappy weapons would clearly be outclassed by the raid, leaving them unable to damage enemies and likely to die instantly if any of the vex even looked in their direction. But we started to plan a bit - really, we could do every encounter with just 5 people. We'd have to protect the blueberry, but that could be done, theoretically.

I think, in the end, we came to the conclusion that we'd try it, but they weren't likely to stick through it. After all, we weren't (and never did) using the in-game VC, or text chat. The two of us hanging out with them in the Cosmodrome sent a fireteam invite. And the blueberry accepted. So we joined the rest of the team in orbit, and launched Vault of Glass.

I could go into our specific strategies for each encounter, but for the most part it was pretty same-y. We'd use emotes and shooting to get the blueberry into a defensible position, then 5-man the encounter. And somehow, this worked. I have taught many, many people many raids in my time (including many people from this friend group!), and I have never seen someone pick up so quickly on what we needed them to do. With no actual words passing! An absolute, biggest-brained legend of a guardian.

We did get this guy all the way to Aetheon. And with some tricks (and good RNG), we were able to even defeat Aetheon. With some random blueberry nobody knew, or talked to! Unfortunately, they didn't get Mythoclast (can you imagine, though!), but they did celebrate with us with their default dance emote, and we all went our seperate ways. Nobody friended them, we just re-released them into the Cosmodrome like they hadn't just helped us save all of time or whatever the point of Vault of Glass is.

Now, perhaps this was a returning player, or someone on a new alt, who already kinda or entirely knew what was going on. But there's no real way of knowing, and it's just as (if not more) likely that this was a brand new player. Can you imagine what kind of a 'first experience' that new player had with the game? How puzzlingly odd to begin with, developing into concern as the activity we brought them to was clearly beyond them, to the 'fuck it we ball' attitude to stick with it all the way through. A true champion.

And imagine the lore perspective too. Fresh guardian, still got gravesoil in their armor, hasn't been to the tower yet, and they get scooped up into the Vault of Glass? Battle Aetheon? AND WIN!? The reaction from Shaw, or hell, the Vanguard as a whole would be amazing. Our guardians getting reprimanded for taking some fresh new light and dragging them through such a crazy difficult experience they weren't prepared for. Fun stuff to think about.

I wonder how that player is doing now. If they still play, how this particular experience flavored their perception of the game and its community. I know the community at large can be extremely toxic (and worse), but I still strive to embody the community impression we made on that day. Patience and Understanding, being goofy and silly about it, inclusive and kind. Dunno, maybe that's just me being sappy about a fun memory with friends gone by.

[catboyazem]

mara sov in season of the seraph

[girlbob-boypants]

I'm very concerned that overeager Warframe players are going to make the gamers abandoning Destiny 2 for this game uh. Get the wrong impression that this game is anything like D2.

[hyakunana]

Better late than never, here's my #artrecap2023 ✨ testing a different design because... yeah, felt like doing something new. Hope it still works well 👀💦

Happy 2k24!!! 🌠

[n7viper]

"Do you know where you are?" "Just abou' the worst place anyone's ever gone?"

[kazeofthemagun]

[Yeah, Kaze can move like a Hunter from Destiny]

[xivu-arath]

I always forget how much I love nessus

[warlordfelwinter]

listening to juri's speaker playlist and reminiscing fondly about the red war and i was so zoned out that i managed to convince myself i could replay it and then i Remembered and it was like lucy pulling the football away from charlie brown except my brain was somehow both charlie brown and lucy

[kaiserouo]

wip

i like that side look eye too much i need to spread this to the world

[viiridiangreen]

Every Day The Traveller Tests My Patience

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

writing of boss fights somewhat hindered by entirely forgetting what it's like to actually have to like. worry about it

[haldenlith]

You know, I've seen the "I'm afraid for Mara this season" sentiment and after seeing the trailer for the season (the most recent one), I definitely get it, especially after they showed her and Crow together for a brief moment doing the hand-touch thing RIGHT BEFORE the narration goes "wishes have a price."

And we all know Bungie seems to absolutely love tormenting Crow specifically for some reason. I love Crow, I do, but I am tired of the "look at his SUFFERING!!!!!1111" story beat. We get it, he's tragic. Let's move on and show more of the capability of his character or something. Anything. Please.

But anyway, yeah, I don't think they're going to kill him or do anything with him, honestly. But I am worried they'd be willing to do something to Mara, since she's kind of the last knife they can jab into him and twist. They already fridged killed Amanda (which I am still salty about). The only other major character with deep ties would be Young Wolf, who has the strongest plot armor in the universe thanks to being the main character.

Yes, I know, there are other characters with ties to Crow, but Mara's the only major thread still tied to him that most of the playerbase would be even minutely familiar with.

Also, in my opinion, it's felt like, lately, they don't know what to do with Mara. She feels, to me, like the character they built up and now aren't really sure where to slot her into the story. They'll do things like "look at this amazing power she has, and she probably destroyed a Pyramid ship and wooooo so powerful so mysterious" and then go "Uh... she's a battery powering the way for you guys to go into the Ascendant plane. We guess. Sure. *shrug*" I don't know, it's just felt weird every time she's shown up lately. The last time she felt genuinely relevant to me, like she belonged and was actually well-used and a part of the story, was Season of the Lost.

Well, okay, that's a lie. The Parasite quest felt pretty good and in character, in my opinion, for her. But still. I've said this before, and I still feel this way: it feels like the current writers don't know what to do with Mara. While I'm not sure they'd kill her off, given all the various things that are tied to her, that would be the easiest way to deal with a character you don't know what to do with. So... *shrug*

Though I guess they could shift everything to being under Petra again, since she was the Regent prior to Mara's return anyway, even though, if I recall correctly, that wasn't going too great for her (since everyone is loyal to Mara, not her). I don't know, dudes.

What's funny is I don't even really like Mara, but even I'm like "😬 I am getting not great vibes, fellas."

But uh, yeah, I don't want Crow to (again) be the horse to beat for Pain and Misery value, and I also actually don't want Mara to be the sacrificial shock factor lamb of the season. (I don't want any of the characters being that, honestly.)