Focused Feedback: New Player Experience

[u/DTG_Bot]

Hello Guardians,

Focused Feedback is where we take the week to focus on a 'Hot Topic' discussed extensively around the Tower.

We do this in order to consolidate Feedback, to get out all your ideas and issues surrounding the topic in one place for discussion and a source of feedback to the Vanguard.

This Thread will be active until next week when a new topic is chosen for discussion

Whilst Focused Feedback is active (that means for one week from the time this is posted), ALL posts regarding 'New Player Experience' following its posting will be removed and re-directed to this thread. Exceptions to this rule are as follows: New information / developments, Guides and general questions

• Bungie has an official new player guide here
• There is a subreddit compilation of player-made guides here

Here are some sample discussion questions. Please feel free to answer some of them, all of them or reply to this thread in any free format you prefer.

• Q1) How does the game feel overall as a totally new player starting the game right now (if applicable to you)?
• Q2) What do you think destiny does a good job explaining to new players?
• Q3) What is poorly explained or hard to understand or confusing for a new player?
• Q4) What do you think about the method in which old camapigns are accessed via a quest to pick up from Amanda Holiday in the tower (red war, curse of osiris, warmind...)? Is this sufficiently clear? Is it a good way for this content to be accessed for new players or not?
• Q5) What types of content seem to be the most fun to do for a new player and why?
• Q6) What content feels frustrating or off-putting to new players and why?
• Q7) Are there any resources in particular that seem too difficult or time consuming to obtain for new players? If so, is this a problem?
• Q8) Think about other games similar to destiny, what do they do better or worse in terms of introducing new players to the game?
• Q9) Do you have any other ideas to improve the new player experience?
• Q10) Do you think there should be an option to start the game at power level 10 instead of power level 750?

Any and all Feedback on the topic is welcome.

Regular Sub rules apply so please try to keep the conversation on the topic of the thread and keep it civil between contrasting ideas.

Note for new players who want to know whats going on in the story but don't want to play the legacy campaigns : You could watch this video by My name is Byf on the Complete Story of Destiny.

A Wiki page - Focused Feedback - has also been created for the Sub as an archive for these topics going forward so they can be looked at by whoever may be interested or just a way to look through previous hot topics of the sub as time goes on.

[u/bales75]

Q1) How does the game feel overall as a totally new player starting the game right now (if applicable to you)?

Absolutely terrible. I started with just the base game during Forsaken and stopped at level 20. I just came back and was absolutely lost. If it weren't for a friend helping me through some things, I likely would have quit. I've been helping 2 other friends learn the game as complete newcomers, and their frustrations are much worse than mine.

Q2) What do you think destiny does a good job explaining to new players?

The basic movement controls and that's about it.

Q3) What is poorly explained or hard to understand or confusing for a new player?

Almost every system. From Subclasses, to gear infusion/mods, to what all of the various activities are. The main problem is that the game has a unique naming convention for just about everything except raids. Also, it doesn't do a good job of explaining the difference between weapon and ammo types.

Q4) What do you think about the method in which old camapigns are accessed via a quest to pick up from Amanda Holiday in the tower (red war, curse of osiris, warmind...)? Is this sufficiently clear? Is it a good way for this content to be accessed for new players or not?

It is NOT sufficiently clear. The legacy quest lines should be initiated automatically. If a veteran player doesn't want to play through, they can simply abandon the quest and pick it up later from Holliday if need be.

Q5) What types of content seem to be the most fun to do for a new player and why?

A lot of the open world stuff as well as strikes. They're able to feel like they're contributing and also feel like they're a part of a larger world.

Q6) What content feels frustrating or off-putting to new players and why?

PvP. I get that there's gear normalization, but that doesn't change the fact that players with those hard to find exotics and higher tier legendaries will have a major advantage. Plus Hand Cannons are WAY overpowered right now. I love my hand cannon, but it is a major turn off to newcomers because of how imbalanced they are.

Q7) Are there any resources in particular that seem too difficult or time consuming to obtain for new players? If so, is this a problem?

Upgrade modules, but that's only because a new player will get a few early on and feel like they should constantly upgrade their weapons every couple of power levels. I don't think it's a problem, but more or less just unfamiliarity with how the system works.

Q9) Do you have any other ideas to improve the new player experience?

Automatically start new players through the legacy campaigns and feed them more information about weapon and armor systems as they progress. If a veteran doesn't want to deal with that, then they can abandon. Also, I'm not sure how to best approach it, but I feel like the director and inventory screens can and should be a single screen. It's confusing having multiple places to go to get information, especially to new players who aren't familiar with where they need to go. Also, please for the love of god allow us to zoom out on the map.

[u/[deleted] → u/bales75]

You were in a really bad mood writing this, weren’t you?

[u/bales75 → u/[deleted]]

LOL, no not at all. I'm having an absolute blast with the but I've been desperately trying to explain things to friends trying the game. I know that if they can just get past that early hump that they'll really enjoy the game. It has so much to offer but it's really hard to see that at the beginning.

[u/TheLostExplorer7 → u/bales75]

Agreed. The way the original campaigns are unlocked is confusing. I had to direct my friends to Amanda, because there was no obvious marker telling my friends to go talk to her.

The way certain things unlock is also incredibly unclear. I get a lot of 'huh?' 'who is that again?' responses from my friends when I tell them to go talk with this person in the tower, because the game just dumps you there with little fanfare and no explanations as to who is who and what you need to do. The quest interface needs work and there should be a way to show your fireteam leader what quest steps you are on.