When Destiny launched and the Vault of Glass Raid came out, people didn’t quite know what to think. The entire concept of a first-person six-man Raid was new and exciting. Not only was it a whole new playground for players to challenge themselves with, but the developers at Bungie also went into the experience of creating it very green. They didn’t quite know how players would respond to it. Often it’s found that Guardians with take the path of least resistance, and sometimes that means doing things in a way that was entirely unintended by the team that created the Raid.
Even as recently as the Last Wish Raid that came with Forsaken, players have discovered shortcuts that aren’t technically against the rules of the game, but do allow them to bypass some of the more complex mechanics of the encounters. With each and every new Raid released, Bungie discovers more and more about how people play Destiny. They strive to find a way to strike a balance between not frustrating players, but also presenting them with challenging endgame content that should be difficult. In a series of tweets, Bungie Senior Game Designer Brendan Thorne talked about some of his experience developing Raids for Destiny, specifically what the studio learned from Destiny’s second Raid, Crota’s End. Crota’s End shipped with The Dark Below expansion and featured players diving into the Hellmouth on the moon to take out a Hive god. Reactions to the Raid are still mix...