Ink & Bytes
Ink & Bytes
Bonus Episode - A Thank You To Bungie And Destiny 2
Reflecting on countless raids, friendships, and transformative in-game moments, I share how Destiny 2's journey has been more than just a gaming experience—it was a catalyst for personal growth and creativity. Starting back during the Taken King expansion in 2015, this game significantly shaped my high school years, teaching me valuable social skills and connecting me with a global community. As the first 10-year saga of Destiny 2 comes to a close, listen to my heartfelt stories of mentoring fellow raiders and transitioning to solo play, and find out how this epic game inspired my career as a writer.
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Ink and Bytes podcast. Last episode we had a good conversation about cybersecurity basics for both beginners and more experienced users, and today I just wanted to take a step back and dive back into some video game related things and, in particular, a somber topic, even though it's very exciting of saying kind of farewell and goodbye to Destiny 2's first 10-year saga and this might seem a little weird if you have no idea what I'm talking about and you don't play the game, and that's completely fine. But I just wanted to put something out there in the world of creativity, kind of just saying farewell, since this has been a very large part of my life and kind of feels weird that I would not mention it at all. So, without further ado, let's get into this really short episode of Ink and Bytes. So I started playing Destiny back in 2015 when the Taken King expansion was released, and I was, I believe, if I search my memory banks very early, middle of high school. My memories are weird. It's so hard for me to remember anything about my childhood, but I remember playing, or I should say I remember waiting for school to be over, getting done with all my homework and stuff Because, yes, unlike a lot of people, I actually do my homework, and stuff because, yes, unlike a lot of people, I actually do my homework and tried to study. I would always recall thinking about going home playing the game and at the time at the time it was then I was a lot younger, so a lot of the intricacies that I enjoy in the game now kind of went over my head, like the storytelling, but the game was very addicting. It had a very cool art style and there was a lot of content in the game that I enjoyed playing.
Speaker 1:I have many fond memories of raids and I used to do them over and over again. They're basically the hardest thing you can do in the game a six player activity and you have to find a group of people to join up, usually using something called an LFG or looking for group predominantly on discord, because until recently we never had an official LFG in the game for people to use and that alone, just rating every day, uh, or on my every day, like at least once a week, meeting a bunch of new people from all across the world, was definitely a positive impact on me as I was developing better social skills, because it is actually. Ironically enough, I find it significantly harder now to go on to Discord and find a group who are doing a raid, because now that I've grown up I've been able to key in on social cues a lot more and I know when people are toxic. And you know, I guess I became more insecure as I grew up. I guess when I was younger I didn't really care, I just thought the game was fun. Kind of missed that it's really really hard to find games or, in particular, find raiding as fun as I used to when I was a kid, just because I can see and understand people a lot better. But back then I never had those skills. So I would always enjoy meeting these random people and maybe they were either stoned or toxic and I would never know because I was too young. But I love doing that stuff and there was a raid in particular that I enjoyed called Wrath of the Machine. I actually taught people how to do it. I taught people significantly older than me. It was just a wild time.
Speaker 1:That game, or Destiny in general, has had a really big impact on me and it's another reason, like I mentioned at the start of this episode, is why I wanted to at least get something out there. Thanking Bungie, thanking Destiny and the community for just creating unique moments and just based like also inspiring my career as a writer because the reason why I decided to follow this career path, even though currently life is taking me down very different side paths to get there. I never really expected to be doing like real estate stuff, but I'm very thankful for it. It has taught me a lot of different skills. Working at a small scale startup Just not how I thought my life would go. Still very thankful for it, but this game has inspired me to become a writer because of the amazing story and lore of the game and just the creative potential that it has. I've made many I guess you can say fan fictions. I've made many custom weapon stories because in Destiny all of your important weapons have like a lore tab where you can read some cool story in the universe. I wrote a bunch of those for myself. Just in general, this game has quite literally propelled me to where I'm sitting right now in my own place, far away from home, still trying to be a writer and writing blogs, writing podcast scripts, and even though I haven't wrote a script in a while, as well as working on a book that I keep restarting because you know just writer mentality, but you know those.
Speaker 1:2015 to 2018 was like the golden age for me and Destiny 2 came along. And when Destiny 2 was coming along, it was about the golden age for me and Destiny 2 came along. And when Destiny 2 was coming along, it was about the time that I started to get into PC gaming after years of begging and my friend group persuaded me to get Destiny 2 on the PC because originally it was going to be consoles. They tried and true and unfortunately, once I got it on my PC everybody else kind of dipped. They never really vibed with the game. So I was kind of thrust back into this single-player only lifestyle, which is fine. I've been playing the game solo predominantly for my entire career, playing it until I have to do things that require other people.
Speaker 1:But Destiny 2 has been going on since around 2019, 2018, I think, and it's been great. The stories that are told have been nice, the changes that made were nice, but overall I don't want to get into gameplay discussions and all of that, because that's not really what this is about. This is really just a thank you, like I said to bungie for if they're never gonna hear this, but just in general, a thank you for creating such an awesome game and allowing experiences that many people would never be able to have had if the game never existed. On that as well, I just seen a youtube video from bungie because, um, they have a uh, I guess, a charity it's the make a wish, I think foundation that they call it or something like that and they've recently had an individual named Trevor come in who has beaten cancer and they actually made him a custom ghost shell in the game, which is just a cosmetic that you can equip. They also allowed him to recreate some cut scenes and become his favorite character, calus, in the game. He got to put on all those like white sponge balls and stand straight and become like animated for a little bit, and I thought that was just like really kind of sweet.
Speaker 1:Bungie, as a studio, does a lot of really unique things that a lot of other studios don't. Just really unfortunate that they get bad reputation based off of just corporate things, because you know that's usually how it goes. You have the corporate CEOs that are 70 and they don't really know how video games work. They just see it as a profit revenue stream. But either way, thank you again, bungie. If the stars align and this somehow lands at your table, thanks for making such an amazing game and thank you for inspiring me and basically spearheading my aspirations to be a video game narrative storyteller.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I know that was a really weird episode this one's kind of just, I guess, for me in a sense. But if you enjoyed listening to it fucking great, I'm glad you did. We're going to be back to our normal routine. I also have been adapting to this night job and I am exhausted beyond belief. So, again, if there's a lag in post, it's just because I'm so tired, and you can probably hear it in my voice now.
Speaker 1:I just finished up a shift not too long ago, so I came home and just wanted to get my second episode of the month out and I just wanted to say thank you to the team and to the game that really has charted the direction of my life and has really just done a lot for me. So thank you once again for making the game and thank you all of you out there who decide to hang out and listen to this really niche podcast. That is just the thing that exists, because I like to do it and I will. Yeah, it's crazy, we're already like the double digit episodes in. It's been. It's been an awesome ride. So, again, thank you for staying with me, hearing my rants, hearing the conversations I have with other brilliant guests, and I think we're going to have another one on soon, maybe night fire again, but we'll figure that out when we get there and I will catch all of you in the next one. Be safe, have a good one.
