Halo Destiny

http://www.gamespot.com/features/des...about-6404016/



Like Halo, Destiny will feature a story campaign that allows multiple players to get together and fend off alien scum as a group. But unlike Halo, Destiny's approach to social interaction is far more focused on happenstance and serendipity. While you can still buddy up with players from your friends list, your journey through Destiny's various locales (both on Earth and other planets in our solar system) will be populated by total strangers brought together by chance. Well, chance and some robust networking architecture.

Destiny's co-op is intended to be very seamless in the way it has players running into each other out of the blue. Destiny is constantly talking to its servers to see if there are other people out there playing the same mission or simply navigating the same geography as you. When it finds a good match, it combines each of these players into a single shared experience. Bungie insists there's no co-op lobby, no "waiting for player to join" pop-up, none of that--it's intended to be very seamless in the way it has players running into each other out of the blue. Bungie wants you to feel like these are "chance encounters" where you can forge a lasting alliance, or just go your separate ways once you've collected your loot after a successful mission (more on that in a bit).

On top of this, you've also got dedicated social hubs that allow you to interact with other players outside of combat. This includes things like trading goods, gambling, or just taking a break from the game's optional "activities" that draw you away from these safe havens with the promise of adventure and loot. It's a lot like an MMO in certain respects. Which brings us to the next point…

Destiny is not an MMO
At least, that's Bungie's insistence. While the overall structure of social hubs, dynamic environments, and optional missions promising adventure and wealth sounds a lot like an MMO, Bungie is quick to argue that this is something different. "These are living, open worlds with evolving stories, changing time of day…and every one is full of players," says engineering lead Chris Butcher. "Destiny is an always online experience, but it's not an MMO."

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Bungie wants to make an online shooter that borrows certain ideas from the MMO genre without requiring the usual sort of legwork and coordination found in assembling guilds and raids. Take this quote from project director Jason Jones, for example: "Destiny knows you're tired, impatient, and distracted. [Players] don't want to work hard. They don't want to read. They don't want to go to the Internet to figure out our bullshit."

And there's also no MMO subscription fee. So that helps.