Touching the magic leaves, aren't we?

Only an additional option titled "Other" would suffice. Meanwhile, I think everyone deserves to identify with their gender without discrimination, and listing all possible genders is not feasible, and the human body doesn't exactly work in a binary way.

Or you really want to bump into each other and ask to what are our chromosomes and match our gender according to the percentages? No, that would be silly and extremely uncomfortable.

The Tower has to be compact, and quick to navigate, but also add the possibility to meet with other players. A more beautiful tower would have to incorporate many more elements which would be more taxing on the content, but also you run the risk that all those elements might not even be used. (Therefore, risking to waste not only disc space, but also rising further issues and work hours into ensuring the beauty of the tower)

Also, it's not ugly. The tower looks fine for its purpose. Now, as to why The Tower is needed... You should think about other action role-playing games. Take Diablo for example with Tristram, or Diablo 2 with the rogue camp. The idea is that you have to go back and forth through a main "hub" to prepare yourself for the next journey beyond.

The concept of taking journeys in a wild frontier is strong within Destiny. Where the game is all about the player going through dangerous, uncivilized areas which have been overrun by enemies. Perhaps, The Tower exists not only to serve as a hub, but as a perspective of what civilization is-- a contrast with the constant view of a long-lost Golden Age.

Also, the vaults, the larger areas, are just beauty touches. They might feel exaggerated because the tower actually lacks life, because otherwise they would have felt like a natural element.

Oh definitely, it shouldn't be considered an MMO social hub I completely agree but however long your character is or isn't meant to stay their... does that mean it can't be beautiful?

It just feels to me that The Tower is somewhat... confused. If the only purpose it serves is for character management then why build it at all? Why not just hang in orbit and converse with your friends through some kind of menu screen.

It does it's job well like you say but it's unmistakingly trying to instil that unquantifiable sense of belonging to a larger community that you get within an MMO and it does so (partly) by it's design. The area's where character management is mostly confined to, is huge for it's base purpose and in the same breathe they over estimated how many vault interfaces are truly required for such a sparse environment.

EDIT: For just wanting people not to hang around for very long, if you get my meaning. :s

Dissecting games, and critically think about them and what happens inside them. That's the most entertaining part of the learning process I mentioned above. The whole procedure is akin to reverse engineering, and then what is learned is applied with the small mods I mentioned, too.

It's my favorite part. Because you can learn so much by looking into the right place on the internet, and more than often many developers with expertise reply to the emails you send them with legitimate questions. It's always exciting to actually go to a major release, and find out how did they make things work, the "tricks" that were used and their proper names and standards in the industry.

A fond memory of this is when I found out how the slicing physics worked for Metal Gear Rising, but it turned out it was something similar as other ideas throughout the industry, and someone had compiled all that information online, and made it available for free. (http://simonschreibt.de/gat/metal-gear-rising-slicing/)

Interesting, what is it that you are doing right now that you enjoy the most?

Identity manipulation... Fascinating.

The user is able to modify and change a person's identity. Including: personality, preferences, race, sex and other various aspects. Some can completely remove all identity leaving them as a non-existing presence, or they could leave the human qualities of the identity and leave them as a neutral emotionless robot-man. Some can add more to their identities and make them believe something they didn't before. You could turn somebody into a completely different person altogether. If that person has a superpower then the user could take it away from them or enhance it.

As someone who self-defines themselves as a "Jack of All Trades" when it comes to game development, I find that the tower is the simplest form of a player-driven social hub that serves the purpose of well, a social hub. Walking around the tower, I can easily spot many little details, but the dullness of the tower cannot be ignored.

There's no life. There's no attempt to fake life. No NPCs coming and leaving in a proper manner. No conversations¹, no incidents, nothing of such happens. One can stay in the tower, moving left and right for five minutes, 15 minutes, a few hours, and the NPCs won't move an inch. The sky will comply by changing its texture and the lighting will adapt. (At least they were able to simulate an environment! Ya-hoo!)

However, I believe it is a mistake to consider the tower as a social hub in the sense of a big MMO city. Supposedly, if Destiny were to aim into such a large open world area then our headquarters would have been in The City itself. Therefore, it is an inherit objective that the tower fulfills in an excellent manner; as a station to manage your character, meet friends and move on in short timespans.

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¹ Some conversations do take place, but they do not happen often, and do not really feel like a bustle of life, since the two characters conversing sometimes are too far, or not even looking to one another.

I do believe in a single god. A god that cannot be found in any religious text, nor any modern religion worships it. My faith is my own to muster, and the higher being I believe upon has no name, no human traits, knows nothing about fear, love, sadness and happiness. It's not a god that answers or cares about prayers, as it's not a god that perceives such human things.

There's no god that I believe upon in truthfulness. Only my unending faith, my hopes, dreams, fantasies. That someday, somehow, I wish are realized. An image, an ideal, to simply counter my fears, nightmares and horrors, which I hope are never realized.

I can't describe in a proper way for others to understand. My "god" is not a supreme being, but only, a congregation of my spiritual faith towards my spiritual tuning, for myself, by myself, and will start and ending with my petty lifespan that is all but a speck in the unending sequence, and relativity of time.

No, because as much I learn about politics, whether past, or present, I find that my own ideology improves based on the previous mistakes, erroneous moves or motives and misunderstandings. My political beliefs are not filled with doubt, but an understanding that each system, government and authority has its place on the right occasions under specific conditions.

However, I am surrounded by people who cannot defend their beliefs with credible arguments. It's all fun and games until you start talking about administering nationwide resources, international relations, citizenship and a huge number of arguments tied to the very essence of politics.

For the most part, beliefs, mine, or other's, do not mean anything. What truly counts is what works, not only for your interests, but for the interests of your peers. Sometimes, you concede some comfort for the competition, as long it joins your ranks or it's yours to call upon.

Self-doubt? I do not doubt what I need, what I seek, what I want, and what is the best solution given certain circumstances.

My favorite Pokèmon.

I find the game fun when it comes to combat, and doing things in general with a bunch of people. However, when it comes to the story... I think Bungie should have put more effort on creating a long-lasting story, rather than adjust it around to level 20 and claim that the game "truly starts at level 20"

Using Halo games which feature a discreet number of missions or campaign levels Bungie hasn't made any tremendously long campaign. I never expected Bungie to make a main story longer than maybe, 15 or 20 missions in the first place.

However, being used to RPG games, I expected there to be a truly open world, letting me explore around the levels, and have missions with meaningful NPCs. Bungie has the resources, and talent to  create a truly open world to fit that vision, but instead they went with this semi-open sandbox.

There's no feeling whenever I do a mission. I don't get to like the various characters, because I don't really get to meet those characters. Sometimes, I even feel distanced from my own character, because she never says anything, nor she expresses anything besides a few one liners.

Bungie's Oni, Halo 3: ODST and even Halo: Reach to an extent had characters with personalities. I don't see why they couldn't do this in Destiny. Certainly, various characters may have a personality, they may have a line of thought, reasons and story behind them. However, the grimoire, and the lack of text, voice and interaction with these characters leaves a lasting impression of lacking personality.

Why is my character even fighting the Fallen? When did my character even receive the basic training to shoot those Fallen in the introduction in the first place? Why the sudden heroism? Does the character even remember his own past? Are they haunted from having lost everything in their life?

And how come is the introduction the same for all races anyway? There could be more sensical introductions for different races. A human perhaps, makes sense for them to be in the cosmodrome— perhaps in an attempt to flee the Darkness on the first available ship, but what about the others? It doesn't make sense an Exo would be laying around there, perhaps the Exo could have been forgotten in a jungle filled with Fallen, or the Awoken could start from an abandoned ship that eventually crashes on Earth.

I am just throwing ideas here, and by all means, they are not necessarily good ideas, but I think Destiny has a rich world that can feature thousands of hours of lore, story and events, and yet there's this need, this strife that begs of me to ask questions such as "What is everything? Where are the answers to my questions? Who's my character? Why should I help the traveler?"

And when this happens, it means that the game hasn't fulfilled its role on that aspect. It means that the game failed to deliver that lasting impression that can only be achieved by something that is truly complete.

Hi, I am a member on Bungie.net. I felt that the current state of the forums is not as welcoming as before. Found my way here from a post on Bungie.net.