The Destiny release date is here folks. But before you get riled up to start playing with your Level 10 Guardian from the beta, here’s a friendly reminder that you’ll have to begin anew in the Destiny character creation process. The Destiny characters from Beta won’t carry over to the retail copy you’re opening today.
Although Bungie announced this about one month ago, it seems people have forgotten the news or are choosing to ignore it in hopes that it was all a bad dream.
It wasn’t, I’m afraid. Any time you spent in Destiny character creation during the Beta was for naught, although it did prime you for going through the character creation process in record time today.
So why would Bungie make the seemingly heinous decision for all Destiny characters from the beta to be nuked from the servers? It sounds like it’s for less-than-heinous reasons.
Bungie designer Tyson Green says it has to do more with last-minute development since the Destiny beta than it does with Bungie just being a bunch of sadists.
“Since the Beta, we’ve continued to tune and adjust the game. The way you earn experience has been adjusted up and down a bunch of times,” Green said. “Items have been added and removed. New features toggled. Although there’s no single monumental change, the sum of the tweaks leaves characters from the Beta Build in strange shape that would be confusing at best, broken at worst.”
However, as you embark on the Destiny character creation process for yet another time, rest assured that Bungie won’t be nuking any more Guardians. Any such destruction will be “your call to make,” says Bungie.
Starting with the Destiny release date, and at any time afterward, “you can create a Guardian who will keep you company for a good, long time,” Bungie reassured gamers.
The reference to a multi-game franchise with a persistent character and ongoing leveling-up is clear. In a way, your character in Destiny will be a lot like your lead character in Mass Effect. At least that’s the theory.
What sort of Guardian will you create this time? Will your character(s) be different from the Destiny Beta, or will you try to re-create him/her in the retail copy? As much as the decision might seem tedious to make, somewhere deep inside you know it’s an exciting one to get to explore once again.
