‘Destiny 2’ Datamining Is Spoiling Too Much, But There’s No Easy Answer - Forbes

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Destiny 2

Bungie

Late last night, Bungie’s community manager, DMG, tweeted about an upcoming free emblem that a player had acquired early, and some people appeared to be selling the code.

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The tweet set off a huge debate about datamining in Destiny 2, so much so that “Bungie” was actually trending when I woke up this morning. I wanted to wade into this complicated topic, which I’ve discussed in the past, but it’s an ongoing issue the more is uncovered in Destiny 2 through it. But also…not through it.

For instance, there doesn’t actually seem to be proof that the emblem code in question came from datamining, as the player who got it claimed it was simply given to them by a source. And yet DMG’s tweet hits datamining, and he is not the first Bungie employee to express frustration about datamining and leaks this season, where a lot of story developments and secrets have potentially been exposed.

Here’s Player Support’s Drew:

And this was further back, but here’s Senior Designer Mike Profeta in a (now possibly deleted) tweet about leaks:

Destiny 2

Bungie

Datamining is a topic with a lot of layers we have to sort through. First, we have to separate datamining from things that Bungie puts out in the API. So for instance, in the past, we have seen things like story cutscenes or NPC voicework or secret upcoming missions datamined, as in, people digging through the code to find it.

But some other things are tied to the API of public information that Bungie itself releases. Public access to the API allows sites like DIM and Light.gg to function, and while I don’t think anyone is complaining about “spoiled” weapon perks or possible rolls, the API also will dole out a ton of story content too, pretty much anything on a lore page. So in a lore book like “Beneath the Endless Night” which is supposed to be a story that unfolds week to week, pretty much on day one, that entire tale was laid out on sites like Ishtar Collective because of how the API works (Ishtar is now working to self-censor to a certain extent as this problem escalates).

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So, you see how this is complicated. I do not subscribe to the idea that this is purely Bungie’s “fault” for allowing access to data. I do think there’s probably something to be done with better redacting story content from the API, if that’s what they’re most concerned about, and listing all that immediately requires players to have a ton of self restraint not to “read ahead.”

The Lore

Ishtar

But a lot of this is on players and content creators too. On the creator side, there is a split between ones who cover every single datamine out there, of non-API stuff like cutscenes and voice lines and missions, and even with “spoiler warnings” it furthers the spread. And on the player side, all it takes is a single person who has gone into the datamine to post in a reddit thread or leave a YouTube comment to ruin some upcoming plotline for everyone.

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I am not blameless. In the past, I have covered datamined content, but with the way Destiny has changed storytelling, I have adjusted my position on this, as simply too much is getting spoiled, and the nature of datamining has changed. We’ve gone from things like “hey there might be one more exotic dropping this season” and “here’s the week this ornament is being sold for dust” to “here’s almost every story beat coming this season” in and out of the API. And I think that’s too much.

Here’s where I land on what is a complicated issue:

• Bungie does not bear all the weight of this problem, though I do think they need to focus on limiting public API access to future lore entries, at the very least.
• So long as they’re not doing anything illegal (and they aren’t), I don’t think dataminers should be hunted down and banned or anything that severe. And many I’ve known are quite responsible with the information they find. But if it exists, and is accessible, they will find it.
• If you want to seek out datamined information, that’s on you. But using datamined information to write articles with headlines that potentially spoil things or create YouTube videos with titles and thumbnails that potentially spoil things, is not good. And players who find information themselves and then share it in Twitch chat or YouTube comments or Twitter threads unprovoked are doing a bad thing.

I have gone out of my way to avoid datamines the last few seasons especially. I find them particularly annoying because now when I want to craft a theory about what’s to come, people accuse me of reading the datamine ahead of time. But there’s no easy answer here.

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Datamining is messy, but the less of it we see, and the less it is purposefully spread around, the better I think the game and its story will be for everyone.

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The Link Lonk


June 21, 2021 at 07:04PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/06/21/destiny-2-datamining-is-spoiling-too-much-but-theres-no-easy-answer/

‘Destiny 2’ Datamining Is Spoiling Too Much, But There’s No Easy Answer - Forbes

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