In general as players (technically as humans) we always have gripes about things and far too often do we not actually go and try to change things. There have been constant “The Sky is Falling!” moments in our beloved Star Wars Destiny game, but I tend to just shrug it off and believe that things will get better on their own. FFG / Asmodee do some occasional things to “rectify” their “dropped ball” moments, but it’s gotten to the point where we as a community may need to make our voices heard if we actually want change. If you’ve followed other content creators then you may have already seen the rumblings of what I’m referring to, but if not, I’ll try to get you up to speed.

I Rebel Destiny had an article (linked it right there) that mentioned a few key points that resonated with me and many others about what is currently happening with the game as a whole. TLDR: Destiny local events / communities are slowly dying off and it doesn’t feel great.

V-Log 1 and 2 were split due to trying to shut off GPS and it stopping the video. I was too lazy to go figure out how to connect them, but they make up a 40 minute talk about the the issues. A lot of it could be viewed as complaining and that is a fair assessment, but it is also the truth of the matter. Near the end of V-Log 2 I talk about the Meta for a bit (last 10 minutes maybe?? not sure). In general I talk about the issues that we’ve had throughout the game (not everyone has been playing since Day 1 and would know this stuff).

In general, part of this ball got rolling because Organized Play sent a cease and desist to Artificery for running their online events, thereby putting an end to all of the Tabletop Simulator Seasons as well as shutting down the April 21st Online Regional a few days before it was set to take place. There is also the fear of the TTS Destiny mod getting shut down at some point which quite honestly carries the weight of a lot of communities on it’s back. (We’ve heard no mention of an attempt at stopping the mod at this time so sorry if me mentioning it seemed like fear mongering.) Honestly speaking, I would’ve quit the game ages ago if it wasn’t for TTS, because what we are getting from Organized Play at the local level is quite frankly considered garbage and I expect more from what is presumably a multi-million (if not billion) dollar company.

#Rally Aid

Artificery tweeted at FFG OP and Asmodee some super valid points and I ended up recording an additional V-Log and making alterations to this article because of it. Whilst we all may not agree on every exact point, a lot of what was said is a bulls-eye on what is wrong / what we need to change. The Artificery Article has those tweets for those that want to go read them there, but I’ll embed them here as well just for the sake of not being a Goosebumps book (I wonder if people even remember those, I think most of you will, because we are old farts).

(1/4) #StarWarsDestiny is at a pivotal point in its life. Local metas are faltering and something needs to be done to save them. The game needs more support from its creators – here are 3 things the game needs to live and succeed #RallyAid @AsmodeeNA @FFGames @FFGOP — Artificery (@Artificery) April 18, 2018

(2/4) #1 – A Real Release Calendar with the dates for release and associated organized play events for the next 3 sets. Fix the production and communication issues and earn back the trust of the community #RallyAid @AsmodeeNA @FFGames @FFGOP — Artificery (@Artificery) April 18, 2018

(3/4) #2 – Better Prize Support to help get players into local game stores. $15 prize kits aren’t cutting it anymore. Give Destiny the L5R treatment and release a $100 prize kit so Destiny players have a reason to get out and play #RallyAid @AsmodeeNA @FFGames @FFGOP — Artificery (@Artificery) April 18, 2018

(4/4) #3 – A Complete Starter product with 30 cards and a 30 point character list so that we can turn customers into players with the purchase of a single product and get them playing with us at local game stores immediately #RallyAid @AsmodeeNA @FFGames @FFGOP — Artificery (@Artificery) April 18, 2018

In the following V-Log I believe i give a brief rundown on some mistakes that have happened and more or less what has occurred in my area. I then also talk about some of the ways that were mentioned, things I agree with but also see issues trying to implement and some of my own suggestions for lowering the entry barrier to new players as well as making local events not feel so awful if they are just losing.

What can we do to help the community grow? Can we really just blame stuff on organized play? I don’t believe that it is all on them. I firmly believe that we have to “complain” in full force in order to get them to make changes for the better, but we’ll also have to do our part for our own communities. Let’s try to solve this issue together one step at a time. Here is the “formula tweet” that Yeti / Artificery came up with for those that want to take to Twitter: @AsmodeeNA @FFGames @FFGOP I am calling for #RallyAid. If I or someone finds the appropriately email address to send emails in to AsmodeeNA (parent company of FFG if not mistaken) then i’ll update that link here as well. There will be no Patreon link under my signature today and I only mention this, because i’m going to layout that event prize breakdown that i mentioned in the 3rd V-Log for those that couldn’t remember the specifics and don’t want to have to scour through 45 minutes trying to find it. I thank you for your time and hope that WE ALL can play in active effort in getting Destiny back on track to being a great game. Do we really want to see this game on it’s death bed any time soon???

~HonestlySarcastc

Event Breakdown for making Regular Tournaments more New Player Friendly:

Cost: $5 Per Person

Prize Pool: 2 Packs Per Person (You’ll have to talk to your store, but I find this to be bare minimum, if stores want to do more, then that is great). This equates to the packs being “purchased” at $2.50 per pack from the store, so there is still a profit margin for them.

How This Works: The Prize Pool is opened and spread out (on a large table) and players will pick their “Prize” based on standings, 1 card at a time and then either repeat it again (or snake backwards, I suggest snake) over and over until the entire Pool is gone.

Why??: The competitive players get the benefit of getting “their moneys worth” since they can snag the Legendary cards that they need, but since everyone is leaving with at least 2 Rares+ then the players at the bottom of the standings won’t necessarily feel like they threw money away and this also helps to build their collection. An added benefit to this is it helps finish collections and the people who several copies of X valuable card will often bypass that card for something else that they need. I’ve found that more often than not, this quickly builds the collections for the New Players because a lot of the “unneeded Rares” get passed down so a New Player could end up walking away with 5+ rares and whilst that isn’t particularly “great” from a competitive players perspective, this helps immensely to the collectors and casual players which hopefully fixes part of the issue with the tournament scene pushing out the more casual players.