DattosDestiny

Datto · @DattosDestiny

6th Oct 2017 from TwitLonger

A note on the friendship end-game situation.


So, now that I'm posted on reddit, AGAIN, I just wanted to clarify something on this whole F R I E N D S H I P E N D G A M E situation.

Yesterday, DeeJ added a little addendum to the weekly update talking about an experience he had with a friend he met while playing video games and how this, for him, is the ultimate goal, making friends in video games. Fairly innocuous, but in a time where end-game content is a hot button issue, this can be also interpreted as "hey nerds, instead of bitching about end-game content, go make some friends," and that's pretty much exactly what happened depending on what kind of player you are.

I was asked about this on my stream recently in the form of "What do you think of DeeJ saying that the end-game content is supposed to be about making friends?" When I presented with THAT form of his comment, I rolled my eyes (in quite an exaggerated way, turns out people exaggerate when they're streaming, who knew), as you might expect someone like me to do, because that would be a stupid thing of him to say if he said it. Later on in the same stream, we had a better discussion on the topic, because there's no way that he would simply come out and say something like that. When presented with proper context, I didn't have a HUGE problem with what was said, although I had a problem with the timing of it and had a problem with the potential vibe of it. I can see how it can be interpreted by a larger audience and lord knows that I interpreted it a certain way as well (at first). At this point, I don't really care.

Is what he said innocent? Yeah. Is what he said capable of being misunderstood? Also yeah. It all depends on how you wanted that statement to be interpreted and how you end up presenting it to other people. And we've seen both sides of those interpretations recently on reddit, one being "what a stupid comment," (like what I thought when first presented with a form of his statement) and "you are all being stupid, what DeeJ said wasn't bad or wrong."

I think lesson learned on both sides of the coin. While I do still think end-game content is an ongoing issue in Destiny, I don't think what DeeJ said was "offensive" when we view it from the way I imagine he wanted it to be perceived, although again, the timing was bad in my opinion. I can totally understand if people are miffed by what he said, as when interpreted in a different way, it can feel like a "go make some friends, nerds." So, us, community, let's focus a little more on context, and Bungie, let's make our timing on stories not match up with hot button issues to be not misinterpreted.

That being said, I really hope DeeJ is ready to be the butt of the friendship end-game meme for the short term, because I'm gonna have some fun with that, and I'm sure plenty of others are too.

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