I play a video game called Destiny on Playstation 4. It is my everything. I try to learn as much as I can about it, I am a part of a clan that plays together, I regularly sherpa n00bs through the activities in the game, including story missions, strikes, and raids. I hate PvP but I’m pretty good at that too. The sequel is coming out in September, so things are petering out with this game, but I decided to log on tonight and play some strikes. Strikes are like, small scale, hard difficulty, with a boss at the end type missions.

Now, this is the kind of game when weapons have special attacks. When you shoot a bullet it might do blue damage (arc/electric), purple damage (void), orange damage (solar), or just regular damage. So for simplicity’s sake, just know that each week preference is given to certain weapon types, and this week is purple damage. So it plays to your advantage to suit up with as much purple as you can: guns, grenades, special abilities, etc. because they do extra damage and can take down enemies faster. Enemies that have that kind of damage also are more dangerous. It applies to everyone.

So I did my first strike tonight with two other people that I was automatically matched with to play. One had mostly blue damage abilities and weapons on, the other had a mix and their abilities were orange. I spent the better part of the activity melting enemies with my purple everything and kept swearing about how dumb people are. How do they not know that there was a “burn” on? WHY ARE YOU USING HAMMERS (solar)?

But then after I turned off the tv I got to thinking that, you know, not everyone is in a clan. Not everyone plays as much as I do. Not everyone reads the weekly Bungie updates and watches livestreams and youtube personalities. Many young people also play this game, and they might just use the things they enjoy the most during the time they have to play and don’t even know about the different “colors” and settings on activities. They’re just there to play and have fun. They don’t even know the basics of how the game works, they just put some guns in their inventory, throw on the best subclass and head for the mission playlists.

There are so many areas of my life that require understanding of perspectives: my own and those of the people around me. Trying to put myself in the shoes of others isn’t always 100% accurate, but in these kinds of situations it definitely helps me maintain patience and enjoyment of what I’m doing. When I have the opportunity I will teach people about the game because understanding these little things can really increase your enjoyment, but if that opportunity doesn’t present itself and I’m playing with randoms, I can take a deep breath and tell myself that they are just having fun, and as long as they know how to shoot they’re fine with me. 🙂

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I write a lot about books and media, but I rarely write about my love of video games. If you are a reader and you are on PS4 or Twitch, feel free to reach out to me via email if you would like to set up times to play: angryangelbooks@gmail.com. If you are interested in Destiny I would love to show you around and get you through some of the more difficult activities because they are so much fun! I am also on Twitch and plan to livestream my play a ton when the beta of Destiny 2 comes out and into the game and expansions, so you can also follow me there:

https://www.twitch.tv/mrsnissen2010