Original Jesse Van Dijk interiew: Why 6-man raids, level cap, Old Chicago and more

I did a little sleuthing around the interwebs and found the original interview that Van Dijk and Director of Production Jonte Barnes gave during Gamescom.

In there they mention Mercury and Old Chicago as places that may get visited in the future of the story component of the game.  Also, the level cap is 30 at launch (20 regular + 10 light levels).  They also gave some frustratingly reasonable answers for why fireteams and raids are 3 and 6 people respectively.

Jonty Barnes: Let's talk about the three-player fireteam. If you look at social circles and our ability to find players, we found doing four-player co-op in the metrics we had in previous Bungie games, when you look at trying to make sure there's always a great encounter for people to have, three was a sweeter spot than four. But also, I can get one or two friends to organise with me in an evening. But as soon as I try and get another person, there's a bigger barrier than you would think.

That sounds fairly well reasoned unfortunately.  As to the still controversial decision to not include matchmaking, I'm going to provide a lengthy quote:

 Jonty Barnes: We're going to see people self-organise. We're seeing people in the Tower already gathering saying, who's going to commit for a raid?

It is about that commitment part. If you just casually matchmake... you can see people jump out of competitive multiplayer games in matchmaking. In Strikes you can continue with two if somebody jumps out. You can still have that experience and not feel robbed. A raid requires six. If you've got five players in the raid, you're not going to win. You're not going to get through. I can tell you now, it's really tough, and it's intentionally meant to be that way. We've all got roles to play. So it requires a commitment of six people. That was very intentional.

It's about the group dynamic. It's not just about a casual dynamic. It's about an understanding of people committed to playing the roles in raids. And preparing. With raids, you don't just jump into them. You've got to prepare before you go in, and decide, what are you doing? What am I doing? Let's all talk about it in orbit. Okay, what role are you going to play? Well, I'm an x Titan, whatever type of Titan I am, and I'm going to be defensive and hold positions. And, have you played this before? Yeah, I found success when I did it this way.

Again, I understand what they are getting at here.  They designed this content to be challenging and for the more serious folks.  They also included content that doesn't require the commitment raiding will.  Bungie intentionally created barriers to entry into their raid content, beyond the typical gear minimums; I can understand that.

It's all moot until we hit level 20 though, so... enjoy the article until then!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-21-bungie-on-the-destiny-level-cap-raids-and-game-size