Community, Storytelling, and Play : Making and Breaking Rituals in Destiny 2

Abstract

Modern video game development relies increasingly on live service models and storytelling, putting strain on developer-player interactions and community management, the success of which is key to the success of such games. In this paper we report on a 2.5-year ethnography study on the Destiny player community, specifically on how players and developers interact and communicate about the game, and how is this interaction is affected by and affects ongoing rituals and storytelling in that game. Our findings indicate that rituals of play are fundamental. They reinforce the players' collective experiences, created by the ongoing relationship between the players and developers. Players test and break boundaries of rituals, and developers continually adjust and experiment with those boundaries in turn. Our findings show that developers create positive feedback loops from the community when they lean into creativity efforts and boundary-breaking from players, and use storytelling directly as a community management tool.