Dissecting the Design of Destiny 2’s Duality Dungeon

Back in high school English classes, there was this trend amongst my peers and I that after we learned about some common literary technique or archetypal type of character, we couldn’t help but begin seeing those techniques and characters in every piece of media. Of course, it’s not too difficult to draw a line between the hero Odysseus making his epic journey through the isles to return home versus the Superman stranded on a red planet after being teleported their by Toy Man in that one Justice League Unlimited episode. That said, one of the things that we humans are likely to do when exposed to the underlying structure of a thing is to attempt to understand other things through that particular underlying structure. As such, one of the things I’ve become fascinating with is analyzing the different learning techniques involved when it comes to video game design. Whether it’s Super Mario or Tetris, video games employ different styles and methods of learning techniques to help their players understand the game. This is no better exemplified than with the Destiny franchise, which due to the new aggressive cadence, releases end game content on a three-month cycle. During this Season of the Haunted, said endgame content was the Duality Dungeon, a three-person activity that tests the might and mettle of one to three Guardians and employs several different pedagogical methods to help guide players without explicit instruction. A Brief Introduction to Learning Theory

Eris Morn, our…