A Creator Conundrum
Here is a tale of the greatest Division 2 projects ever, for everyone that missed out.
In my lifetime of gaming, few things have brought me greater joy than speed running through games. From Super Mario World, to Zelda LTTP or Ocarina, to Super Meat Boy, I just wanna go fast. Find the most efficient route I can, and keep working on perfecting it. If there is a game worth speed running, I'm right there in it, 5 minutes behind whatever the world record is. Just enough to be insignificant, good enough to amaze a smattering of nerds in the corner of a party.
Not every game has a speed run, and I never in my wildest dreams thought the division 2 would be one of those games that had one worth doing. Sure, you can solo heroic or legendary content as fast as you can, and big respect to those that do. But the amount of variation and frustration that comes along with it can be worse than even some of hardest ones (looking at you Super Ghouls N Ghosts). On top of that, there are always much more lucrative ways to play the game, and you earn much better rewards for you time spent, so I never really saw this as a speed running game. But then along came the Creator Projects, 3 projects accompanying the Cherry Blossom event to reward some of the brightest and most popular Division 2 streamers to ever live...
I usually enjoy doing the dailies and weeklies that reward exotics, as it a good way to get exotics consistently, and they break up the monotony of normal mission/stronghold runs or add an extra layer or reward on top of those, so always a good time. So when these Creator projects showed up, I was a little excited to have 3 new dailies for exotics to do, and the completion requirements weren't near as taxing as the normal dailies. I had also just recently created a second character so that I could double the daily/weekly rewards I was doing, as the need for exotics was growing exponentially with the prototype cravings, and a man's gotta eat. The Creator projects seemed like they just might be the right thing to feed that monkey for a little while, so better take advantage of it before someone catches on. Imagine my surprise when the daily rewards started increasing as the progression went along. 3 exotics for 3 events? and I don't have to deal with the Priority Objectives nonsense? Hell yea. 5 exotics?!? No way! A backpack?!?!?!? Somebody call Vince McMahon, I need to borrow his likeness.
So being the big brain that I am (it's swollen up with malted hops and bong resin), I think hell, I can make a third character and get a whole other 45 exotics. This is a dream come true. I make a new character trying to match Morgan Freeman circa Oblivion as best I can, I start up a new game and am tickled that the creator projects are right there from the beginning. A quick boost to 40 and it's off to the races! Wait, races...the faster I go through this, the better ROI those exotics will be...and my speed run instincts start to fire up. Now I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl as I start this run. Check Projects, check event locations, plan most efficient route, run, run, run. After 2 hours, I have completed the projects and have my exotics. Go to buy the account shared materials and...realize I didn't earn a penny for these projects. Now who knew you could sell trinkets in this game? That was a lifesaving revelation, and everything is coming up Milhouse! Combine accounts and feel a great sense of accomplishment. Look forward to tomorrow and making a fourth character for another 45 exotics!
Still being giddy, I decide to be a good consumer, and support these streamers that made my dreams come true, so I pop over to my preferred streaming service (no, not that one). Look up the first one and...they are streaming PUBG. Huh, what is this, 2017? Guess I'll check out another one. And....what the hell kind of softcore anime cuckery is this person up to? Either I missed some skin releases or this ain't the Division 2 either. Well, third times a char.....they aren't streaming anything. Ok then, off to bed.
Wake up in the morning to a message from my friend. They have sent me a spreadsheet of what the most efficient route to run the creator content is, so that you can overlap a few and cut the time taken down. They also let me know you can keep creating/deleting characters to keep farming the exotics indefinitely. Waves of panic rush over me as I realize if they know, probably many others know as well and since this is tons of fun and beneficial to players, it will be removed faster than I can go take a nervous poop. After barely wiping I rush back to my computer and fire up the game. I have to at least get this fourth character's 45 exotics before the chance is gone. Following the list provided, I go through projects with the efficiency of a Japanese Toyota factory, buy the shared account, and log out. 1 hour 34 minutes. Woooooo, now that is efficient, half hour knocked off with that list's help.
But my past experiences tell me I have no reason to be excited, there were many mistakes and lost time in that run and it could be better. I can get a more efficient gearset to run and check ou...OH FART! I have a real job and should have been working already. *cough *cough..yep, I'm definitely sick today. Now that that's settled, back to the 'real' work. Reloading wastes time, so obviously Bullet King, Tipping Scales no brainer with that, and turmoils so I don't have to chase down those suppressed little b*****s. Salvo or Contractor's, it's normal difficulty so doesn't really matter. Life not important, only time important. Off to the races again. Running, shooting, running, running, shooting. Gotta beat that speedrun, and the incoming nerf to these projects. Instead of the layers of RNG with other parts of the game, I just get layers of speed running. If this isn't peak gaming, I don't know what is!
1 hour 29 minutes, meh. 1 hour 19, ok. 1 hour 11, we're getting there! This can def be under an hour. Grinding, sweating, grinding, sweating. 1:09, c'mon. 1:04, soooo close. 1:14 noooooo. Last run of the day: 1 hour 1 min. Son of a biscuit...well, I can say I gave it my best, but I can't control the Kitsunebi spawns or what events are available, so I guess that's the random part I can't overcome.
Snap awake the next morning and immediately check the feeds. No mention of a nerf, no real buzz about creator projects, no real sign of this anywhere. Am I just dumb thinking this is great but really it's just not? I mean, I hear you can play the menus game and get more exotics an hour deconstructing lullabies and relentlesses, so maybe this isn't broken? Ok then, guess I can go to normal work today. And this is how it goes. I get off work and get all the life stuff done, then work on my exotic stockpile. Check news, occasional comment about this with two upvotes, no creators blasting it out there, no big conversations about it. No real buzz. Entire time, 1 post I saw talking about it and had zero upvotes.
Are we learning as a community that if we have something we love then we have to pretend like it doesn't exist or it gets taken away? Part of me is proud that we might have a collective understanding that Rule 1 and 2 are that you don't talk about fun AND rewarding things in The Division 2. But the bigger part of me is a little sad about this. Because if we show our excitement and joy with the game and how we want to play it and enough of us are talking about how much we love this game, then a Massive lawnmower is just going to come by and chop off our flowers so that we all end up back down in the dirt where we belong. And this is all in the name of better margins for our corporate overlords? Nah, that's too depressing to think about. I guess now that the event is over and the game had another failed roll out and unexpected downtime, I'll dust off the Super Nintendo and get back down to my roots. They can never patch, nerf or take that one away from me.
And tomorrow maybe I'll give them more money and see how the long running exotic farm goes. While working menus and deconstructing items sounds awful, it's been around for years so at least we are safe in knowing they won't take that away from us. Right?
TLDR; If there were no downtimes and bugged rollouts, you'd never have to see this garbage. I can't be the one to tell you if that's a good or bad thing.