Class warfare (not that kind) is coming to Destiny 2 players in the form of the Guardian Games, pitting the series’s three staple classes against one another in a contest for supremacy. It’s not quite what Marx had in mind, but it sounds like a great community-driven exploration of what makes Destiny 2‘s classes and the playstyles they attract unique.
Since the first Destiny, developer Bungie has kept things effectively simple when it comes to class, offering the few but distinct options of Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. Since the former Halo developer broke away from its contract with Destiny 1 and 2 publisher Activision Blizzard, Bungie’s done its best to keep up the pace of Destiny 2 updates and events that its core audience craves. While the latest season hasn’t exactly been content rich outside of a few morsels, the company has continued to meet player expectations by holding fan favorite events like the Trials of Osiris on-schedule and without controversy.
Bungie announces that it’s introducing a new event that may become players’ favorite annual offering. The inaugural Guardian Games will provide “three weeks to prove that your class reigns supreme,” and one class will be crowned the victor at the end. Hosted in-game by Commander Zavala and Eva Levante, the Guardian Games will test player skill in a “series of daily class challenges” in exchange for points added to a Tower scoreboard in their class’s favor, not unlike the House Cup in Harry Potter. Beyond bragging rights, Guardian Games rewards include “Daily reward packages, a new Exotic Machine Gun, new Exotic Ghosts, and new metallic class items” that reflect what place one’s class earned. Check out the Twitter trailer below for more details:
If planned and executed well, Destiny 2‘s Guardian Games sound like a genius way to bring the community together in a novel competition based entirely upon players’ main source of in-game identity. Many a matchmade fireteam and Raid wipe has led to the creation of class stereotypes about temperament and playstyle among players, generalizations like Titans’ bland insecurity, Warlocks’ sense of self-superiority, and Hunters’ reckless stupidity. Obviously, none of those are true (at least not in a way defined exclusively by class choice), but it’ll definitely be interesting to see where existing class divisions will take the community in the coming weeks.
With Destiny 3 remaining a year or more out and new Bungie franchises resting even further down the line, the developer and its fans continue to make the most of Destiny 2 almost three years after its release. Whether or not the community tears itself apart over class remains to be seen, however.
