Bungie said it is discussing Destiny 2’s “3-peeking” problem, but has not promised that changes will be made.
3-peeking, or spying in third person, is the act of forcing the camera normally in first person in third person, giving PvP players an advantage because they can safely peek around corners.
3-peeking is a longstanding problem in first-person shooter games that have some third-person elements, but it is particularly problematic in the competitive multiplayer of Destiny 2. Destiny 2 is a game full of legit mechanics that pull the camera back for the third person, including swords and emotes, and some players use this to gain an advantage in Crucible, the Destiny PvP arena.
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This week saw a fierce outcry for changes from high-profile Destiny players, particularly on social media, in response to the long-lasting prevalence of 3-peeking and exacerbated by its use in the ultra-hardcore PvP Trials mode.
In response, Cozmo, community manager at Bungie, decided to Twitter to say that the development team was discussing the 3-peeking issue, but could not promise what changes would be made.
“The team is aware of the feedback around 3-peeking and is currently discussing possible options,” said Cosmo.
“No promises – as we are still investigating what changes are feasible, since it is a complicated issue that affects emotes, swords and any potential future third-person weapon.”
As Cozmo suggests, this is a complicated issue. It seems unlikely that Bungie would want to remove the use of swords from the game – the weapon is a well-established and powerful part of the Destiny 2 PvP meta in general. And they can be fun!
And it seems even more unlikely that Bungie will pull emotes from PvP. Players spend money in the real world on emotes to show off on the field, and in PvP they are often used for insults. Restrict their use and fewer people will buy them.
So, what should be done? Redditor jdewittweb suggested a solution that I saw appear a few times as part of this debate: block the player in an emote animation as soon as he starts it (currently in Destiny you can cancel the animation of an emote at will). Although this solution meant the remains of three spies, there would be a great risk involved, especially if Bungie made open emotes last at least five seconds. In the heat of battle, five seconds caught in the time of emotion can mean certain death.
More complicated, however, is the issue of swords. Swords are considered heavy weapons in Destiny 2, and therefore their use is restricted by the scarcity of heavy ammunition. A suggested solution is to make swords impossible to wield unless they have ammo, although there are also problems here. Would it be difficult to handle the camera switch when picking up ammunition when you are contesting heavy ammunition? Most likely.
It is a complicated design challenge for Bungie, and no doubt all of these options have been discussed at some point by the studio’s multiplayer designers. While there was a clear enough outcry this week to elicit a response from Cosmo on the issue, how significant is the portion of players affected by 3-peeking in the first place? It will be interesting to see if 3-peeking remains as it is, or if the developer comes up with some way to keep the high-level PvP community happy with a change that also keeps the broader player base on board.