What’s up Guardians? As we close out the first month of the year, we really wanted to thank you for all for the love and support on these posts. Sharing different humans in the community with you has been something we look forward to doing each day, so being able to focus in on some really neat humans is even better! Don’t forget, these humans don’t have to be anything other than Guardians that love the Destiny universe, we want to see them all.
Up this week we have the one, the only, Danfinity!
Hi Dan!! First up, who are you and what got you into gaming and content creation?
Dan: Hello Guardians, I am Dan! I started gaming on a hand-me-down Atari 2600 (I’m old) that my brother-in-law gifted to me and my younger brother. My brother and I were the youngest of five kids, so we got a lot of hand-me-down stuff until we managed to get a SNES and Gameboys. It was kind of perfect because we had each other when Pokémon came out and we were able to trade them back and forth, although with that came the time, he deleted my Mew (that was a traumatizing afternoon for both of us). Eventually, I was able to play my sister’s PlayStation and would earn time with Legend of Dragoon (all-time great game!) by mowing the lawn for her. As I got older, I drifted into bands and fell off gaming until Destiny came around.Content creation came after being exposed to the community through podcasts like Guardian Radio (GR), Crucible Radio, and Focused Fire Chat back in the day. I think GR had Broman and Gothalion on an episode or two and then I started watching them while shelving books at the library I worked at. I thought it looked fun to hop in and do something like that eventually. Got the Moxy to start streaming when I was helping folks in my former clan with King’s Fall on Sundays. Didn’t really have a schedule or anything remotely official for branding until five years ago, and just kind of dove into any avenue my heart desired: Twitch, Podcasting, Twitter, TikTok. Just kind of all spiraled. I’m someone who really likes to dig down and make stuff, and content creation offered an ample opportunity to do that.
Not the Mew! Also, I love the thought of you listening to Broman and Gothalion while in a *quiet* library… So how did you find Destiny and when did you start playing?
Dan: I didn’t play Halo in high school like all my friends, since my family was essentially a generation or two behind on gaming consoles, but I remember seeing an ad for Destiny somewhere and my interest piqued. The library I worked at had games you could borrow, which I wish I saw more of, and I picked it up there. At the time, I was living in a band house and my buddy Curt would occasionally let me play on his PS3 (sensing a trend yet?). I think I still have an overdue fine for keeping it out a week late.I started playing close to the launch window, but I remember missing out on the Queen’s Wrath event, so maybe a month after release. I had no mic and I tried to find groups for everything, so I was a Blueberry emoting during Oracles in Vault of Glass listening to teams either chastise or laugh at me.
So now I must ask, what class do you main and what is your absolute favorite loadout?
Dan: Well, before my community crushed it with some charity goals, I was a Hunter main, but I’ve been a Titan for a year. With the arrival of The Witch Queen and new ability tuning coming, I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle with my Hunter kindred. This year I have grown to respect and appreciate all the classes, even if Warlock’s jump is falling with style most of the time. (Cue ‘Blue Danube.’) Note from Sam: “It’s called floofing, hello?”Loadout wise, I’ve been loving the changes to Arbalest and its additional Catalyst. I haven’t been able to take that out of my inventory since I got it. Gridskipper with the Full Auto Retro Mod is fairly spicy, and Sola’s Scar with Chain Reaction is just stupid fun! Since I’ve been on Titan, of course Cuirass of the Falling Star. Launching yourself headfirst into stuff is awesome!
I really do need to find more Warlocks to interview, don’t I? =] I also love that your community charity goals got you to give some love to another class. Having been someone who you have helped raid in the past (thank you again for those Garden runs!) I can confirm you are a PvE helper for sure. For those looking for a community to game with, please tell everyone what kind of vibe your channel has and what you like to focus on.
Dan: The channel motto is “Be Kind. Have Fun. Get S#!t Done.” I like to help people achieve their goals or get items they’ve been trying for, especially in PvE. During Season of Arrivals my community helped 102 Guardians get Anarchy and that was a blast! Ideally, I like to leave people with a laugh and something they’ve been grinding for.
I have fun if something goes fantastically well or horrifyingly awful. Raids and dungeons are in stiff competition for what I enjoy most, but I’ve enjoyed the addition of Grandmaster Nightfalls and the Hunts from Shadowkeep and Beyond Light, as well. I really miss Menagerie, but I think you’re hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t. Eagerly looking forward to the weapon crafting system coming in The Witch Queen.
My community is very charitable as well. They’ve helped to raise close to $20,000 for several charities in the last year and a half through various initiatives I’ve either championed on my own (Second Helpings, a food rescue charity based out of my hometown of Indianapolis, IN) or been asked to participate in (most recently ActiiveVisiion’s Trevor Project, Last Rites’ GetWellGamersUK and Guardians Mental Health fundraisers). I am incredibly lucky and humble to be surrounded by such good folks. I try to keep that spirit going through everything we do. I’ll do just about anything for folks who need help. That has its perks and limitations, but I feel that’s a strength of the channel and community we are building in my little corner.
Anything fun coming up or any events you are particularly excited for?
Dan: The Twitch channel has been jumping since the release of Cross Play (wonderful feature, by the way) and we’re staring at “partner push” numbers. I’m excited about the possibilities that will afford me and my community when we get there!
I’m really anticipating The Witch Queen’s release, but also looking forward to Horizon Forbidden West and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. This first part of the year is nuts for game releases, which is nice but a little daunting as well.
My community sponsored a culinary training program at Second Helpings this year, so I'm looking forward to attending that graduation sometime in the spring and planning this year’s Feeding Frenzy stream to benefit them in December. My community raised over $5,000 for them in 2021, so we’re going to go bigger this year! I’m pretty excited about that!
I have some other personal life goals to achieve this year as well, but you’ll just have to keep your eyes peeled for those on socials.
Your efforts with Second Helpings has been such a fun thing to learn about and I am really stoked with your community’s part in helping humans they don’t know. It’s always so neat to see how the gaming community comes together for strangers and I just love that a lot.
So, speaking of community, do you have any shoutouts or anything you would like to add?
Dan: I want to say special thanks to ModSherpa, Bibbletron, MisterDunes, N8FOO, YesCoffee, Reythos, SoloFlawed, Landfell, Chewdada, PensHalo, JayEnElle, Jebby, Ehmills, He4d89, HeyGuiher, Vanilla_Evil, Moshpatt, GhostPossum, WhytLightnin, RealMunchie and ShafferPlays for being an incredible mod team for the Twitch channel and Discord. You all do excellent work and I appreciate you greatly!
Further, I would like to thank StevieRay, Br00tal623, Mexplosion, ItbeDak, MalNightingale, PablitoSavage, ShionayGaming, Kipper, EsojZetineb, LoveRachael, BoSolaris, Pijinnn, Eseipha, Revenant, Tiddly, JSniperton, Ahnubyss, ItsEddieBB, JoeChuck, BonafideHero, the Dizzy's, AlisiaRose, XDR_JONESx, RottingJackal, Morebird, ForsakenDesign, Alarik, Kipper, SentinelGrey, Nemplays, TheBlackLink, Aura, Moonvald, NinjaRockstar, D_Flawless, Seishou, KingAllan, NathInsane, Elleighbean, MegaMagwitch, the folks of Current Meta and the Planet Destiny team, Last Rites buds, the subs, viewers, lurkers, podcast listeners and guests who've been gracious enough to give their time and energy to support me and the community... this list goes on forever but thank you so much for all you do. If I missed you, I'm sorry. There are so many good people in the community and I'm grateful to know so many of them.
And last but not least, where can people find you?
Dan: You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @danflnlty where the “I’s” are “L’s.” Additionally, I am live three days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) on Twitch doing all sorts of Destiny related shenanigans and PvE helps with my community. You can join the Discord server for more news and updates!
For podcasts, you can find me co-hosting the Planet Destiny Podcast with TBL, Nem and Aura covering all things The Witch Queen in the upcoming weeks. Marvel Topics, which I do with D_Flawless, whenever there’s new releases from Marvel Studios and, finally, you can catch BEIRDO wherever you listen to podcasts, as well. Trying to be better about putting those out this year.