If you think you know what I’m going to say, you don’t. The proof starts in the lore behind Destiny. The Vex is the enemy in this game that I”m the most fascinated with. Mysterious. Precise. And the Vault of Glass was/is the most awe inspiring mission in Destiny to date as far as I’m concerned. So much so that that’s the only thing that inspired me to actually check the background lore. Who was Atheon? the Templar? The Vex in general. In search of answers, naturally I went to the only reliable source….Youtube. There, other people have done the research that would have been a complete bore, and they present it better than Bungie ever did. There, on Youtube, I learned. I learned about the Vex created by Joseph Staton. Intricate. Deep. Yet still mysterious. Even now after the fall of Atheon, we only scratched the surface of the Vex’s motivations and true scope of their power. Then it came to me. All at once. This story. This world created by Staton…is brilliant. It’s genius. Staton is a creative genius. They way he set up the enemies as complex social and tactical beings based on our own mythology. The way they are foils of each other. The calculating Vex who wish to be a law of nature and mystical Hive who are outside of nature. The Romanesque, highly structured Cabal and the pirate, factions of the Fallen. All with their own culture and mythos. Staton had created not just enemies, he created entire cultures. With depth and history and almost a soul of their own. So many stories in one. It was amazing. Easily on par with Star Wars. Lord of the Rings. Wheel of Time. So many ideas and cultural references that so many different people would be able to relate to. That’s when another revelation hit me. Looking across entertainment medium at the success of Star Wars and how much money it has brought in just by being a good story. Looking at Lord of the Rings making money long after the publishing of the books and making of the movies. Looking back to games at Halo and how much it has brought in by being a compelling universe with a compelling hero. Imagine that, coupled with the amazing gameplay of Destiny…..that is far too much power. Too much influence. The amount of money made on story telling geniuses like Tolkien and Robert Jordan of the Wheel of Time series doesn’t just end when the sequel comes out. It doesn’t end ever. People are still making a killing from Shakespeare, a man who lived hundreds of years ago. Tolkien still rakes in the dough. That kind of power. That kind of capital…could never fall into the hands of Activision. And now we know it will not. And what Staton is to the writing, O’Donnell was to the music. Yes, Bungie still has Staton and O’Donnell’s works, but they do not have their vision or talent anymore, and therefore, Destiny will never have the kind of life they would have breathed into that universe. Bungie originally set out to be to video games what Star Wars was to sci-fi. What Lord of the Rings was to fantasy, and if Activision had let them do it, the world of Destiny would have existed long after the 10 yr contract, with an influence I cannot even imagine. In cartoons. In movies. In books. And, really, the Destiny-verse still will linger, but not with the genius of Staton at the helm, and therefore not with the depth, complexity and impact that he would have brought. Just like Tolkien's son is not Tolkien, and Robert Jordan's wife could not truly finish the Wheel of Time series like Robert himself would have, it doesn't matter what kind of talent Bungie brings in after Staton, it won't be the same. In reality I don’t actually think it was God’s will for this to happen. I’m not sure God necessarily cares, I was being tongue in cheek. I’m simply saying, as much as I’d love to see the Destiny that would have been come to fruition, perhaps all of this was for the better. Destiny will always be a powerhouse in gaming and maybe even in other mediums, but thank Heaven not to the extent that it would have been. For Activision to own that much capital. For them to infect that many different mediums and therefore have THAT much of an affect on our culture, it IS almost like God made sure they were blinded by their own marketing formulas and their own greed to ensure that they would not be the ones to shape us like George Lucas has, or like Tolkien or other great story tellers of our history. In the end, Staton and O’Donnell will take their talents elsewhere, hopefully somewhere that will see them for the cultural gems they are and give them the influence and success they truly deserve, something more even than what they have achieved already, but it will not be Bungie. And it could not be Activision. And now, I thank God for that. Cause they are definitely people of questionable character and ethics.