I'm new to Destiny, and I'm sure that this topic has probably been raised countless times already. Ultimately this post is more to see if there has been any word on this from Bungie on why this isn't in the game yet since I couldn't find anything on my own.
But just for the fun of it, I'll make an argument anyway.
In my personal experience The lack of a "hide helmet" option has made me completely unwilling to level a hunter. I know there are plenty of people who like the Hunter's general style of helmet, but those people are not me. I always painstakingly sit in character creation to get everything just right for my character, and I'm quite proud of all of my beautiful killer death robot faces that I constructed for my Exos. When not in combat and I go into the character menu, I feel a sense of pride in the overall look of my character. When the camera pans out or a cutscene plays, I always get disappointed when I see the helmets on any of my characters. When I started, I wanted to play a hunter because I usually love the quick and stealthy killers with fun bags of tricks; however, I have not made it any farther on my hunter beyond level 5 after so many "that's what I look like? ugh" moments. Instead I've been playing my Titan and Warlock because I don't mind their helmets as much, but still prefer my Exo faces.
Now for my attempts to be objective:
Without this option, there is almost no value to having different playable races in Destiny. It's just a tiny element of customization that would serve to validate the different races and facial configurations more than what is visible in the short slits of the game when you're not shooting things.
The assets are already there, and the option is clearly possible. This toggle is already available out of combat and I can't imagine this would cost much of anything to implement. The only extra cost I could see from this toggles is a few extra facial animations in only 2-3 cutscenes.
Now to go over a couple expected arguments:
"But that's not realistic"
Realism in Destiny is only visible in the small cracks between the big god-ball in the sky, the plants on Mars and Venus, the omni-machine that can do anything but shoot a gun called a "ghost," the alien wizards on the moon, and the countless displays of space magic. I don't think an invisible helmet is that far of a stretch.
"The devs want you to look at your helmet because it's part of your legend"
But if this kind of thing is forced on me, then it's not really "my legend," is it? I made the face on my character myself, that makes it far more "my legend" that displaying something that was handed to me randomly that happens to have the stats I want on it. If I see helmets I like, I will toggle the "show helmet" option and proudly display it. If I don't like the helmet, then I don't think it's too much to ask for this little bit of customization and personal preference. It's not a dig at the assets or the people who designed the helmets, I just prefer my Exo's face instead.
I appreciate any possible links provided for Bungie's stated reasoning for the lack of this option, or any discussion on the topic. I like to argue. [armory][/armory]
Edit:
I APPARENTLY have to explain this because there is an astounding amount of people who don't really get this concept. I want a HIDE HELMET option, I don't want to unequip it. Almost every other MMO has this simple purely aesthetic feature, it's really not complicated. I just want to see my character's face instead of my helmet. This DOES NOT MEAN I want to lose all stats, benefits, and light level that the helmet has on it and I have no idea why so many people seem to think that's what I want.
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Does everybody else forget one of the very few other badasses that are cooler than us, the player, in this game barely even has sleeves, let alone the helmet? The Stranger. Yes. Her. No damn helmet. Something she can do, that I for some reason can't? [i]I want it. Why can I not have it?[/i]