I'm going to take a walk down memory lane here and address issues I've seen come up since Destiny 2 released in as calm and measured a manner as I can. Suffice to say, I'm extremely displeased with the state of the game, and feel that Bungie has betrayed the trust of their players on more than one occasion. This most recent debacle is just another in a long chain of poor decisions aimed around monetizing their game at the expense of player enjoyment. It's disturbing and unpleasant to see this trend of microtransactions engraining themselves further and further into core gameplay concepts; particularly when these monetization efforts impact the game in such a profound way as Destiny, where locking loot behind a paywall and encouraging purchases through gimped progression systems encroaches on the reason why people play in the first place: cool gear. Let's get this right out as well and start by saying Destiny was no gem when it was released. People tend to look fondly on it now (especially in comparison to the mess that is Destiny 2) mostly because it developed into something fun. When Destiny originally released, it was a pile of garbage locked up in several different cages of confusing progression systems, economy systems, and other generally poor design choices. Unfortunately, it seems, Bungie did not communicate or chose to specifically ignore all the QoL (Quality of Life) enhancements, feedback, and general changes Destiny undertook when developing Destiny 2. Furthermore, they completely disconnected players from their character, something Bungie specifically promised it wouldn't do. The original tenet of Destiny was to create a game your character followed you through, your gear followed you through, your -accomplishment- followed you through. With the introduction of Destiny 2 we were told that was no longer the case. No apology, no acknowledgment the efforts of players outside a couple additional screens when starting Destiny 2. In fact, they made fun of the fact that they destroyed Guardian's hard-earned loot in the trailers. ** Bungie, this is where player expectations are stemming from. Players have already had to wade through a garbage release riddled with bugs, lackluster gameplay, and sprinkled overall with disappointment. Players have witnessed the game go from a heap into something genuinely fun to play and engage in. So when you release a game that eschews all these advancements in favor of being another heap, well, you get the salt mines that are the forum and the subreddit. These people aren't unreasonably angry. When you say you're going to erase someone's progress who's put potentially thousands of hours into a game you need to make sure you release a game that is going to win back that player. A game worth sacrificing all that effort for, and you did not do this. Let's look at the core of what Bungie's Destiny game is: a "looter shooter". That is to say, a mixup between a traditional first person shooter and a loot-based RPG system. The game centers around providing engagements whereby the conquering Guardians can receive loot - in game rewards - in the form of new weapons or armor which help the player to progress, or cosmetic items such as sparrows, ships, ghosts and shaders which help the Guardian to differentiate themselves from others. In Destiny, these items were unique, highly prized, highly sought after, and very difficult to get. Many required the completion of specific strikes or raids (making doing the raids or strikes a very desirable activity), or even unique and difficult puzzles hidden within the worlds, and they served to distinguish those who had conquered the game's content. Destiny 2 has removed this motivation entirely. Instead, the large majority of desirable cosmetic items are locked behind the Eververse - an in game store - where real money can be traded for "silver" which is then used to purchase loot boxes ("bright engrams") which randomly give players items. These loot boxes are randomized and can/will give duplicates, so repeat purchases do not lower the loot pool and enhance your chances of succeeding in getting the item you actually want. Further, traditional loot has been reworked to favor a token system (which no one asked for). Instead of the shower of loot you might expect to get at the end of a fight in Destiny you will instead receive one or two tokens in Destiny 2. These tokens have diminishing returns, and are used to 'level up' with various vendors in the tower or the various worlds. They do not allow you to buy specific gear you desire, nor do they have a 1:1 equation to a piece of gear. Instead, numerous tokens are required to level up once, at which point you receive a randomized loot drop that is frequently a duplicate of something you already have, at a lower power level than you are, and given the state of game balancing probably won't be something you want anyways. This becomes a more significant issue when you consider the state of Bungie's loot pool for Destiny 2, which is to say: miserable. Static weapon rolls have eliminated those one-in-a-million drops that people love to get and are happy to grind hours upon hours for. Combine these static rolls with an extremely limited pool of legendaries and we land where we are now; where one or two weapons are deemed the best, and there's literally no way to get a better alternative. Destiny staples, "Iron Banner" and "Trials of the Nine", as well as the new "Faction Rallies" haven't done anything to alleviate the weapon drought either - the weapons released with those events have all been reskins of existing weapon models, and feature similarly dull, boring, and 'safe' static perks. The exotics don't fair any better, and in fact let's have a look at that: Bungie's official stance on exotics from the start of Destiny 2 was that they would -not- be introducing any original Destiny exotics back into the ecosystem. The following is a list of the current exotics they have brought forward despite this stance: [b]*Weapons (6/24)[/b] -Hard Light -Mida Multi-Tool -Skyburner's Oath -Crimson (Red Death rehash) -Telesto -Jade Rabbit [b]*Armor (6/15 total)[/b] [u] ~Hunter[/u] -Celestial Nighthawk -Knucklehead RADAR -Young Ahamkara's Spine -Lucky Raspberry -Graviton Forfeit -Shinobu's Vow [u] ~Titan (6/15 total)[/u] -Insurmountable Skullfort -ACD/0 Feedback Fence -Crest of Alpha Lupi -Helm of Saint-14 -Mk. 44 Stand Asides -Dunemarchers [u]~Warlock (6/15 total)[/u] -Skull of Dire Ahamkara -Sunbracers -Transversive Steps -The Stag -Ophidian Aspect -Starfire Protocol As you can see, fully one fourth of the weapons are rehashes of already existing weapons in Destiny that were supposedly destroyed (as per the reason why we don't have any of our loot in Destiny 2) when the Cabal attacked. Furthermore, just short of half of all armors for all classes are rehashes of gear we had in Destiny. More often than not these rehashed versions are more poorly constructed perk wise than their original predecessors. Bungie has moved away from the power fantasy that Destiny represented in favor of a more vanilla experience that takes strict balance over exciting engagement opportunities. None of the exotics in particular stand out or are uniquely game-altering, despite that being their sole purpose. I can count on one hand the exotics I consider fun, even when that hand has two fingers chopped off. ** Bungie, this was your end game. You've taken away the excitement of doing the activities you've created by ensuring they don't have rewards commensurate with player effort or time. A token is not a reward, it's a slap in the face colored with an "At least you didn't get nothing." Static rolls on weapons and gear are safe, and sure they enable better 'balance' in PvP, but they also kill off the thrill of the chase; the rush from getting that one-in-a-million. People are unhappy because you've eliminated their choices and offered no viable alternatives; masterworks don't seem like a good fix. Speaking of PvP as it relates to PvE... It doesn't. So it's a curious wonder as to why Bungie still chooses to balance their game around PvP and PvE. This restrictive practice (which is, ostensibly, the reason for static rolls) eliminates any possibility of an engaging experience. Bungie simple can't risk allowing some of their more wild ideas through otherwise it may unbalance their PvP. The problem is, Bungie has no idea what it wants to do with this franchise, or at least it feels like it. They claim to want to bring professional level PvP to their game, but leave out key features such as map voting, gametype selection, private games, and modifier options straight out of the gate; and they refuse to balance their PvP separate from the PvE, a decision that is widely recognized as poor (despite having a good root cause) and contributing overall to the dull, uninspired feeling in both PvP and PvE. They claim to want to bring AAA storytelling and world development to their game, but hash together a single-player storyline filled with plot holes, non-sensical design choices, cutscenes that pad the time out rather than contribute to the game, and a 'final boss' that isn't a threat in the slightest. Destiny 2 starts off with a big reveal - taking away your power. This puts a real sense of danger on the player that could have been an incredibly stressful (in a good way) factor throughout the story. Instead, players get their powers back virtually immediately and all the 'threat' about permanently dying, or having to engage enemies without powers is gone just as quick. The drive to succeed in the face of adversity, which is what the game starts off on, is [i]immediately[/i] crushed by the recovery of your powers in the very next mission after they're lost. So much for consequences.