I have been a fan of bungie since I was four years old. I have played almost every game and loved them. I was able to play them every day. Bungie has lost their User Experience flavor. I’m not writing this to attack them, I’m doing this to spark thought in the community and the developers. The way that Bungie used to think. Let’s start with a comparison between the destiny franchise and Halo. They were both groundbreaking games on release, they brought new content that no one thought was truly possible the way they did it. Halo had a story that inspired people to become apart of the universe, to care for the characters you interact with. But at the end of the day you could ignore the main story and focus on red team vs blue team or human vs alien. I pull the trigger and things die. I find new weapons on the ground and I find new ways to kill. The gameplay matched the story. Dark and sad but you always push forward because you’re a spartan. Destiny had a story, done by the same writers that worked on Halo for years. It was rejected with very little time before the game was supposed to launch. Well dang. We still got story though, it was just hidden in the grimoire. You had to earn this, to fight, to find the dead ghosts. There was always a secret to be found that told a very small story. Destiny has a sad story, but the gameplay doesn’t match. You’re a corpse running around killing aliens, fighting gods, and trying to save the last remaining bits of humanity. But there is no blood, no swearing, and very little talk in game about it. But again, it was okay, because the gameplay itself was fun. There was al wyd something to do that made you feel like you had the world at your fingertips. What I see there is the beginning of a big change. And not a good one. Destiny later added a couple of cool things with the Eververse. But again that’s okay. It was added and made things just a little cooler. Granted, Bungie locked people out of content in destiny 1 with the first DLC, but again this was fixed. Destiny 2 starts, and the story started out really well. The characters could use some love, but it looked fantastic and made it seem like you could try to explore everything you wanted! All the secrets to be found! But there were none. All of the secrets from Halo style Easter eggs, to secret destiny story cards, to hidden weapons gone. You rebuild the tower and you find you can jump higher, throw a snowball, or listen to data logs. But whenever you log into the tower who is the first voice you hear? Tess. Her voice is prioritized. She is right in front. Cayde and Ikora are hidden away. The guns are no longer custom to you. The exotics aren’t always fun to use. They don’t change your play style. There is nothing to hunt for, shooting is no longer as exciting, and there is no story for us to hunt for or listen to. But you can get lore, and other prestige level looking gear out of a box. Here is the base line. Go back to your roots. Make the characters in the tower worth talking to for more than an engram. Give us things to search for. Get wild with the weapons and places you send us. Make the player feel like they are in control again. Make us feel like a legend again. If we can kill gods then you’ll have us at your fingertips, if we can only kill pawns and rats then we will find something else to do.