I was talking to some people on discord about shadowkeep and monetization and decided to post it here too. I'm not trying to stop others from buying shadowkeep, I'm just saying why I'm not getting it. One thing I dont get is everyone saying "well it's free now, so its okay", but just because a game is free doesnt mean it doesnt have predatory or scummy monetization. Just look at those phone games that are free, but also heavily push you towards paying for stuff. That is beside the point though. So if you look at how bungie is planning to monetize Destiny 2, they have eververse, shadowkeep, seasons and the bungie store. Eververse is simply a place for you to buy cosmetics. Very simple and commonly used in many games, both free and paid. They are also making it possible for you to buy the stuff there for bright dust, a "new" in game currency you earn from game play. My only real issue with this is that the value of bright dust is very inconsistent. For cool stuff it has a very low value, but for okay stuff it has a decent value. This tells me that bungie isn't looking at the value of a player's time when making the bright dust prices, but at how they can get people to instead spend real money since the prices are to high. They are also making it possible to see tess even in from orbit, this makes very little sense since she will be the only vender, to my knowledge, this is happening for. Also (and I know this is very conspiracy theory sounding) it feels like they are trying to drain us of as much of our bright dust as possible before the eververse change. Shadowkeep, to me, makes little to no sense. They say that they are changing to a season model, but the first thing they do is make an expansion. Why have an expansion? They say they want an evolving world that is constantly changing and dynamic, but they are adding shadowkeep, a linear story that will be a part of the game until it ends. Why? I think it is one of two possibilities, either they want more money from players, and the only way to justify charging that much is by making an expansion, or they dont think that shadowkeep can stand on it's own as a piece of content. If it is the first option, I can kind of understand, I really dont like it but I get it. If it is the second one, it's a little sad. Like I feel that forsaken had a ton of stuff to do and explore, it stood on it's own two legs as a piece of content. I still havnt done EVERYTHING there is to do there. But with shadowkeep they feel they need to release both at once. This is either for money, or lack of meaningful content, either way it isn't good. Now seasons are where I have the most issue. They are just a really big FOMO (fear of missing out) tactic to try and get people to get every season. If you don't get the premium track you cant get all this cool stuff for "free" (yes it is technically free but if you dont have time to earn it you will have to pay). If you dont get the season, you can have fun and tell stories that start with "you had to be there when...". And if, like me, you are hesitant and decide to wait, or have a job like my old one where I would go 6+ months at a time with no ability to play online games, you just can't play that content. I didn't get the last season pass until after season of the drifter came out, I was hesitant to get it because of the price and what I heard about the forges. After I got it, I went back and played the forges some. Turns out I kind of like it. It's not always the best thing in the game, but it sure beats reckoning. That wouldn't have been possible if the forges had gone away. I would have been left with just gambit prime and reckoning, fun. Lastly the bungie store. I dont hate it, it's kind of cool. That's really it. It's cool you can unlock stuff, but I feel like the stuff is a little over priced, but that's just me. And those are all my points. When you look ar each part by itself, it's not to bad, but when added togeather I don't like where they are going. Unless they announce something big in the near future, I'm not getting Shadowkeep or Season of the Undying. Get it if you want, but I'm not. *** This is being added after the original post. After talking to people in the replies, I take back what I said about having both a new season and expansion start at the same time. Having both allows there to be less of a content drought. I still think that staggering the releases would be better, but I don't think the reason is just greed or lack of content.