Do you play PVE at all? Please tell me you are joking with this power creep nonsense. Red bar fallen require 3 bullets to kill, overload champions require 2 clips worth of auto rifle ammo to stun. This isn't power creep

The problem with your power creep arguments are... Strange at best. (I can't quote as I go because I hit the character limit about halfway through). Power creep also... Isn't 100% a thing in this game. I think the term we should use is feature creep. Sunsetting reduces the feature creep that's required, allowing less overall resources to be used on new content. Pinnacle weapons are, well, a pinnacle of feature creep being too much. Most of them are bad, either due to unnecessary nerfs (Breakneck), or just not being good to begin with (Oxygen). Of all of the pinnacles, I can point to 3 that are currently a potential issue in a PvE environment; - Recluse, which has already been turned into a marginal upgrade of a damage + reload perk close range weapon, so it isn't an issue. - Delerium, which has already been hit hard by the LMG damage nerf - Wedingo, which has also been nerfed because immobile, generally large and lumbering bosses are the only things used as raid bosses nowadays - Then you've got Revoker for PvP, which is a bad sniper turned more oppressive than other snipers by its perks. - You've also got the Magnificent Howl guns, which have been nerfed into the ground and are at absolute best a side-grade to JQK and Rations All other pinnacles are gimmicky (Hush, Loaded Question) or plain bad (Breakneck, Oxygen). They're gimmicky or bad because Bungie was trying to [i]avoid[/i] giving us "nuke everything" options. So they're running out of ideas for unique functionality, and therefore turned to Rituals, which are static rolls with perk combinations that weren't previously seen, which avoids feature creep. But I'll go through the list, and for reference, I'm about neutral (if not somewhat against) on sunsetting. Destiny 2 year 1 was a game for casuals, and becoming an e-sport. Fixed rolls meant a casual player isn't going to feel discouraged grinding out that perfect roll, it also means a far easier to read sandbox for the 3 people who take Destiny e-sports seriously. Unfortunately, it drove loot value into the dirt because every drop of X weapon had Y roll (beyond element where applicable), which discouraged grinding for more than 1 of every weapon, if that since Year 1 Legendaries were about on par with D1 Blue weapons in terms of perk trees. It doesn't make sense to power creep the hell out of the game like you've described if you're going for those two demographics moreso than Destiny's core, "I wanna play the new stuff and get cool stuff that I'll use and treasure until the end of my days!" player. As for Dark Below, vanilla weapons we're still usable, if slightly gimped in the new endgame. So if they wanted you to re-grind weapons and armor entirely every expansion, then they didn't do a good job implimenting it. Truly the fundamental issue with sunsetting as a concept is that it's far too scorched Earth policy. And specifically Luke Smith doesn't take player feedback and preferences into consideration. The raids that aren't paid entry, as well as [i][b]all[/b][/i] Quest Legendaries should also be immune if the current system goes forward. I spent way too many hours getting Mountaintop, Luna's, Loaded Question, Delerium, Revoker, Breakneck, and Broadsword to have literally no option to use them in endgame and Gambit (level advantages are enabled across the entire mode). On top of that, raid Legendaries shouldn't be cherry picked, year 1raid equipment (which I believe in terms of guns is mostly moot anyways because less perks and no mods), and the Annual Pass raid equipment should also be immune. Otherwise the literal only reason to do anything in that realm is for their low drop rate exotics, as well as certain Catalysts. Also, anything that's reissued needs to have the old versions uncapped alongside the reissued gear. It makes no sense that I have to obtain equipment that I already own that has limited difference compared to the version I already own, then why should I have to re-obtain it? Or, you know, limit availability of the old stuff or have rotating formats if a bloated sandbox or "power" (feature) creep is too much of an issue. "We don't need to put as many resources into making new stuff if we institute a scorched Earth policy on almost everything! That's how we avoid feature creep!" - Bungie, probably.

[quote][b]Sunsetting[/b] Lots of angry posts. Lots of hate and rage. The usual players attacking devs on their social media accounts and yet another community backlash. In fact, the only constant over the last 3 1/2 years is that the community is always angry. So yeah, Sunsetting. Let's talk about that. Why is it happening? What is its purpose it is trying to achieve? Bungle stated in last week's TWaB [quote]We want the sandbox to feel interesting, exciting, and dynamic, and to evolve in compelling ways over time in the same way that the game evolves. Our weapons are the primary way that players interact with the world, and Season over Season we want players to discover new weapons that feel powerful, have interesting new perks to explore, and power the builds that players craft in new and unexpected ways.[/quote] With Destiny 2's current kill times, this was almost impossible to achieve because any power creep would break the game. The only way to give weapons a chance to stand out over the last 2 years has been to nerf, nerf and nerf some more; to the point where the only way forward was to just remove weapons to make way for new. The interesting thing about all of this is that Destiny 2 was originally built to not encounter this issue. When D2 released, it did so with kill times that were designed to allow for power creep and for our weapons, and ultimately our Guardians to grow more powerful over time. Of course kill times were only one aspect of that original vision along with other changes like static weapons, etc, but all of it was built in response to 3 years of community feedback in D1 and constant anger at weapon and gear nerfs there. In case anyone has forgotten, the original plan was for our weapons and gear to be sunsetted every expansion. Nothing but exotics progressed into The Dark Below and it was player feedback over 3 years that led to weapons not being left behind to begin with. So what happened and why was almost all of the original vision for D2 scrapped by the start of year 2 and why are we here with sunsetting on the horizon? The answer is one that a lot of players may not like and will inevitably be angry to hear, but it was because of our own feedback as a community and the massive hate campaign that raged on these forums, on YouTube and on Twitter over the winter of 2017/2018. The "dead game", "bungie sucks", and the massively toxic attacks on the game, the studio, the developers, and anyone who actually had fun playing with the whole "positivity is the real negativity" abuse-take. There was a vision in place for Destiny 2 and no, the game wasn't perfect at launch, but it was a foundation being set for a franchise to grow forward in ways D1 never could and to hopefully avoid a lot of its failings and things that led to constant community anger and dissent. We will never know what that game might have been or how fun it could have been here in year 3 because the massive hate campaign did happen, and the Summit happened and by May of 2018 most of the studio had been shifted from developing future content for the franchise to instead creating one of the most massive game design shifts ever implemented post-release. It wasn't just weapon kill times, it was also weapon slotting, random rolls, a complete overhaul of the mod system, the leveling system and the Crucible; and with those massive changes to the entirety of the sandbox and leveling systems, it meant that every other aspect of the game had to be reworked and re-tuned to work with the new systems. Sunsetting was inevitable the moment the decision was made to acquiesce to the community demands and turn the dial back up to 11 on kill times and Guardian power. There was no ceiling to build to anymore and without a ceiling, the only directions you can go are sideways or backwards. The devs have tried to go sideways as much as possible since, but almost from the word go the nerf train left the station again with Sleeper and never stopped rolling. So while sunsetting might be hugely unpopular now, it is a direct result of the impatience and hate that the community turned to 2 years ago that led the developers to acquiesce to community demands and ultimately to this future. It is also worth pointing out that there were other consequences to that massive game overhaul besides the reintroduction of nerf culture. When the entirety of the studio was shifted to rebuilding the franchise (again), it was done not only at the expense of whatever it was the game was originally intended to be, but also in the development of future content in general. It wasn't just Bungie making changes either. Vicarious Visions made changes to Warmind to stop-gap the transition and ultimately Activision and Bungle had 3 studios working to recreate the game. Initially that was a success until the lack of future development from content being scrapped or put on hold during the reboot led to more community angst when players couldn't understand why there wasn't enough new shiny or things to do. There also was the after-effects from the Summit(s), with massive changes to investment, raiding and many other parts of the game that suddenly became much less accessible to average everyday players and solo/small fireteam players, and even led to the split with Activision, the current seasonal model and it's arena-of-the-month setup. I would like to state as well that while I stand that everything we have now is in fact a result of feedback from this community and that anyone who says Bungie doesn't listen could not be more wrong, I also don't hold the top decision makers without fault. Ultimately it falls on them to parse thru that feedback and to decide when to make changes and when to stay true to original visions and over the last 5+ years there hasn't been a lot of faith in any one vision for long. Last but not least I want to say in regards to this quote from the TWaB [quote]We believe Destiny is at its best when you have new desirable things to pursue and when you have active debates with your clanmates about which of those new things to bring into the new raid, or which is going to be hot in Trials next Season.[/quote] I could not agree any less. This statement says to me "we believe the game is at its best when content creators and influencers are engaged" and has nothing to do with the regular average everyday player and what they find enjoyable. This is just one more result of the fallout from the massive hate campaign and that original Summit. I wish we could have seen the game Destiny 2 might have been, but at some point the studio needs to stick to a vision and the community needs to give it time to develop and evolve naturally. Thank you.[/quote] Bungie are responsible for the decisions they make, and the product they sell their players. The buck stops there. Players giving feedback doesn’t make players at fault for Bungie’s decisions and implementations. For example a lot of community sentiment that they wanted Trials of Osiris to return and what the community got and abandoned are two different things. No need for hot takes, you can just support your own opinion on any topic you want to discuss.

The initial version of D2 was not built to counteract power creep by allowing for us to grow stronger over time, it was built for simplicity and a more casual audience as well as slower times to kill to try and get into the E-sports scene. We only got more powerful over Year One as Bungie started walking back their changes in an effort to placate the bleeding player-base because they made the game a less enjoyable experience. The fundamental example of Power Creep in D2 came at the tail end of Year One.