TL:DR - [i]Why hasn't Bungie fixed/changed/added[/i] [insert thing here] [i] already!?[/i] This is why: [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/AboutUs#!page=careers]41 unfilled positions.[/url] Personal opinion follows... [quote]"Destiny initially captivates all of us with its fantastic graphics, solid and sharp combat..." ~Kovathos[/quote] That plus the audio, and you've effectively covered everything about the [i]public-facing[/i] portion of this game that fell into Bungies core competence. The background game engine is slick, modular, and designed to be altered, updated on the fly, and to forgive the inevitable developmental missteps and mistakes. They built tools, oh so many tools. They talked about how they can whip up new new content in a hurry...you can see why, if you're paying attention to objects in the world...all the loot is modular, both visually and ability-wise; a piece of armor is like a lego kit, ditto ships and weapons. But ask yourselves why they stopped shy of polishing that customization tool and presenting it to us in-game so that we could help them build the world [i]we [/i]want to see. It's the next logical step towards making us "fall in love with loot". Why didn't they do it? They told us early on that they had to redesign [i]the company itself[/i] to attempt to make and support this game. For some people that was exciting. For some it was a warning sign that there were going to be a lot of things Bungie was going to try to do that they really had no experience with, and that means a lot of opportunities to take bad design advice, or misunderstand/ignore/fail to implement the good advice. Look back at the early stuff they shared...they publicly talked about the fact that they didn't have anyone on staff that even knew how to [i]animate and design hair.[/i] It sounds trivial, but every time you have to expand your core competence list by learning how to do something new, or hire a dedicated specialist or experienced generalist to make a particular chunk of your vision a reality, it reduces the time and resources that you have to actually execute the whole original vision. It means that whoever actually has the relevant skills when a design choice has to be made can end up being the only person in the room who actually knows what they're talking about, and if they don't have the seniority or ability to sway the group, their expertise may not even matter. This shrinks your collective horizons; and it had serious repercussions on the game we see. No competence with hair? No Tigerman. No post-origin character customization. Dredlock Sausages. No competence with loot dynamics? Loot shambles, over-reaching loot patches No competence with classic MMO population management? 12 player worlds No competence with RPG equipment dynamics? Gear shambles, Inappropriate activity rewards No competence with character power progression? Bizarre level power balances No competence with economy design? Over a dozen forms of progression currency No familiarity with long-tail gamer mentality? Extremely spotty and limited communication The cost of the Bungie organization ultimately attaining basic competence (but not comfort) with all those things in time to ship a product? [b]Common Interface, Uncommon Continuity, Rare Excellence , Decoherent Narrative, Legendary Criticism, Exotic Community Support[/b] When they said, after the post-beta criticism, that they put a lot of work into perfecting the core functionality,[i] they meant it.[/i] All you have to do is [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/AboutUs#!page=careers]look at the "careers" page[/url]...it's basically a list of people that need to be hired to build the game out from the shooter core into what we're asking them for. [i]Every single thing that the community has complained about or requested has a job opening posted that applies to it.[/i] [b]41 openings, as of this post.[/b] [b]Edit: 50 openings, as of this bump, 11 days later.[/b] Stick with it and see where it goes, or not. They're no dummies, but they're just trying to do a whole lot of things they're apparently not really sure how to do well. The core [i]is[/i] solid, but there are a lot of jacked up, half baked, cut back, and just plain incomplete ancillary systems tacked onto it. Tell them what you want, in detail. Give them ideas you'd be proud to see implemented. Think hard about the idea you're proposing first and ask yourself if it makes sense in the context of the core game. They say they read all this feedback; Don't make them regret doing it. They need all the constructive advice and help that they can get. See you starside...