There's a lot of negativity on here since Destiny launched. A lot of people are unhappy about a lot of things, and are remembering "back when Bungie made good games." It reminds me a helluva lot of the Reach forum back when that existed. And the ODST forum before that. And the Halo 3 forum before that. And the Halo 2 forum before that. Never change, BNET community... Well I just had one of the best, most positive, most fun gaming experiences I've had in the last several [i]years[/i] tonight, and I had it in little ol'e Destiny. I thought maybe someone would like to hear about it; some Light in the Darkness, if you will. I logged on as my Titan. I'm trying to get my Vanguard Reputation up at the moment, so I decided to take a look at the PvE bounties. They all seemed pretty easy, so I took as many as I could. I went to look at Mars, to see what I could do to get some tears. I realized that I could do a Level 26 version of the story mission introducing the Dust Palace and I'd get an Ascendant Shard. Naturally, as a Level 25 I said "Enemies one level higher than me and I'm not allowed to die or else my bounty will reset? Challenge accepted." I strolled on into Mars and made my way down into Freehold to scout it out. I carefully dispatched a few Cabal upon entering the city, and just as I was getting ready to enter the skyscraper, a Public Event started. Nobody else was around to help me, so I planted my Titan boots and kept a Cabal leader from advancing to any of his checkpoints while I waited for backup. After a tense few minutes of holding him back, a Hunter came flying in on his Sparrow and helped me outgun the beast. With our rewards claimed, we had a parted with an interpretive dance and I went back to my mission. At this point, I hit the Darkness Zone and things actually went up to Level 26. It was much harder, but it made me play [i]tactically.[/i] I couldn't stroll through Freehold, wading past the Cabal as they hopelessly shelled my Relic Iron armor. The Cabal played smart and used their shields, but careful use of grenades and precise aim lead me safely through the Dust Palace. I eventually made it to the chamber where Rasputin was, and carefully dispatched the remaining Cabal. That's when the boss showed up. I got cocky; overly confident. I got shelled by Psion Operants and Bracus Tha'aurn's missiles. Some quick use of Lift and some elevated cover just barely saved me from wiping on my bounties. I had a Psion Operant, two shielded Cabal, and Bracus all closing in on me though. I was almost out of ammo, and had nothing in Special or Heavy. That's when I remembered I had bought some Heavy Ammo Synths a few days ago. I quickly used one and sent a payload of fiery death down on the Cabal. It took out Bracus and I was able to quickly mop up the leftovers with grenades and some accuracy. I got my Ascendant Shard and finished up all of my bounties. I went back to the Tower, feeling pretty proud of my accomplishment and went to turn in all of my bounties. In quick succession, I turned in all 4, and got a prompt I very nearly missed. "Guardian, the Vanguard have personally requested your services. They would like to extend an Exotic Bounty to you." It took me nearly an hour to decide which one I wanted. It was so unexpected, and such a huge decision. To give a little context, I saved up all of my Strange Coins from both of my characters and finally had just enough to by Gjallarhorn about 10 minutes before Xur split town last night. It was really exciting getting my first Exotic, but I went to Venus and almost immediately ran into someone using Thorn. I was immediately hit by a kind of empty feeling. "That guy [i]worked[/i] to get his Exotic. He completed a quest and [i]earned[/i] his. I just bought mine..." Now I was being given a chance to [i]earn[/i] an Exotic. After a lot of deliberation, I decided on A Dubious Task. Fast forward a little bit, after doing a Strike without dying, I realized I'd need a lot of Glimmer to buy the special weapon ammo packs a little later in the quest, and I had spent all of mine on those heavy weapon ammo synths a few days ago. I would need to get some more. I decided to try my luck at the Treasure Cave. Now contrary to what you braindead white knights may think, farming is not cheating, and is not an exploit. Hundreds of thousands of players in any MMO or RPG will tell you the same, and with more than 300 hours in Borderlands 2 and quite a bit more in Borderlands 1, I can [i]personally[/i] tell you it's just part of the game. Furthermore, as I'm about to explain, it is also not robbing myself of any fun. The "best gaming experience in years" I mentioned was about to follow. We shot at the hole for maybe 20 minutes or so and I made a bit of Glimmer, but something happened that I had never have happen before. A Legendary Engram dropped from one of the Hive! I'd gotten two or three before, but never from the cave. This was turning out to be a pretty profitable night. After a short while though, I was starting to run out of Black Wax Idles and wanted to go do something else, so I resolved to leave after the next time we all ran up to collect the current batch of loot. Before I could do that however, the Public Event where the Hive and Fallen mass against each other started. Chaos quickly ensued, but it didn't overwhelm us. Every time I've seen that event occur before, it overwhelms the group and ends up just being a cacophony. This time, [i]we[/i] were in charge. An endless stream of Hive started spawning in the room to our left. Me, a Defender Titan, and a Bladedancer Hunter charged in and began wrecking shop. As a Striker Titan, thunderpunching everything in the face which has a face to be thunderpunched is my greatest joy. It was non-stop, everywhere-you-look thunderpunch-to-face action. When my grenades were available, I'd chuck one; when my super was available, 6-7 enemies would go down. The Bladedancer was cleaning house, and the Defender kept throwing up shields to keep us safe. I kept thinking it was eventually going to end, but [i]endless[/i] hordes of Hive kept spawning for a good 10 minutes. It was the most fun, exhilarating, laugh out loud funny experience I've had in a video game in years. It didn't need to be hardcore and edgy, it didn't need to be an insane challenge, it didn't need to be the great humanitarian drama, it was punching undead aliens in their bitch face for 10 minutes straight, and it was [i]awesome[/i]. As the 100th Acolyte exploded into dust beneath my gauntleted, crackling fist, I thought to myself that Bungie has remembered why we call these "games." Eventually the event subsided and everything went back to normal. A second Legendary Engram had dropped in the fracas, but I didn't care. That was such an intense, heart-pounding and just fun experience, I was more focused on that. I popped back to the Tower to claim my spoils, but I knew whatever I got wouldn't top that. In the end, one Legendary turned into two Motes of Light, and one turned into a sweet Legendary Auto Rifle, Shadow Price, which I transferred over to my Hunter. Eager to try it out, I popped over to him. Ending my night the same way I started it, I decided to take all of the PvE bounties as a testing ground for my new toy. It handles perfectly, smooth like butter, quick as greased lightning and hits like a truck. I did a few patrols on Mars and the Moon to finish my bounties, and after a little while went back to turn them in. +50 Vanguard Rep, +100, +150, +200, +250, "Guardian, the Vanguard have personally requested your services." "[i]No way,[/i]" I'm thinking to myself. "[i]Did I just get...[/i]" Low and behold, the same three Exotic Bounty options were now being presented to my Hunter, same as my Titan. I had been deliberating between the bounty I ended up taking on my Titan and Toland's Legacy, so I decided to take the other option on my Hunter. That choice that had antagonized me for over an hour was now being made moot, by giving me my cake and letting me eat it too. Soon I'll have three Exotic weapons, and a rad story for two of them. With that, I logged out and went to start writing this. [b]TLDR[/b], the Bungie forums have always been a toxic cesspool where hating on the newest Bungie game is what all the cool kids do, and remembering fondly how great latest game minus one was and how "one of these days, Edna, I'm gonna just get fed up and go back to it" is the constant threat. Nothing has changed in the 4 years since Bungie's last game. This place is still a giant circle jerk for hating on the new guy. I know nobody will read this giant blob of text, and I know it'll get lost, but like each individual Guardian, you need a little Light in the Darkness to eventually overwhelm it. Bungie, if any of the hardworking engineers, designers or artists who just spent the last 5 years of your lives slaving over this thing are tired of people shitting on it because of the Cryptarch or shotguns or whatever the -blam!- is the thing we've all got our pitchforks out for at this particular minute, I just want to say thank you and good job. You still make the best games in the industry, and Destiny gave me the most fun in a night I've had in years.