The contention that Bungie is in some kind of "nosedive" with the DLC is absurd. I'm fine with the changes. My only complaint is they need to develop and add more new strikes.

Every time I have to collect tears on mars - I think about the forums ... +5 tears collected...lol

I have absolutely no problem with a developer giving additional rewards to new/bad players in a game like this. My problem begins when they punish the veteran/good players to achieve it.

This article is full of inflated writing and embelished debate-points. I don't care if a wink of it is true or not, whoever wrote this is a very biased writer. And just for that you shouldn't believe anything.

Yea I definitely do feel Bungie left a big fat turd on my controller, reading the article only amplified my disgust, even tho I was aware of all the problems pointed out just by watching my upgraded raid gear become inferior to vendor gear overnight. My exotics need re-upgrading, why couldn't they just patch the damage value like they did with the vex mythoclast? Which by the way is now inferior to all weapons since the dlc.. Grind grind grind this game had me doing for months, and now Bungie tells me "did you enjoy that? How bout you do it again, and lets also slow down your ability to progress each week so you have to play this game a couple more weeks to get to the higher levels. Then with the next dlc, prepare to push that rest button again eh"

Now we can't even buy gear from the Vanguard or Quartermaster without Vanguard Commendation.Bungie has made a clunky system even clunkier.

Destiny has been shit since the main two people quit.. Period..

READ THE ARTICLE, Bungie!

completely Agree... Bungie is really shooting themselves in the foot. It's almost like they are trying too hard to make people HAVE TO PLAY OVER AND OVER like Groundhog day... They are missing the fact, they are going to force their player base out of the game they love. I'm getting closer and close each day to that breaking point.

He's not wrong about his assessment of the system, but it sounds really horrible only if you make the assumption that people keep & upgrade every single piece of gear they ever collect. Do people do that? I'll admit that I was not at all psyched about having to re-do some of my exotics, but I don't use all of the guns I have, and I don't routinely swap out my armor. I have different sets that basically support the weapons I'm using (like gauntlets that increase HC a reload speed when I want to use an HC). However, of all the weapons in each class I have, I really only use a few of them. The collection is nice, but the ones that don't get taken off the shelf have been easy sources for materials. I did the Invective bounty, for example, played with Invective and remembered that I hate shotguns, so I dismantled it. Now I have an exotic shard ready to cap off my Hawkmoon when the time comes. It's a bummer to realize the raid gear may become so hard to upgrade, but the rest of it just doesn't seem as horrible as the hyperbolic writer suggests. That's just me though, but it will obviously become tedious for the player who wants to max out every weapon and piece of armor in his inventory.

When I read that, I see a lot of the frustration players are feeling. It's just ODD that the expansion feels like a step back, not a step forward. And since the questions early on didn't really get answered, people just get real angry real fast. We don't know why the game felt incomplete in the first place. And now, after the promise of improvements in the direction we've requested, we get this DLC which just... doesn't. It doesn't move the game in a direction that people are satisfied with, and again we're left wondering WHY additions to the game don't seem to be moving it toward what was promised or what is being requested. It just doesn't even seem to make sense at this point. They spent the time developing, testing... working on this whole thing. But what's delivered honestly feels like [i]anything but what you asked for[/i]. No company is that spiteful, because their customers are how they make their money---so it REALLY is just the fact that, with an absence of information directly from Bungie, we're just left to discuss among ourselves why we think that is. [b]Bungie.[/b] The displeasure with the game is in being promised a more epic experience and not having received it. This expansion was as lacking for story as the launch was. It is getting very difficult not to think that what happened was that you completely over promised about this game, and terribly under delivered. The game doesn't feel epic. The situations don't seem to matter, the stakes are low or inconsequential, and we're still stuck in a body of a character who has never been given a good reason to do any of the things that they're doing. The trailers had more story than the game. I want to get invested, but I can't. It just may not be there... The displeasure with this game is in being promised an evolving experience. We were told that our feedback would move the game. We were told that our actions in game would effect how the game is played. We were told that we would be able to build a story among ourselves---to a degree that would maybe excuse the lack of a story otherwise. That hasn't happened. It's difficult to grasp a real investment in our characters through our gear because... well, resets, and progression that doesn't quite seem to make sense. It just doesn't all seem to quite line up. We can all feel that what the game was meant to be, what it is, and what it's trying to be don't line up. And I really, REALLY think the community would settle down if we were given some indication as to [i]why[/i]. Was it just a misunderstanding between consumer and developer during the advertising phase? Did we expect too much? Is it because content was cut or moved? Is it because the game wasn't finished on time and was rushed? Is it because this was intended, and the game was supposed to develop based on our feedback? The community has NO IDEA, and continuing to have no idea is going to lead to more angst and conspiracy theory spinning and other things which really just distract from enjoying it. I'm with the author of the article. Seems like a slap in the face to a lot of people. Do I think incentives to sticking with one weapon are a good idea? YES. But they must be INCENTIVES, not punishments with no advantages on the other side. Getting people to dedicate to certain gear couldn't have been the objective because the raid gear (both weapons and armor) are now obsolete... So... what? What? Please help me not be confused.

I actually like the idea of leveling my exotics more than I thought I would. It gives me a new sense of accomplishment and separates me from players. For example my full upgraded Thorn will destroy in Iron Banner against someone who is stuck with the 300 attack On another note, I hate the new materials and completely agree with what the author of the article has proposed.

Here's you mistake: Thinking anything about Destiny is "Hardcore" You wanna be a "Hardcore" Destiny Player? Look at those old ladies relentlessly playing slot machines in Vegas for 20 years, there's your future. Enjoy! :D LOL destiny and hardcore in the same sentence. Good laugh.

While I respect what all gamers do as a hobby and fun, I am curious what the "hardcore" solution is to the issue? I see A LOT of folks justifiably upset, but not a whole lot of solutions (a few on reddit are pretty good). Also, I think the "hardcore" population might be overestimating it's size a bit (I could be wrong, I don't have the stats). But let's think about this from a MMO to "Action Game/Shared World Shooter" perspective. In a MMO, content gating has been established and expected since the days of Everquest (ToV Northwing baby!). The difference is those folks paid their $$$ for the game (discs!) AND paid a monthly sub. SoE (and other studios like Blizzard) have been getting a near assured monthly check. Those folks get invested and they keep playing. The studio has a much higher income per player In Destiny, it has A LOT of MMO qualities, but they are trying their darnedest not to make it a MMO. So content gating is bad. Vaults of Glass still has lots of areas where you can completely wipe, very easily. It's not for the faint of heart. VoG can also be a long raid (sorry, not everyone has the uber team to speed run them through in less than an hour). So Bungie will not institute a content gate which prevents players from having fun, and playing all parts of a game they paid for. This goes back to the income per gamer. I bough Destiny for $60 on Day 1, this weekend, I paid $35 for my expansion pass for I and II (Golly, guess I'm a sucker or enjoy the game!). So I've spent $95 on Destiny and will until Expansion 3 comes out (September 2015?) Back when I played EQ, I paid $40 for the original game (plus Kunark, I was little late), and a $10/month sub package. In three months, I paid $40+$30=$70. Then Scars of Velious came out (Expansion 2 for EQ) and that was $30, welp here I go for $100+$30 (3 more months) = $130 in 6 months. Then you keep going...those montly subs are HUGE per gamer. Destiny doesn't offer a sub. Destiny wants folks to buy their expansion passes and packs. Why buy an expansion if I'm not going to be able to play in the raid and stuff because I haven't gotten my full RNG'ed VoG set? Much less have it maxed out? Bungie wants to sell games that folks enjoy. The Hardcore argument is the same as an early adopter for technology. You ran the VoG many times, got great stuff, killed everyone in IB 2.0, soloed night falls, etc. You got your value and benefit. I'm willing to bet you have more light than me, and way better guns. TL:DR While I respect the hardcore's getting screwed over argument, we all have to realize that in order for Bungie to keep making the game we enjoy, they need to sell new content. You don't sell this content via content locks.

We're all money giving players Starkz regardless of whether we are casual or harcore players.

I'd love to see a higher level Vault of Glass with upgraded quality raid gear (namely weapons).

I disagree. I don't feel like I'm being let down. That's not to say the game is without faults but it's is be potrayed like it has been broken by the new dlc. As far as I am concerned a player being able to jump up to 31 when i put in a lot of time to reach 30 is not a bad thing. It's not like they can get on and BOOM they are 31. It going to take some serious marks, commendations, grinding and ascendant shards to catch up. I made it to 31 the first week because I worked my way up to 30 before. As far as the weapons are concerned, my VoG weapons were extremely relevant and helpful in this new raid. If they are made obsolete by new gear than so be it, I don't use my old phone I used to because my new phone is better. Same principle. The upgraded exotic is awesome and makes my currrent favorites even better. I don't have many exotics because I choose to only keep the ones I like. If someone chooses to keep all the exotics and upgrade them then it should be a steep price since most af them are much better than there legendary counterparts. I do wish the raid was longer and had some more opportunity for rewards similar to VoG but the RNG model forced me to do way to many runs. Also Crota's Bane rep could be a little easier to rank up since Murmur is now stuck until I hit rank 4 to buy a runed core. Also it should cost me two exotic shards to get and fully upgrade an exotic I already have or a fully upgraded one (like my Icebreaker) should come with some benefit or not cost a shard to upgrade.