Just gonna leave this here.... [b]1. Polished On-Disc Content: [/b] The video's creator points out that there are several areas in the game that people have found that contain fully textured environments. Other disc-locked content displays strikes/missions on maps. I can see why this makes people scratch their heads. But I've played other mainstream games where map areas existed, both inaccessible and accessible, named and unnamed, for later development. I will point to WoW for this example. If you played it from the beginning, then you know. DLC both free and paid opened these areas up. Because it was a game with a lengthy intended lifespan, placeholders had to be entered for both free and paid DLC content. It is my *hope* that Bungie will follow a similar plan for both free and paid content, that some of these areas will be free to us. That others may be paid, and that there is even more we haven't seen. But we do not know that one way or the other yet. To make an uninformed assumption on Bungie's release plan for this content is not constructive to the conversation because we don't know. Bungie (and Blizzard) are historically tight lipped about their development. Their fans are used to this. [b]2. Scene with Queen's Brother/Possible Crow/Mercury:[/b] Creatively, sometimes things are cut and left for a sequel in entertainment. That scene from a trailer that you never saw in a movie... Director's Cuts, Theatrical Versions, Deleted Scenes: concepts that have been in our collective language for some time. I don't think it's beyond any of us to believe that material is developed and left out of software and games because it didn't fit into functionality for this reason or another. Is it possible we were witnessing a trailer more for the first YEAR of Destiny's release (or different length of time) as opposed to the disc release? That due to creative reasons and/or for context, that scene fit better with DLC content that was coming later instead of the disc release? I think so. I also think the video's creator's opinion is possible as well, maybe they did need to pad their DLC content. Either way, I think we will find out over the next few months. Right now, Destiny's entertainment value is enough for me to wait and see. If I don't see what I like, there will be no further DLC content purchases. I have faith that we will see things start to come together and things will make sense. I'm taking the optimistic view. [b]3. Repetitive Events:[/b] I have to agree with this video. Though the events we see are cool in concept (the Queen, Iron Banner), I do wish there were missions/strikes/maps/game modes exclusive to those events. That they added more than some new pieces of gear and NPC's. I hope this changes in the future, but so far I'm scratching my head here. [b]4. Trade/Gamble Portion[/b] It's evident that trading existed somewhere in Destiny's development. I wish we had it, from what I hear we are supposedly getting it. Why it was excluded, we can do nothing but speculate. Perhaps we'll see it soon. I would be happy! Definitely disappointed we don't have it. Perhaps a mechanic didn't work correctly and still needs to be fixed. I work in software development myself, and I know what it's like to have a design for a product, have an early version that does one thing, but then discover in alpha/beta that certain things won't work together. Sometimes this causes a barely noticeable change in the production release, and sometimes it's quite significant. One product we developed was completely different when it went to production in mechanics and aesthetics due to 1 simple challenge we encountered. We had to make a different version because the product had to be released without question. It took us years to overcome that challenge, and we just launched an update, basically, a whole different version. But it's what we originally intended, and even better due to what we learned while the previously released version was in the market. We really weren't able to discuss any upcoming revisions because dev time is so unpredictable. We had to give vague answers (just like Deej) when asked. The dev industry is tight lipped about upcoming changes because speculations and conversations that arise out of genuine friendliness and helpfulness and desire to communicate, tend to be translated as promises. They're repeated and presented as fact. Because of this perspective, I'm ok to cut Bungie slack. They might be working around challenges; I don't know what's going on in the kitchen. I'll give some time to demonstrate their vision based on what I've been given in the past from them. I will play a Devil's advocate in regard to the GAMBLE word. It's entirely possible that the term gamble may have been an internal word for a game mechanic we already have: The Cryptarch, or even RNG itself. Because we don't know what the original concept terms for these mechanics were, and we only see them in terms of the released product/what's on the screen, the term gamble may mean something else entirely to us than to the concept/dev team. Example, "player takes engram to vendor [Cryptarch] to gamble [random number generation] for reward. Maybe gamble meant exactly that, a gambling system. I've yet to see such a system implemented in a game, at least that I can recall, but it seems like a gear for gear gambling system like the one the video described wouldn't really make much sense (as he admitted). If that's what gamble meant, it must have been a different concept entirely. 5. Sparrows/Ships I agree with the video's creator here. For these things to have differing rarities, be handled by vendors and dropped by raid bosses. There must be a bigger purpose. Maybe we'll find out, and these things are still being finished. I hope so! Or, maybe they are just like Wow's mounts: just for show. These also had mounts of increasing rarity, some obtainable by absolutely incredible means... some were only available to 1 person per server, and despite all the work to obtain and variation, that's all it was. 6. Creative Writer's Departure Definitely never a good thing, but until he speaks all we can do is assume. The problem is both sides of this argument are taking his departure to either validate their side that something is wrong, or paint it as not relevant. Maybe he thought the game was still too much like what had been done before under Microsoft, I think we all see the Halo similarities... and we know the Bungie/Microsoft split that gave birth to 343 was because Bungie wanted to flex more creative muscles... so if Joe found himself still on ground he was too familiar with, maybe he just had it. Maybe something ugly happened and his work really was hashed around and cut significantly. I think the truth might lie somewhere in the middle, but it will probably be some time before we find out. 7. The Redditor Post on Different Game Version He Played I have zero familiarity with this, admittedly, I would love it if someone gave me a link or something solid I could use to search for on this. I'm very curious to read it. 8. Dumbing the Game Down for Kids I'm not sure how I feel about this claim. On one hand, I kind of see where it's coming from. I do wish the story was more in depth. On another hand, the development system alone to gain materials to upgrade weapons and armor, their individual spec trees, and how they affect game mechanics and leveling and ability to clear difficult content... doesn't seem like a kid with that short an attention span would thrive in that environment. I mean some of them have made it this far thanks to bugs with encounters, but a raid like VoG bug-free, cleared the way the designers intended... that's not something kids with crappy attention spans who don't appreciate complex content can thrive in at all. 9. DLC Boycott In a case where I felt I was wronged 100%, I would absolutely be on board. I have never bought a season pass because I demand a game prove itself to me before I invest any further into it. For COD games, if I'm entertained enough and having fun, I'll buy 1 DLC pack. Nothing else. For Ghosts, I did none. I always make my DLC purchasing determination based on the point up to and including the first DLC and the immediate period after. If I am unhappy with the product at that point, then I never buy another DLC again and rarely come back to that game. If I'm happy with the first for Destiny, I'll do the unprecedented and buy the 2nd. I WANT to play this game for years, but if I feel cheated at any point... I'll stop. I have an issue with those who tell the masses to boycott DLC when they have already paid for it upfront. It's hypocritical. These people usually take a "don't feed the machine you fool" stand, when they've already done it themselves and will most definitely take advantage and play the content (as they should). Personally, I'm having a great time playing Destiny and I'm looking forward to seeing the game develop. Unless things turn out badly with their long term plan, I don't see that changing.