I want to start by saying that Destiny is a good game. Not great; but good. I picked up a 60 dollar copy and followed it's upcoming release closely with guarded enthusiasm. That being said, I believe I was in the minority with this approach. With new consoles on the market with a library of re-releases, disappointments, and smaller arcade style games, players were looking for something to sink countless hours into to justify their purchase. Enter Destiny; a brand new IP from a team with a stellar reputation and a massive budget. Destiny poised itself as a promising start for the new systems and a truly unique and epic experience. Gamers immediately lined up to get a hold of this next phenomenon. This is where the trouble begins. A massive advertising campaign begins and people follow it avidly. A series of behind the scenes videos and interviews featuring incredibly vague descriptions of what Destiny has in store are released and help to start a huge hype machine full of misinterpretations, misinformation, and speculation. No one knew exactly what it was and Bungie was keeping everything about Destiny close to the vest. Even the alpha and beta contained the same exact parts of the game that had been revealed at early press events. Despite this the great mechanics and prevailing opinion that we were only seeing a minuscule portion of what was in store helped create a pre-order storm that swept the gaming community. Most games now feature special edition pre-orders and bonuses with varying price ranges. Most of these games are from proven developers and established IP with an avid fan base. Bungie of course is one of those proven developers and people jumped at the chance to spend 80 to 100 dollars on a full game and additional content that would give them hours of enjoyable gameplay. Then Destiny launches with everyone's expectations impossibly high, only to bring them crashing back to a much more reasonable level. Suddenly this 80-100 dollar investment is feeling a lot more like a 60 dollar one. I am sometimes unsure about my opinion on what this game turned out to be. I certainly got my money's worth and am glad I bought it but, my view has been muddled by several things that cast Destiny in a more positive light. Firstly, I love the people I have been playing with and we have a great time together. Grinding for gear is much more entertaining when you are chatting about life, other games, or just joking around. The times I have approached these monotonous tasks alone they have been much more painful. Secondly, the market is pretty dry for gamers like myself. Me and my friends on Destiny have talked often about how this is all we have to play right now. Conversations lean more and more everyday toward what we will be playing together next, which is not a good sign. I frequently see forum conversations where a reasonably angry gamer makes a valid point only to have some one fire back, "If it is so bad why have you played 60 hours." For me that answer is easy: "It is reasonably fun, and I have nothing else to play." I firmly believe in a more diverse market Destiny would already be in my rearview mirror. The final thing that makes me feel more positive than most about Destiny is that I have invested myself completely. I downloaded the companion app, read the grimoire cards, and learned all of the ins and outs. For a game that panders to so many gamers it certainly doesn't bother to explain itself regarding it's systems or it's lore. I had to spend a lot of extra time off game to get a complete experience and this helped the game out considerably. Putting myself in the shoes of an upset gamer that fell into the hype, bought the special edition, and spent the last year in anticipation, I completely understand their dissatisfaction. Destiny has some glaring flaws and half baked systems which can really make the game frustrating. Without going into too many some of the major offenders are, lack of social features and interactions, cryptarch loot system, grimoire cards, and the incredibly weak story. Destiny feels like half of a full experience augmented with filler to be a more complete one. Imagine spending 100 dollars for a Bungie game because you liked Halo's story and the cutscenes in Destiny's beta looked promising only to find that there are only a handful more cutscenes in the entire game with an ending that had me saying, "Wait, was that the ending... Let me check the map for the next mission." Bungie was certainly not upfront about the story not being forefront or that it would be sold in pieces. They certainly didn't mention that the full experience can only be had at Bungie.net by reading card after card of lore. I say all of these things because I am somewhat let down by the final product and invalidating people by saying they expect t much is unfair. If I had to speak for all of the other gamers that feel unfulfilled and unhappy with Bungie, or Activision because of Destiny, I would say it is because it feels a little bit like were taken by a con artist. That may sound extreme but, when you look at a bold offering of a 100 dollar edition for something totally new, or at the extreme advertising budget, or even about the secrecy leading up to release you can see how some people may feel that the wool was pulled over their eyes. They put their trust in a developer thinking the product would be fully represented in what was shown to the players. Now there are people out there with a statue of a character with lackluster voice acting, booklets of info they will never use, a copy of a game gathering dust, codes to DLC they don't want, and they are 100 dollars lighter. But, no matter what people paid for Destiny, I think a lot of people thought they were buying a promise and now it's broken. There are many reasons I could go over for why some one may have given up on Destiny, but I see where they are coming from and feel the same in some regards. Why Destiny is not the game people thought it would be is a mystery but, this undoubtedly damaged Bungie's relationship with some of it's fan base. I will probably sign on today and do some bounties and continue to get value from this product but, they jury is still out on the DLC purchase for me. Even though I don't feel railroaded I wanted to say that I think that is a valid stance and that I hope Bungie does their best to deliver on the promise that was made. In the meantime, let's keep our fingers crossed that future titles will help fill the void Destiny did not and that maybe due to this reaction from the community developers will be inspired to be more open and honest with the community about what to expect so that we can spend more time playing and less time arguing about what is living up to the hype.