[b]ADDENDUM 2[/b]: About RNG It's not the usage of RNG that I object to. Random Number Generation, AKA. dice rolls, is a mechanism in games to simulate seemingly random events that might occur in a real or fictional situation. It's a [i]tool[/i]. It's also a [i]brush[/i] or a [i]color[/i] in a game designer's broad palette. But it is a tool/brush/color that I feel Bungie not only misapplies but too often relies upon as a [b][i]crutch[/i][/b]. The usage of Randomness in a simulation model or game is not a fixed point — it's a scale. RNG has various parameters, limits and ranges that should be taken into account when it is employed. Any particular event can be modeled to a particular [i]probability curve[/i]. The designer is supposed to tailor the randomness to the event being modeled. My sense is that many of the RNG calculations that Bungie employs follow broadly defined, flattened probability curves, such that each outcome has an equal chance of occurring, with few if any limits based on the other factors involved. The results of many of their chosen probability models seem altogether all-too [i]arbitrary[/i], and thus seem [i][b]improbable[/b][/i]. It breaks our ability to suspend disbelief or to accept. For example, I feel that item drops are far [i]too[/i] randomized to where the contents cover the broadest range of possible items, without due regard to the player's level, the enemy's level, the difficulty of the mission, etc. Couple that with the second random dice roll you take later with engrams presented to the Cryptarch, and the randomness becomes even worse. The way Bungie implements their RNG model is compounded by the way they seem to fallback on this one weak mechanism to handle just about [i]any[/i] situation, even where they should be using other modeling and game design tools in their toolbox. This is like an artist who always reaches for the factory color black to fill in those parts of the picture they're having problems with, rather than trying to work it in a more creative way like mixing umber brown and dark blue to get a more subtle and flexible hue, or something else altogether more pleasing to the eye and better fitting the whole design. The result of all this is that their probability curve is not a curve; it's a flatline. And because they use this throughout the game, too often and in too many situations, these become improbable probabilies. To the game player, it kicks us out of the simulation (so to speak), and without a story to give us some other reason for what we're doing, it frustrates us, because we feel like we have no real input into the outcome of what was sold to us as a story-driven game. Instead, it feels like all we're doing is twitch-mashing buttons on a big slot machine for hours upon hours, hoping to score big against poor odds for random item drops. Destiny has become just a senseless casino where the House has stacked the decks against the players. Some people enjoy outright gambling, and while that's not my cup of tea, all power to them. But that's not the game we were promised. Maybe this was actually Bungie and Activision intentionally baiting-and-switching us into entering into their "casino", using promises and false-hopes for lock-in, but I really hope that's not the case. Rather I'm hoping they have the capacity to realize the bad turn we and they have taken and are willing to turn this around in time. We'll see.