The issue is simple. ...it gets back to the same issues I was talking about in your other, bomb-throwing thread. 1. Cores add no value to the game for the player. 2. They exist in the game ONLY to bottleneck infusion...and to deny the player access to powers (gear perks) that they've already acquired....and slow-and-artificially extend progression rather than reward player time investment. 3. Bungie states that they are undersupplying the game with them. 4. THEY DON'T DROP FROM NORMAL GAME PLAY, WHICH ALLOWS BUNGIE TO SUPPLY THEM TO THE GAME IN A WAY THAT IS NOT RESPONSIVE TO PLAYER TIME INVESTMENT. IOW, this allows Bungie to effectively CAP how many we can get....just like Milestones impose a soft-cap on the number of drops we can get each week to progress our character. NOW listen closely....because here's the problem. 1. In combination with Milestones, Cores basically slap a restrictor plate on the game' progression engine. So you can only progress but so fast REGARDLESS of how much you play. 2. Cores amplify the problem by squelching the game's horizontal progression. So you create a second....artififical grind that doesn't reward the player with anything. Unless you massively stockpile cores....you have to reach level cap by playing with whatever drops.. Then there is a second, grind that forces you to eithe grind cores or grind MILESTONES (!!) to get duplicates of the gear you already have...so you can then raise them to cap. WHICH WOULD BE FINE IF THE LEVEL CAP WAS A STATIONARY TARGET. 3. But then Bungie raises the level cap every three months. So the majority of the player base has no TIME to complete this process before the level cap is raised....they get kicked down to the mid-game once again....and this toxic process starts all over again. If what TattooedOni said about you on the other thread is true....you are basically playing this game 40 hours a week. (Its the only way you get 3000 hours of play in 18 months). So you are either playing this game AS a job (streamer or content creator) OR you are playing it LIKE a full time job. Either way....the pain on this system doesn't TOUCH you. Because the three hours or so it takes you to grind cores gets swallowed up by a level of play time that makes you an EXTREME statistical outlier. IOW, you don't care about wasting 3 hours a week....because you have 37 other hours to do what you want. But that three hours a week may represent HALF the WEEKS game play for some pretty dedicated players. So half their play time gets WASTED doing the most tedious activities in the game...for essentially NO tangible reward. I'm another outlier. I'm top 4% our about 20 hours a week. This system is a problem for me, because I'm a veteran RPG player....and my end game is to construct and perfect multiple BUILDS. And cores DESTROY that play style. Before Foresaken I ran FOUR fulltime builds on each of three characters....and did it with ease. Not only did it with ease, I also could level up situational weapons and keep them in my valut to pull out and use when the game got stale. I WOULD NEED TO OBTAIN NEARLY 200 CORES PER WEEK TO MAINTAIN THAT PLAY STYLE. That level of core generation is a statisical IMPOSSIBILITY right now. Even at my level of outsized play, it took every hour of play and every cores that I could get my hands on just to maintain TWO builds. NO masterworking. No leveling up situational gear in my vault. IN SHORT, CORES HAVE TAKEN WHAT WAS ALWAYS A SHALLOW...BUT ENJOYABLE...GAME....AND MADE IT RIGID, EVEN MORE SHALLOW...AND AN UNENJOYABLE HAMSTER WHEEL OF EFFORT FOR THE SAKE OF EFFORT. ...making people have to go through a second manufactured grind to keep and use the stuff they've already earned is not a "grind". Its wasting people's time for no reward. But that's not the worst of it. I tried to level up a new character on PC back in the fall. Breezed thorugh the campaign with no problem. Then I hit this levelling system. I went from 0-500 over a holiday weekend. Despite the changes Bungie made for Black Armory...it took me THREE WEEKS to go from 500 to 550. Then I got stuck at 550 for another three weeks because I got nothing but kinetic weapons and boots as drops. THAT'S WHEN I QUIT THAT CHARACTER IN FRUSTRATION AND WENT BACK TO MY PSN CHARACTERS. THAT...IS WHAT BUNGIE HAS TURNED THIS GAME INTO FOR NEW AND RETURNING PLAYERS. Because the time I could dedicate to that fourth character is more indicative of what the AVERAGE player can afford to give to this game. . ...and its why this game's engagement numbers are slowly having their air let out as people who don't have 40 hours a week to throw at it...are quitting it in frustration.