This mechanic of gear "expiring" isn't new, it's a common staple in most RPG's especially in the live service domain. What is incredibly myopic and cause for concern here is the implementation of how this is happening. In most games old gear is phased out and players gravitate toward new gear voluntarily, it's something they want to do because it's the only way their character can increase in power to go on and do bigger and better things. I can't think of any examples of games that I've played where this has happened to the players loot or the player themselves. Usually, the items are as powerful as they always were, just not as powerful as the newer stuff. The reason this works in a lot of games is because of the static nature of the levelling mechanics. The weapon you had may have been godly at level 60, but at level 75 it's not doing anything for you that literally any random drop wouldn't do a better job of, so what do you do? You do what is in the best interests of your character and trade up, and part of the reason this is more acceptable is because these values are static your character is more powerful in very tangible ways. If you're level 70 with amazing level 70 weapons and armour, you can walk around one shotting level 60 stuff. The level system and power structure has tangible benefits that you can clearly see. The downside of this however is that it makes to game world smaller, because there's nothing for a level 70 character to do or benefit from in a level 10 area, and because all of these players need a place to be able to exist in the static level system it renders huge portions of the game world and content completely obsolete for the majority of the player base. That's the cost of that system. The benefit is players are in a constant state of forward motion, and they want the new stuff because the new stuff gives them consistent benefits that they can clearly see and objectively measure. Destiny doesn't really work like this, the mechanics are kind of there but it's more of a façade. Destiny power levels mean very little, especially in comparison to most other games. We no longer even have character levels, that mechanic went away with New Light. What we have is "Light level", however once you're plus or minus 20 or so light from the required light level of that activity, you're not going to see any difference. I'm currently 993 light, I should be be able to kill Calus with one Blade Barrage at this point if my character was genuinely getting more powerful, but I can't because that's not really how Destiny works. Destiny doesn't operate on a static level system, it's fluid. Enemies aren't going to be easier to kill because you out level them by 300 levels, the difference between you being 50 levels above them and 500 levels above them will be negligible. Which is great for the game world as a whole, it keeps everything grounded and doesn't make huge areas of the game completely pointless. Everyone can have something to do or a reason to be at every single location in Destiny. The "problem" however, is that by making the levels and power systems of the game fluid, it ironically makes everything that should revolve around those power levels static. A 750 light level gun will function identically to a 970 light level, both in terms of the gun itself but also in terms of damage. I've done this before. I've gotten a 750 Oxygen SR3, a 950 Oxygen SR3 and a 970 Oxygen SR3. Gone into the tribute hall, loaded up an ogre and compared. The difference between a 750 weapon and 970 weapon was like 300 damage per shot, which sounds significant but when you actually time how long it takes different guns of varying light to actually kill the ogre the difference in the time to kill works out to be about 2 seconds. So I genuinely am starting to wonder what people are talking about when they constantly talk about power creep, because it's starting to just feel like a buzzword people throw around to excuse uncreative solutions for lazy design. Most examples of power creep in Destiny aren't really power creep, it's just preference with limited options. People point to everyone using Iza, but Iza only became dominant as a result of mechanic changes which made Whisper and Swarm less powerful. Technically Whisper is still the better sniper rifle, if you have god tier aim to hit like 26 crits in a row, which most don't so they go for the safe option which is Iza. This is why people talking about power creep baffles me in this game, because in this game the most powerful item isn't always the most popular. The most popular tends to be the easiest to use, the safest option, this isn't indicative of a power gap this is indicative of a skill gap. In PvP I find myself constantly switching between arc, void and solar. Between Stompees, Foetracer, Wormhusk, Liar's, Ophidia... I'm constantly looking at my guns, wondering if I should pull my Revoker or stick with my Bygones. Maybe it's time for Chaperone? Mountaintop? Wishing I wasn't locked into Luna's Howl for another 300 kills so I could pull my Lord of Wolves, Recluse, Mindbender's... Hell there's a guy in my clan who rarely doesn't come top of the leader board using Eriana's Vow and that curated Braytech Werewolf from season of the lost. These guns are not the equivalent to Magic cards, and we're not in a open system Bungie has next to no control over variables of once cards have been printed and published, and I have no problems with looking to other games and genres for inspiration (I even wish Bungie would take a few hints regarding their inventory and UI design from most of them) but... It seems to me Bungie want all the benefits of having everything in the game world stay relevant by omitting a static levelling structure in favour of a fluid one, whilst at the same time wanting none of the downsides to that, which is that these numbers don't actually correspond to anything tangible within the game world outside of arbitrary thresholds Bungie implements which makes things stagnant because people don't have any reason to grind for new versions of stuff they already have. However rather than give people new versions of stuff they don't already have, they instead want to make everything people have already got null and void whilst offering the player nothing but another treadmill in exchange. You have to make people want to get rid of their old stuff in favour of the new stuff, and you're only going to do that by giving them better stuff, and at this point I'll remind you that better doesn't necessarily mean more powerful. It can be more powerful with a higher skill threshold, or less powerful with a lower skill threshold. Whatever the method there has to be a tangible incentive, the player has to prefer what you're offering over what they have and the response of "Well... what if you didn't already have that thing you have?" just reeks of myopic lazyness. Which in truth I think is most people's issue with it, I think people expect better from Bungie than... "Hey, loot is kinda losing it's appeal in our looter shooter, this might be a problem..." "Not if we take away their loot!" "Great call! GOOD LUCK GRINDING OUT THAT LUNA'S HOWL MK2 YA NERDS! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!" "MWHAHAHAHAHAH!" Yeah... no, I don't think many people will hang around for that, and they won't make massive forum posts announcing their grievances they'll just play something else.

Trials is gonna be a smashing success..... ....for the YouTube streamers. "If you like this content, please scroll below, hit 'like', and subscribe!"

there is no such thing as power creep, we only get nerfs where enemies get buffs. knight shooting earlier 5 projectiles in 120 angle just 2 weeks ago started shooting with grenaded with 100% accurancy and 3x faster, so in 1 second he shoots 5 grenades and he doesnt need to reload, like wizzard or ogre 1s in his fire and you are dead. doesnt frakin matter if you have resilience 100 and void resistance or solar or minor and major and boss. crown of sorrow love and death is so weak against boss, where leviathan it masacres him. funny how you do 980 below 980 you die faster, do less damage due you are underpowered, funny when you are 1030 you die same way as 980 cos there is no overpower. so where is that magical power creep bungo, cos all i see is every week changes and buffs to enemies, to us its only nerfs

easier said than done. power creep is something that afflicts gameplay balance and becomes increasingly harder to keep in check as time goes on. even with the most creative minds tackling the challenge, at some point it just becomes impossible, and as someone whos always studied game design (of various types) i can tell you that people who do not understand power creep dont understand game design, and much less the challenges it presents. im no fan of the cycling approach, one that MtG and pokemon TCG players are familiar with, but it IS a viable solution, and depending on how they go about it, its not the WORST one (rotating out/in certain weapons would be better than outright removing some, for one), as i do agree that using this solution is not the best choice either, though that being said, i cant really think of a better alternative at the moment. point is, please dont mindlessly dribble "its a stupid idea!" without a mindful alternative, or at least not so rudely, a neutral approach is MUCH better than a rude one. also, maybe, all things considered, what we REALLY need IS a Destiny 3 to start again from.

Power creep in destiny is a dev fuelled misconception, in pve there are many mechanics and modifiers that can can alter this in game without any major weapon rebalancing or retirement required PvP endgame again the baseline archetypes are really only separated by perks which the devs can easily control with a nerf or buff methodology honestly even the so called outlier weapons are hardly massively op. Rework rethink the perk pool is all that required and some imagination and creativity in regard to enemy Ai for endgame. I'm sure power creep will eventually become a thing but destiny right now is far closer to halo Esk even starts and static Esk weapon rolls than it is to a rpg/mmo where power creep is a genuine issue The real question should be why do the devs really want us the retire/rotate weapons? I'm pretty sure most of us know the answer and it's nothing to do with power creep within the current sandbox and more to do with grinding for the same gun with a different name every few seasons

Almost everything you said was false. It’s more that damage numbers, it’s the recoil and weapon perks, and right now, nothing can beat spare rations and it’s insane bullet magnetism and no recoil

Power creep isn't the issue. Lack of depth is.

https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/255336759/0/0 Using power creep as an excuse to limit infusion is dishonest. Bungie is about to devalue player effort, its design team’s effort, and display the most gutless lack of conviction in their own creative abilities. Keep this topic front and center.

Power creep is fake news. Don’t believe what they say. It is simply a method to inflate play time.

This “power creep” thing smells like complete horse shit to me.

Well, I do appreciate the problem they're having. I really do. They want people to have the desire to find new loot to keep replaying the same old stuff over and over again. They don't want people just sharding all their drops, I get that. They want to fix it before it goes to the "blow up the vault" stage. I do appreciate that too. They can't just keep making guns better and better. Fan favorite Spare Rations has aim assist 92 I believe (big part of its appeal) and now the new JQK5 has 96... what next, a gun with full 100 assist? What comes after that? They are also trying to copy the RPG model where you use sword A for levels 1-5 and then throw it away when you find sword B for levels 6-10... FWIW, The Division used the dumb model where you could find the exact same gun just at different "levels" for improved stats and damage. Except it was even more dumb in the mostly realistic setting.... Buuut... is this the correct solution? I think they're barking up a completely wrong tree. I think you're off from the get go if you're trying to get players to play your content just for the rewards. IMHO, that only leads to exploits, speed running etc. The content itself needs to be the reward. That is the only long term solution. The Crucible, for all its faults, is closest to that. People play matches for the matches, not the mostly useless drops at the end.

misinformation no weapons are getting deleted unless you go do it yourself. they are just being locked out of endgame and light based crucible

This is more a case of nobody actually listening to the directors cut (can't blame you!). Basically the weapon cap is to allow the weapon team to put out new versions of the stuff you already have without it (rightly) getting lost in the loot pool or called out as being inferior to the stuff you already have. Zero to do with power creep.

Your understanding of power creep is limited. Power creep isn't "weapon to weapon." It's "power vs time." Over time from season to season, for weapons to become more valuable they either have to become more powerful when compared to the previous seasons' (power creep), or they have to have an advantage in certain activities, i.e., endgame activities (from the higher infusion cap). Just changing how a gun works, like Martyrs as you mentioned, doesn't necessarily add value to a gun if it still isn't good. Martyrs doesn't even compare to Mountaintop, and therefore it's value, no matter how new it is, is low.

At this point some weapons are in need of a dire buff that it even wont affect the power creep 😂

Power creep isn’t just more damage but better perks and stats of a weapon like midnight coup compared to spare rations Very very much power creep If it’s so easy to get rid of power creep then show us how. Try to help and not yell at them if you don’t know crap Bungie wants you to use the new weapons and armor and they can’t do that if the new guns aren’t good enough to be viable New light player will be fine, they will grind the game like everyone else. Once they hit endgame they will be trying to go for endgame loot like everyone else and plus they are getting the game free Only reason people are grinding for the same old crap is because it is better This system actually makes it so powercreep is non-existent or barely there because when the best weapons go away they don’t have to make the newer ones better than the last. Let’s just wait and see what happens