Nice👍 Excellent points all round. I still play most days, actually enjoying finishing off EoF stuff and renegades collectibles. Enjoy the faction system in renegades, and the activities themselves. Faction abilities are fun, and as you say prraxic blade is awesome! Can take or leave invading, too much like gambit - but undertaker seal gives me something to go for. What makes me turn the game off? The portal - pure and simple. Also this expectation that once you reach 550 the only way to get decent loot is GM or ultimate activities. Its that bs mentality that has killed the game. Back in the day when you reached hard light cap you could still play many activities on regular difficulty and get good loot. GM’s and master raids and dungeons existed to really challenge players if they wished. Used to really look forward to guilding conqueror each season especially the hard gm’s.

Whilst I personally disagree on some of the little things (I find the PvP aspect of the Frontier just dull and tedious, and whilst I like the [i]idea[/i] of Set Bonuses, few of the current ones really resonate with me, and they [b]really[/b] don't work with the combo of FOMO & RNG). But I definitely agree with the big idea that the social systems of the game need a [b]massive[/b] upgrade. One of the biggest issues really has been the Portal, and the fact that so little is actually matchmade there. The almost-complete abandoning of Raids & Dungeons by not delaying Tier roll-out until it was more universal really did not help. But I remember some of the most fun I had outside of my clan Raid teams, and it was Public Event stuff (including some open world Seasonal events), with blueberries I'd never met before and would never see again. Whilst I got into my clan via a friend from a different game, I'm sure the majority of people in clans met their clans through open world or PUGs (either from Legacy FTF or 3rd-party sites) for RAD content. And Bungie just abandoned all of that to create the Portal (and killed Legacy FTF for the single worst grouping tool I have [i]ever[/i] seen in >2 decades of playing multiplayer games). I also fully agree about the performance anxiety for endgame keeping it empty. I know a fair few people are going to be outraged by this take, but I think Bungie [b]really[/b] harmed the game by focusing on the upper echelons to the exclusion of the casual play, starting of course in Lightfall. I honestly think this was the [i]worst[/i] thing about Lightfall, and I'm including the story and how it was told in that assessment. But this is not [i]just[/i] a Bungie issue; the community is absolutely at fault as well here (although Bungie should have done damage control on this; more on that later). Because the one redeeming feature of the Lightfall difficulty was RoN: a Raid that was accessible for first-time Raiders; and the community f***ing [b]torched[/b] it. How [b]dare[/b] Bungie make content for people who were interested in starting raiding, instead of making everything for elitist gatekeeping prats like Datto and Salt. What Bungie [i]should[/i] have done is respond with a statement saying that they want more people to get into true endgame, and they were going to make content to facilitate that (and they probably should also give rewards for sherpa-ing); instead what they did was apologize for trying to grow their endgame, and continued trying to make it an ever-more gated playground for Datto and his whiny ilk so they can feel special. And the message from what Bungie did to appease the sweats was clear: casuals aren't welcome; but if that content is what is used as the draw to keep players playing, what Bungie has actually said is "casuals, there is no point grinding, because the endpoint is not for you", and so they just didn't. I know people are gonna read this and say I'm just another unskilled casual raging that Bungie aren't giving me my handouts; those people are f***ing idiots. Because I'm not; I've done every Raid multiple times, every Dungeon except Equilibrium (still need to poke the few in my clan still playing to get a few runs in, then I'll PUG it). I've even done a few Master Raids and Dungeons, and attempted some Contests (but I stopped because I just don't find it fun). I still rock my Godslayer title, and I got that through PUGs, because only the two Day 1 teams in clan were doing it and I was on neither. I made the above comments having been one of the people sherpa-ing in my clan, persuading people that they [i]can[/i] actually do this content, and that if they take several runs through to learn an encounter, that's fine; I've helped teach Verity (because we always teach that one as a pair), I've taught all of Crota's End, DSC, Vow. Only things I haven't taught are LW (because there wasn't much interest, and no one wants to learn Riven legit, though I have done it) and Desert (because the clan is now basically dead, and no one wants to learn it). So I can say that there are definitely people not fully engaging with the game because some toxic -blam!- have decided the endgame is for sweats only, and Bungie for some reason listened to them.

"The Final Shape" worked because Bungie doubled (or even tripled) their efforts to deliver a wide range of content. The start of Destiny 2 following by its first two releases was already problematic. "Forsaken" (again, with a wide range of content) safed the game from being shut off while "Beyond Light" with the start of the Destiny Content Vault set the final course for a downtrend. Bungie miscalculated themselfs totally! The remains are a sad cluster, while top tier developers are shifted to Sony or just fired. In addition comes Pete with his, from my perspective, agenda of an ex-Microsoft manager. For a long time, the game was held together, by loyal customers with the will to pay, but even those were antagonized by Bungie. Today, you can see clear, judging by the quantity and quality they are working with were Destiny 2 stands. I'm sure there are still developers with hearts and minds but they don't get a chance. Not with the financial value the game produces today.

[quote]The armor sets are fantastic, the stat changes are logical and a huge improvement over the previous iteration stats.[/quote] No. The only reason they did this is because the 10 year story was over, and there was no one left from the golden days capable of developing any new decent content. The changes are minuscule and they only did it to make us grind for new armour....unnecessary filler content. [quote]But the issue is that these good changes came essentially FAR too late, after years of people asking for these things [/quote] Again , no. These were the very reasons [b]WHY [/b]people left, changes that [b]NO ONE[/b] asked for. [quote]But far too many people simply choose not to run content simply because they cant perform at the level other people are expecting when running dungeons and raids[/quote] Again, wrong, well kind of anyway. After Destiny 2: The Final Shape, players were pushed to re-grind power, armour, and five-tier weapons — only to have old god rolls and craftables gutted, max power capped by −30 deltas, and enemies tuned into bullet sponges with punishing modifiers. When power fantasy is replaced with forced grind and artificial difficulty on the daily gameplay, burnout is inevitable for end game content. Raids and dungeons should feel aspirational — not exhausting after daily portal chores. You can’t blame the players who have left for killing Destiny. It was the very changes that you have been praising that did that.

I do love the expansions, but once u completed them, what are u planning on doing next? Pvp is dead, the only thing updated besides expansions are new weapons and armour sets which is great but not enough. Make money off of marathon and make a d3, recreate pvp if people want it instead of making a whole new game and start making events and all other different updates to sustain a new d3.

The TLDR is, the game doesnt have to collapse. There are simple ways to get players back without heavy DLC intense developer work or time needed. Effective simple and tried and true methods work for good reasons in other games