[quote]“In Destiny 2, with infusion, it’s like having every card you own in Magic available and playable in all formats forever. It passively creates power creep (an ongoing Destiny problem), which also means our teams need to spend more and more of their time re-testing and supporting old stuff instead of making new stuff, it reduces player desire for new items (which dismantles aspiration like the shard-the-blues post-Crucible match ritual), and it means we ultimately create a ton of gear that doesn’t have any value beyond ticking the box on the “I Got It” checklist. “That isn’t value. It’s actually the opposite of value, because it’s work that we could be putting into making new stuff, or improving old stuff.” -Luke Smith[/quote] I didn't understand Luke's argument when I first heard this weeks ago. But after a couple of extra passes, I now I think I get what he's saying...and Bungie has no business retiring weapons. First of all, there's a glaring contradiction. He's dismayed about the time his team spends "supporting old stuff instead of making new stuff", because he wants them "making new stuff, or improving old stuff.” How do you improve old stuff without supporting old stuff? Why does "supporting" a weapon that's already up and running, take more time than improving it? The notion that infusing weapons makes extra work for Bungie was already a hard sell, without this weird reasoning. The driving force of the policy though is Luke's concern that new gear must be better(ie: more powerful) than what players already have, to be genuinely desirable. This is a legitimate design hurdle for a looter shooter. But it's one that requires a creative solution. Not a heavy handed restriction on player choice. Xbox Live doesn't limit me to 30 minutes of Destiny, because they want me to play more Gears of War. This has been on my mind since I heard Aztecross say yesterday that Revoker isn't being nerfed, because it's going to be sunset this fall anyway. I thought "damn I haven't even earned that gun yet". Does it even matter that some weapons required insane amounts of time and effort to land? Try solo cueing your way to a Not Forgotten, then listen to Luke basically tell you, "use this "Zavala's Jock Strap" hand cannon instead". I'd prefer to make that choice myself please. The thing is, I think Bungie had been doing pretty well on that front for years. The "I Got It" checklist Luke complains about in his post, has actually motivated a zillion hours of my Destiny play time. If a new exotic or series of cool looking weapons is introduced, there IS value in acquiring them, even if they ultimately don't make the cut in my loadout.