Hello all! I am hoping to highlight some of my observations about Destiny through this post, and I hope those of you who read it will enjoy it. It will be long but after each paragraph I will insert a TL;DR summary for those of you who want to get the gist of what I will say. [b]First of all, the Beta and Weapon Tuning Turmoil[/b] Why is Destiny still Beta? First, let's start with the definition of a Beta game. Here is a Definition by Urban Dictionary; [quote]A beta version of a program, game etc... is an unfinished version released to either the public a select few or whoever signs up to beta test it for bugs or glitches.[/quote] This wikipedia page also breaks down the various stages of a video game as well, which is also helpful; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_development#Beta. It is also commonly known that a Beta video game is played by the lucky players who get picked to test out the unfinished video game for bugs and various other things. Also from reading one post on the forum, the Beta players didn't have access to all of the game, and some guns worked and didn't work, some enemies had this and that, and so on. So, how then does this make the current game we are playing Beta? This game clearly has areas which are not yet accessible to us. For example; the final subclass slot being blank (yes, I know this will be filled with TTK); the many open slots for ghost shells (yes, I know if you bought the one special edition you got the red ghost shell, but multiple slots and dead ghosts that we revive suggest that in the future custom ghost shells will exist.) Other examples include spaces on The Reef map and on other maps; we can only go to 3 of 9 planets in our solar system; the story has wide gaping holes that leave way more questions than answers and is severely lackluster (I don’t play COD because the story is short, and Destiny doesn’t even have a short story, it’s incomplete!); guns are imbalanced and continue to receive multiple changes (most games don't need this to my knowledge when released to the public); and a myriad of other things that I am sure you all can point out (ToO cheating possibilities). Also, it has been stated by many members of the community that Bungie has said they are open to our suggestions for the game. Isn't that what Beta versions of games rely on? It seems like Bungie is definitely relying on this. Every game I suppose wants to hear about major issues that seriously affect gameplay, but Bungie seems to be relying on this a lot, just my observation. This is largely observed with weapon balancing. I would expect a completed game to not need to balance weapons as much, and to rigorously have the weapons tested by Beta testers and employees so that there would be minimal need to send out large patches. If you wanted us to take longer for missions and strikes, this should have been totally ironed out before the game was released. [u]Weapon Tuning Turmoil[/u] I don't have a whole lot of experience with shooting games, so I am not entirely sure how much weapon tuning other shooting games have had (is it called FPS? my inexperience is showing!) I also want it to be known that I am up for the new 2.0 weapon balance because I want to see how this will affect the game, and if it will allow people to decide to use more weapons in crucible. Although many people already do this, I think a lot of people also use things like TLW and Thorn because they're strong and can bring easy kills a good amount of the time (which is why I use TLW because I'm not that great at pvp). I think that the amount of weapon tuning in this game is disproportionate for a "completed" game (going back to my beta argument). Once again, if the developers of this game had made sure that weapons were balanced before releasing the game, then tweaks would barely need to be made. Also, if they had spent more time with weapons, they would have been able to determine that the exotics (like Gjallarhorn) would have been correctly balanced had their power only been slightly superior to Legendary weapons (and since this game is still in beta, our feedback can determine the correct balance, and why so many patches are being dished out for weapons). I want to say more about the Gjallarhorn, and the Ice Breaker. Gjallarhorn, from what I've read, is being "nerfed" because of people requiring it for raiding, and the Ice Breaker is being "nerfed" because people sit and shoot barely moving (which is the point of a sniper, might I add). From the player’s standpoint, these weapons are used to take down the bosses faster. Why would I or anyone else want to spend a long time beating these bosses that we have already conquered multiple times? This is another problem; the limited content associated with the 10 year model… TL;DR - This game has many incomplete things and a lot of bugs, and Bungie seems to lean on our feedback a lot, especially for weapons. [b]Second, the 10 year release plan.[/b] But the 10 year plan addresses the missing content you say? Yes it does, however this is an interesting concept. Let me relate this to a television show that has seasons. If a television show released a new episode once a year, people would get very bored an uninterested. But if they released an episode once a week for 15+ weeks, people would be interested and satisfied and be excited for the next season since they were fed content at reasonable intervals over a reasonable period of time. This is one of the differences between video games and TV series (also the interaction involved with video gaming). It is also why video games now tend to release DLC (just an observation). Many games have content that you can pour hours into until the next release of the game (Skyrim). Many games have content that you can pour a moderate amount of hours into, and then be able to release a game each year to keep refreshing interest (Assassin's Creed, however I have lost interest since the game has lost its magic in my opinion for various reasons). What Bungie has done for Destiny is release a game that would have had the potential to have you put in a moderate amount of hours until the next game is released. The problem lies with the very limited amount of content, which aligns with the example of a television show releasing one episode a year and having people lose interest. How did they combat this possibility of waning interest? They implemented an RNG system. This is what keeps people playing until the next installment. Releasing content each week would lose them money, obviously. So with the RNG, you never know what you are going to get, or when you will get it, while also keeping players around. While this may not equate to interest, it does equate to continuous playing, which is good for the company (but very frustrating for the player, and why many have left this game behind. No, things shouldn’t be handed to us, but they should be reasonably *acquired). TL;DR - Destiny is a Hybrid of a television series that releases its episodes every once in a while, and keeps people interested via an RNG system that employs a gambling system that keeps you hooked and playing to get what you want (give me Suros and IceBreaker please!) [b]Last but not least, The 10 year game and our wallets[/b] So, in this section I am going to talk a little about pricing. I don't have a whole lot of room to complain since Destiny and the System I play on were given to me as a gift (for which I am very grateful for). What I'd like to talk about is how much someone could spend on this game over the next 10 years if Bungie and Activision decide to stick to this interesting yet very questionable business model. These are estimates. So the base game initially was $60 dollars, and the two expansions were $20 each. Let's say they do this each year; TTK is $40, so I am going to guess very roughly that the next DLC's after that will be approximately $20 each ($40+$20, assuming they don’t release a $60 DLC besides Destiny 2). So that makes $80 for the next 9 years. $80 x 9 = $720 + $100 for the initial game makes a total of $820+ spent for 10 years. Now, this is a VERY flexible number, but it is an example for how much you might pay for the game if they continue to follow the model they are employing. Apparently there are 9.5 million users according to this article http://kotaku.com/all-the-ways-activision-is-avoiding-saying-what-destiny-1654985376. So applying our 10 year investment with that they will have made near $7.8 billion (probably more).Interesting! That's not something I am interested in doing for a game that is incomplete (Beta!). If you want to, that's ok, it's your money and you can do whatever you want with it. I am interested in TTK but I am going to wait to buy it. I am not sure about future expansions, but I don't find it worth it to invest that much money into one game that is not complete. Maybe for complete games over time, but not for DLC. TL;DR- If Bungie and Activision continue with their business model, you will have spent somewhere in the ballpark of $800+ dollars over ten years to fully play Destiny. Destiny has a lot of potential to be a truly amazing game, since it already has amazing graphics, and the supporting material to grow into something great. It is also interesting how they have employed psychology (RNG) to keep players, and also plan to release the game over 10 years like a television series. They are trying to do something new. However, this is very frustrating for a large amount of players, and it is possible that many players will have invested a very large amount of money for one single game over the course of 10 years. I hope you guys enjoyed or at least were interested in my analysis. I hope to engage in fruitful discussion with many of you.