( [b]**Added a section toward the bottom, I'm done updating this thread**[/b]) ( **[b]REVISED[/b]** Oct 21, 2017 ...cause y'all are way too salty!) To start, join me and look back at this review from 2014. It's relevant because it shows how the vocal veteran players felt about the game from launch up to the release of The Dark Below: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2p0t82/ars_technicas_scathing_review_of_the_dark_below/ Based on the many replies in that thread, and the replies to over a handful of reviews on Destiny from that period, it seems a lot of veterans forgot what D1 was actually like. If you took the time to read the previous link, you'll find some of the replies in that thread are nearly identical to some of the complaints and frustration we are hearing right now. And please don't bother replying with how great you thought D1 was in year 1, you may have enjoyed it, I won't dispute that and you won't get an argument out of me any more for it. But an overwhelming majority of posts from that date don't speak too highly of D1 during it's first handful of months. This next thread sheds a little more light on the current situation, and reflects a little on how vets keep comparing D1 to D2: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/77f8kz/in_criticizing_destiny_2_people_need_to_stop/ Moving forward to year 3 of Destiny 1, things were looking good according to reviews and player posts from numerous communties. Content was good, Quality of Life improvements were good and then came Destiny 2. D1 vets noticed that a lot of that stuff that made D1 great, wasn't brought over to D2 at launch. Destiny 2 was a hard reset in the franchise. It basically meant we are all starting over from ground zero in D2. But considering that development of D2 started just 2 months after the launch of D1, a lot of folks are asking: where did everything from the last 3 years of development and updates go because they weren't included with D2 launch? D1 vets seem to have gotten the short end of the stick. Speaking to Games Industry Biz ( https://gamingbolt.com/destiny-2-is-a-hard-reset-that-activision-really-debated ), Hirshberg said, “Destiny 2 is a sequel, a hard reset, and that choice was not a casual decision. It was something we really debated, because if you are in a persistent universe, then obviously people’s investment continues to have value in perpetuity. However, it can also become intimidating for new players to join. “If you have an annual reset like we do with Call of Duty, you run the risk of people not coming back because that investment didn’t carry over to the new game. But certainly the annual release has been a big contributor to what has kept it fresh for so long. We have been able to bring in new ideas in a way that I don’t think we would have been able to do if we were still building on a persistent universe that started 10 years ago.” It seems that the community is currently divided on the fact that D1 and D2 are different games. Some claim it's different code/software. Others say it's just a copy/paste of the same base game. What we do know is that it is not a continuation -- this is D2, not D1 version 2. We also know that D2 was developed by a different team, with different tools. We know that D1 got a lot of improvements over those three years. And based on Bungie's track record, there's no reason to believe that D2 won't get the same love and attention that made us all fall in love with it. A number of players who have spent "too much time" (seriously, destiny was not a game designed to spend 8 hours a day in, day after day) now find that they have nothing to do in game, or, nothing worth doing at the moment. And as the days pass, more and more players are catching up to that point. Stepping back a minute and looking at the bigger picture, it's a similar story that plagues the history of not only D1, and now D2, but many other games as well. And while this might seem somewhat "normal" for players new to the franchise, it doesn't seem normal to a lot of Destiny veterans who have been long time fans of the franchise. It was a let down not only because it was a hard reset, losing everything they worked for over 3 years, the game changed even further away from what was originally shown off. Take a look at this old demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIp7vZuYzoA Destiny was originally featured as a large, shared world shooter RPG. Combining "ancient fantasy" plus "hard science fiction," it was shaping up well to be that in year 3 of D1, according to some veterans. And now with competative PVP one of the main features of the game, these and other changes have left some of the veteran players pretty salty. Unfortunately, this salt has started to divide the community even further apart. Some have taken a break to play other games until new content comes out, some claim they are done for good, meanwhile PC players haven't even had a chance to play yet. PC version launches in a 3 days (counting from the revision date of this post). Another perspective to think about here, speaking toward the veterans of the community, this isn't only about D1 veterans having a D2 experience that they feel should be on par with D1 year three. There are a lot of new players to the franchise who want to be able to enjoy D2, on day one, without requiring veteran level D1 knowledge and skill to do so! They want their "day one" experience, too. However you happen to feel about the franchise or the community, we only have one direction to go from this point - forward. So, moving on, here's hoping for a bright future! See you in game! ----- [b]**[u]UPDATE Oct 22, 2017[/u]**[/b]: what it seems a lot of D1 vets are saying here about D2, there are probably still a half dozen or so more adventures, regional chests, lost sectors and other markers left to clear on your maps ...there are strikes, regular and prestige nightfall, a regular and prestige raid ...but where's the incentive to complete them or keep doing them? It's not that the content that is lacking, it is the incentive. It feels like there's very little potential, no secrets, no reason to explore beyond the Lost Sectors and regional chests and even they are already marked for you on the map! When you combine this with the fact that the majority of hardcore veterans raced to end game because they were chasing their dreams/expectations because they thought the experience would be like D1... this is the reason why the population has dropped by over 70%! Now, it won't be too much longer after PC launch before the salt finally dies down. Then when the next DLC comes out, everyone will whine and complain about how the new DLC sucks and they loved the game at launch. And so on with the next DLC after that, and so on and so forth. Personally, I'm not a fan or hater of the game at this point, I'm sure that'll change once I get to play the PC version. But it seems to me a lot of salty vets are replying to this post (and others) as consumers, thinking because they bought the game they should just be a-holes to people with the defense of, "I'm a consumer so I don't have to have patience or try to understand how things work". I get it, you D1 vets feel slighted by Bungie. But willfully living in ignorance isn't an excuse to being an a-hole to people online. Enough with the salt - move on, go back to d1, or STFU and play the game. There's been dozens upon dozens of well written critiques of the game yet a lot of salty vets keep down voting and piling thousands of useless replies to those threads - "lol this game sucks upvote please." The loyal veterans have my sympathy, but at the same time it's no wonder a lot of people are starting to not give a shit what they have to say at the moment because much of the time, it's the same whiny, i-am-a-victim reply after reply ...followed by more entitlement and/or defeatism. -------------------------------------------- For those who might be interested in the more distant past, here is the messy, true story behind the making of Destiny: https://kotaku.com/the-messy-true-story-behind-the-making-of-destiny-1737556731 On a personal note about me, I'm new to the franchise too as a player. I have only played D1 for a very negligible amount of time as up to this point it's been my family and friends who have been playing the game. While I was following the game loosely before it was announced to PC, I was holding out for PC. I watched the first 3 groups complete the Leviathan raid and I've been taking notes ever since. A long time hardcore gamer but new to Destiny, I found the salt here on the forums and reddit a bit more than the usual MMO's I play so I decided to do some research on the state of the community. This post is the result of my efforts on that front, that I felt might be appreciated by some. (It turns out, most would rather just throw salt and downvote me but that's fine. I didn't expect any different lol). And as for my "legitimacy" or my right to be here and share my opinion; I pre-ordered the $99 version from Blizzard for PC. Not that I needed it to validate myself here, it's a public forum after all, but some unsavory characters have told me to basically GTFO the forums because I "have never played the game." ...yeah sorry to disappoint, but that won't be happening! I've been gaming online since before MMORPG's were a thing and have been a leader in many of the communities I've been a part of until this year where I've slowed my roll and just played with my family in various online games, waiting for D2 launch. I've learned to have thick skin on the net and I'm not afraid the shove that salt right back in your filthy whore mouth. ;)