No, this is not satire. I haven't played Destiny for a very long time. In fact, I haven't played any video games for a very long time. (I got rid of most of my gaming library.) But coming back to bungie.net and reading about the changes being made to Destiny has me convinced Bungie and Activision want Destiny to be your religion. Now why do I say this? Well, first of all let me some practices in my religion, Catholicism: *There is an obligation to go to Mass on Sunday (or Saturday if there is a reason not to make it on Sunday) *There are certain holy days of obligation throughout the year *There are seasons of sacrifice in which we must fast and give up something for the sake of the Lord (Lent) *Our lives must be centered around God. This means prayer, devotion, and service. Every Catholic, in order to be a good Catholic, must remember to honor the holy days of obligation, to love God above everything else, and to serve others in order to emulate Christ. In doing so, we hope not only to help others, but to inspire them to join our community. Now let's take a look at Destiny: *Days of obligation (Xur) *You must devote your time and energy to gain your rewards, constantly repeating tasks in a ritual-like manner. *You must consult Destiny's "holy" Grimoire in order to get the story, requiring users to devote their time to bungie.net *Destiny also has "holy" days (or weeks) of obligation in the form of the Iron Banner, Queen's wrath, and other similar events *And now, Destiny has a means of "converting" others in the form of "Refer a Friend". I could go on and on, but basically Destiny is set up to take over your life. It gives you the illusion that you are accomplishing something, all the while it is pulling you out of the real world. It demands your time, your devotion, and your money. To be honest, it sickens me. I'm glad I pulled out when I did because whatever life I had in me, would have eventually been sapped out. Think about how Destiny has impacted your life. How much time have you put into this game? How much money have you handed over to Bungie-Activision? How many times have you repeated these rituals in hopes of a better reward? How many hours have you dedicated to getting that one awesome exotic weapon, only to want a better one as soon as you earned it?