As the title asks, Why all the Nerfs?
This is as much a question for Bungie Developers as well as a question composed for the Community.
I see all over the #Destiny and #Feedback Forums, threads asking for *insert weapon here* or *insert weapon class here* to be "Nerfed".
Not only that, but nearly every single update to the game, every single patch, has nerfs (most of them horribly planned and implemented...) that constantly make a weapon, weapon class, or player Ability made weaker. There's this constant trend of everything the players love, everything the players use, constantly made weaker and weaker while the enemies are buffed stronger and stronger.
But, Why?
It's easy to use the crutch-explanation of "Preserving the Grind", and indeed, I've used that one myself in very sarcastic overtones. This game is a loot-based shooter RPG, thus the Grind is a core concept. But that's not the end-all-be-all to the argument.
So, why?
Why do people feel, as a Community, that everything in the game that the player uses, should be weaker?
We see it most often from the PvP side of the game. "Nerf *blah*" or "*blah weapon* is overpowered, Bungie!!! Nerf the shit out of it!!!*
There are even some arguments for constant nerfs from the PvE side of the game as well. "Nerf *blah*, Bungie! It makes the game easy mode!!!".
Why?
Why don't we ask for everything else to be buffed up stronger to match the supposedly "overpowered" item? Why don't we ask for higher difficulty in the PvE side rather than asking for our items and Guardians to be made weaker?
And the most important question for Bungie; Why does it not occur to the Developers that making the player weaker removes the desire to play?
Nobody wants to be shooting marshmallows and good feelings at the enemies in the game.
I know I myself have made many posts in my storied history on this site about this very subject.
~ Bungie is preserving the Grind to cover up a severe lack of content
~ Bungie seems to think that "balance" is an achievable goal in an RPG (pro tip: it's not achievable in a game like this)
~ Bungie is nerfing based purely off of usage statistics rather than [i]why[/i] a weapons is being used so much.
~ Bungie is weakening the character to artificially pad play time so that their precious spreadsheets look great to Activi$ion's investors.
~ Etc., etc.
Now, I don't honestly think any of this will change for Destiny. Maybe in Destiny 2, we'll feel like we're actually beating back the Darkness again. Because right now, going into any type of Patrol or Mission, firing a weapon or using an Ability feels more like I'm shooting chocolate sauce and mewling kittens at the enemy rather than making any headway.
This philosophy getting reversed probably has less chance of changing than a snowball in Hell, but maybe we as a Community could change what we're asking for?
I know we've been screaming about this since the very first update to the game started the nerf train rolling. Indeed; at times I've been one of the loudest voices against the nerf train. The reality has been that our voices have had zero effect. The nerfs keep rolling in, the Devs just tell us to keep throwing money at our screens, and DeeJ and Cozmo describe every nerf in the "Bungie Weekly Letdown" messages as if another nerf is going to make people want to play [i]more[/i], when the reality is exactly the opposite.
Which brings me back to my original questions:
Why do we keep asking for nerfs? Why do we as a Community want the Devs to make us weaker and weaker?
Why do the Devs seem to think that such thinly veiled attempts to artificially pad play time, all under the guise of achieving the unachievable "balance", is "OK", and will somehow make former players race back to this game?
TL;DR: Why are nerfs the only answer to this game's problems, in the eyes of the Community as well as the Developers?
Discuss.
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