WAY too much about this game is based on randomness and sameness, which kills immersion and, frankly, makes things feel unrewarding and uninteresting. I'm talking specifically about the way loot is doled out and the negative impact the system has on gameplay. 1) Overuse of Randomness There are very few pieces of gear in D2 that drop from specific places or activities. As a result, no activity feels particularly rewarding. Why spend 30 minutes doing a Strike when you can just farm Public Events much faster? The fact that loot is always random means you can't plan and work towards a specific goal. There is no way to build your character the way you want, because it's entirely based on whatever random crap you got. One of the fun things in more traditional MMOs is knowing you have to face a super difficult challenge to get the thing you want and working towards overcoming that challenge. The effect of knowing what's going to drop, facing that challenge, and winning provides a real sense of accomplishment and gives the reward some actual value. With D2, you can either face the tough foe and hope you get a lucky roll. Or you can just stand there while people complete public events around you, and hope you get a lucky roll. The reward loses meaning when it is obtained randomly, because it.. well.. feels random. You didn't necessarily earn it, it just showed up in your inventory because... something happened. Which leads to my next point... 2) Overuse of Engrams/Tokens The engram/token system is appallingly short-sighted. Not only is it cumbersome to have to waste time loading into a special area just to collect rewards, it has the more nefarious psychological effect of completely detaching the reward from the activity that granted it. You do a bunch of things, get a bunch of nebulous engrams, then go turn them in. Whoa, one of them dropped "Super Awesome Gun X"! Finally! But.. wait, did I get that from Strikes? The Crucible? Events? I have no idea, because it's just yet another purple random number generator that looks and acts exactly the same as the purple random number generator you get from literally everywhere. The net effect is to make everything you do wholly unrewarding, even if the reward turned out to be pretty great, because it's so far removed from the actions that actually earned you the thing. It just feels unearned. You got a random thing for doing a random thing. Contrast to my above example of having a challenging boss be the sole dropper of "Super Awesome Weapon X." The feeling of excitement when you finally beat that boss and get the thing you've been wanting for months is unquestionably a more thrilling, engaging and fun experience than doing some random things and hoping luck is on your side. The same can be said for the token system. It also adds unnecessary steps between action and reward. The tokens at least let you buy specific things which gives them a slight edge on the "doing something with purpose" front, but they're still a rather unrewarding experience. 3) Tying End Game Progress to Randomness Who the hell thought it would be an interesting mechanic to make your ability to level tied to random number generators (and even worse, random number generators that you can only get a handful of times a week)? This is by far the most frustrating and unappealing thing about D2. Work hard! Build your character! But.. only for a little bit a week, and only if you happen to roll the dice correctly. This part of the game absolutely should be tied to player achievement. 100%. It's baffling that it literally doesn't matter how good you are at the game, at how much you play, at how difficult the things you beat are, that despite any effort on your part, your progress comes down to 4 or 5 dice rolls a week. It's not a goal to work towards, its just yet more random stuff that randomly happens if you're lucky. This is getting awfully long, so I'll wrap it up by saying I think D2 has a lot of potential. Putting aside the controversy of releasing an unfinished $60 game, the foundation is there. I do think making the existing content feel more rewarding, even by doing something as simple as just tying rewards more closely to that content, would go a long way. Plenty more needs to be done, of course, but it's a start. ----------- tldr; The randomness and homogeneity of the loot system in D2 is a detriment, having the net effect of making both the loot and player achievement feel unspecial. Moving towards a less random, more direct, and action specific loot system would be far more satisfying and engaging, as it would let the player feel like what they did mattered.