Intro It’s time I as a vet player suffering from burnout says their piece on destiny 2 as a whole. People can tell me to go play another game, to take a break, or cheap all they wish but I just want to help a studio from ruining itself and if I deserve to be roasted then so be it. I’ll say my piece and what ever happens happens knowing I at least tried to help. Heavy monetization, questionable prices and business practices This year of destiny 2 has been a huge example of why I wanted a destiny 3, and how questionable Bungie has been. Making us pay for more and more for cosmetics, 10 dollars (sometimes 15) for a single exotic emote, 15 bucks for a set of armor and 45 for all three sets(more than a whole expansion) with these prices I would hope for cheaper expansions but nope. Moving onto expansion cost 40-50 dollars only to get one location, no pvp maps, one new subclass element that will only be good for 3-6 months before it’s nerfed into the ground, 2 strikes, and one raid oh and not too mention buggy as hell and 30 dollars worth of content that will be removed or missed if I don’t play even though I paid for it, is not worth it when compared to getting a full fledge game that has more content that I can play at anytime, polished, and I don’t have to worry about stuff being removed. I understand Bungie is a business but atleast be reasonable about the price difference between cosmetics and expansions. If you want me to pay 100 dollars for a deluxe edition of an expansion then I would hope for bugs to be caught and worked on with in the first few weeks of launch not seasons later like the duality bell issue remember that bug? The one that should have been fixed within the dungeons launch or even before launch. There to be more than just 3 locations to explore in the destination map. There to be more than 3+ gambit and crucible maps and 2 strikes and more than only a few exotics to chase. More than 4 encounters to a raid. And last and certainly most importantly don’t use content we already paid for for the seasonal content. This year of destiny 2 so far has been evidence enough that that is not changing anytime soon. Where is the money going? Why not the servers? Eververse has been shoved in our face so much that I would expect the servers to be healthy but when season 18 launched it is very clear that this game in its current state has poor servers even with the weekly server maintenance. The servers at this season’s launch had so much latency that our rewards weren’t even dropping on time, we couldn’t use apps to transfer items from character to character (which really ruined the day one raid experience even though it was launched on a Friday to prevent that experience). With how expensive the game has become I would hope for better servers but it appears even that is too much to ask for. I thought Sony acquiring Bungie would benefit the player base but apparently not as all we have gotten out of it is an increase in prices, destiny expansions taken off game pass, and a lack of transparency with the player base and waiting to last minute to reveal content. I thought weekly maintenance would help the servers too but I have seen no improvements at all. Neglected core playlists/burnout The mentality of only focusing on what makes you money and neglecting the free to play aspects and expanding the game is a very poor mentality to have for a live service game. Neglecting anything in a game as a service is not good because when that neglected aspect becomes stale people stop playing it due to being stale gameplay which leads to poor player numbers. since a live service game requires constant upkeep on ALL its aspects you need to stop neglecting the core playlists especially since you require us to play them to get loot from the seasonal content. This is burning out your playerbase. And for the gambit and crucible playlists we need more than just maps we need extra modes as well. I would love to play gambit with different ways to summon the primeval or even different primeval aspects like having it run away from the player. Do grandmaster strikes the way you did guardian game strikes. This way build crafting and skill is emphasized vs standing back at the map shooting champions. These changes in attitude towards the core playlists need to change soon not a year from now as your playerbase will slowly die off from burnout. Power Creep Power creep is another issue that is very prevalent in the game right now. The only way to get around this is as you introduce new perks to newer guns they need to be added to older weapons. Another way is have harder difficulty weapons drop better perk pools. For example raid weapons should drop better perk combos than strike perk combos. And stick to that dynamic. This type of power creep we have had lately needs to change as it has been disrespecting the grind we did in the past. Not as bad as sun setting but it’s still prevalent enough to warrant looking at and taking a step back from. An example I am talking about is the introduction of origin traits. We grinded the hell out of dates of eternity only to have to regrind the weapons again for origin traits and weapon patterns. Why can’t the weapons we already grinded for get origin traits automatically? This will lead to even more burnout. Addictive vs fun game loops Another aspect of having players regrind these activities leads to future activities becoming stale, not fun. Although it doesn’t matter because destiny 2 is designed to be addictive vs fun. This needs to change. One way is get rid of the fomo. Rotating weapons in and out of the loot pools would be a start. I know you want people to play the game but don’t rely on addiction. Try making something fun for a change only two things that were fun recently were the Rhulk damage phase and wellspring defend. In game inflation? Why? Inflation in the game is a problem as well. 100 shards to focus a weapon for a chance at a weapon to drop with the perks you want. 20 shards is more reasonable for a chance. Expecting the player to earn that many shards when shards are hard to come by is not right. I know you want people to play the game but it should be for the right reasons and respectful of players real life time as well. The game should not feel like a chore or second job. And with how long the grind is and how stingy the loot is it feels that way. For example doing a single strike for 4 -7 shards is not worth it. Cross play Requiring cross play is definitely a huge annoyance especially in pvp. PlayStation has higher latency. Dedicated servers is solution here. Champion spam Here is the biggest issue of them all. Champion spam is not fun. Throwing champions into master content is not fun. Challenges that test skill are fun. Artificial difficulty is not fun. This lack of innovation is going to not last in the long run for destiny 2. Overkill nerfs Another issue is the way nerfs are handled. The whole point of a nerf is to bring it in line with everything else. But the way you guys do it is overkill. For example the nerf to renewal grasps hunter exotic. When the nerf was applied you only needed to nerf the damage resistance by 1x not 2x and adding a base 2:30 minute cooldown. You could have done a 1:30 minute cooldown. Another example is the nerf to axion bolt grenades. You didn’t need to nerf the cooldown and the tracking. Another example is the stasis nerfs. When light 3.0 subclasses were introduced they power crept pretty bad for stasis. For example stasis had the fragment that buffed damage buff then it was swapped for consistency stats but then here comes solar with radiant buff. On top of that stasis has less ability options compared to the light based subclasses. Why can’t stasis get some additional love. Bottom line is stop overdoing nerfs and buffs. Stick to a formula. For example all debuffs and buffs stick to a hard 15% no matter what. Unwanted game mechanics Another example is adding mechanics no one asked for that ruin game as a whole. For example sunsetting and airborne effectiveness. No one asked for these changes. No one wanted all their time grinding wasted in an instant. No one asked for their guns to be less effective in the air with little ways to spec into it. Stale holiday events The holiday events are no longer worth it as the event card is just a quick cash grab and costs as much as a season for only 3 weeks or even a seasonal dungeon. This type of predatory monetization is not right. The same stale arenas that have the same bugs that were never fixed. Not to mention newer bugs from a COPY AND PASTE of the same event model and arena. Live service aspects Why live service games and Games as a Service models are questionable. We don’t own the stuff we paid for. No urgency from devs to fix their product and the whole we’ll fix it when we get to it mentality. No innovation from developers anymore which leads to the player playing the same stale content which leads to burnout. More effort put into cosmetics than the actual gameplay. No dedicated customer support page/team to contact or file a ticket with. Play how the studio wants even though we pay. Customer has no say in the game that is a SERVICE they are paying for to get the best experience. Play when the studio wants due to them controlling servers. Those are my issues with the game and it’s service right now. I voice these issues hoping to save the studio not harass them. Yes bungie has a right to monetize, and I will give credit to them for making good expansions but their seasons have been lackluster and felt like double dipping with reskinned assets.