In the past year, most of my time in D2 was just doing bounties, playing PvP, Nightfalls, etc. Recently, I got back into raids with the help of Twitch streamers because none of my IRL friends or online friends play anymore. Coming back into raids and interacting more with the community, I met some cool people, made some new friends, found some entitled jerks, and yeah, generally, I can say I played the game and did some things. Into The Light got me pretty good, I was very excited for Onslaught and most of the returning weapons. I was a little confused about Hung Jury but someone at Bungie loves that gun, I guess. Still, ITL was mindless and fun, even though you could still easily "Game Over", but it was still enjoyable and honestly a pretty good system to get New Lights into the game. However, I noticed that streamers started to not run Legend Onslaught as it "was not stream friendly." Ok. I guess. As the weeks went on, more and more glitches and issues became apparent (door switches not working, portals not working, etc etc). Most people wrote it off, but, it did cause some frustration. And some truly hilarious moments of Bungie suggesting to leave the activity early to avoid the locked boss door, when they were trying to get people to STAY because the late wave loot wasn't worth it for the time. Pantheon, however, was when I became aware of something. It was also meant to be a way to get New Lights and players who don't raid into the game and get some more gear. But why would you tie extra difficulty into that? Why not leave the encounter as difficult as it was, just add the point system, new mechanics, and time limit for the rewards? Because this was the "streamer" mode. This mode was meant to increase game time and artificially boost player engagement. You had to get a "sherpa" because you had a 99% chance of LFG being an absolute toxic dumpster fire where your time went to get burned. All for items that were objectively easier to get in the normal raids, and some emblems that are purely cosmetic and a title that has since become a meme. Streamers offer the best and most cost-effective form of marketing today for video games, among other products. And with diehard streamers who will always carry the Bungie flag for them, they help push the same narratives: "Bungie had layoffs, and look what they still were able to accomplish? Amazing!" "These rewards are limited time! Better !raffle chat!" "Gotta get ready for TFS! This is Bungie at their best!" Why wait for those curated Forbes articles to get published while the servers are still down so you can tout the review score and headline in the "group hug" X post or TWAB next week, just have streamers do it for you before the fact, and for free! After coming back to this game from around, I guess, Forsaken or Witch Queen, and from someone who loved every moment of D1, I finally realized: this game is for streamers. It isn't for gamers. The company that made Halo into a household name has turned the game that I thought was the most amazing thing I had ever seen into an action-platformer MMO that just happens to have guns you could shoot, maybe. Destiny 2 is a game made for content creators. If you choose to play, well, you gotta pay for it because whatever is pushed in the latest expansion will be over-tuned, so you will be at an objective disadvantage. You gotta feel empowered for buy the game for the 4th or 5th time. But if you want to have all the fun your favorite D2 streamer is having, and run the same meta loadout they are, you gotta pay up. Add to that the absurd number of troubles that plague Bungie launches. How in the world do people continue to let major companies get away with shipping sub-par products? In a world were getting value for what we pay for is less and less every day, how do you continue to give them money and enabling them to continue to take advantage of you? Thankfully I had the second thoughts before I sunk my cash into this shipwreck of a developer anymore. If you went to a restaurant and they told you, "Well, you gotta pay for your meal before we let you in the door, and your meal will be ready in about 4 hours," you'd be pretty upset. "Oh, and you already gave us your money, but you changed your mind? Sorry, no refunds." I wouldn't eat there. If I told my boss, "The big project you had me on, well, I need 6 extra months to get ready for it," and it still had problems on cut day, I wouldn't have a job. And saying "I'm sorry" wouldn't matter. Neither should it matter when Bungie screws up Destiny; a game world that will never be what it always could have been, the greatest video game series ever made. Don't let the gaslighting fool you - this is a money grab for an asset dump of what they had lying around after the talent got wise and left. This is the real Final Shape. Guardian out.