There is no doubt that Destiny 2 is a stunningly gorgeous game with arguably the best weapons, movement and gunplay in the entire gaming industry, it’s just a shame that Bungie locked most of their player base out from ever being able to enjoy a huge chunk of it.
Here are a few examples of what I mean:
They made a RAID so difficult that most people don’t even want to attempt it. And the top players that do (which is an extremely small percentage of the player base), once they’ve gotten all their desired loot, won’t ever do it again. So who is this RAID for? Most people will never see the inside of it to enjoy all the hard work that Bungie must have put into it. What a waste.
Then you have the Exotic Class Items being locked behind a two person activity. Yet again Bungie failing to understand how most people play video games these days. I’m sure it’s an awesome experience and well thought out mission, but most people prefer to game alone. No matter how much developers try to force socialization, (with the exception of full time gamers), most of us have mismatched schedules, full time jobs and other responsibilities, so we just want to hop on and play alone whenever we can. We don’t want to have to look for someone to do activities with. Getting Exotic Armor through Legendary Lost Sectors was the perfect solution and for the life of me, I cannot understand the stupid decision to move away from that.
Which brings me to my next point, Bungie decided to take away any incentive for a solo player to just hop on and play. Most of our Pinnacle Gear is locked behind group activities like Dungeons and Raids. So as a solo player (which bares drilling into Bungie’s thick headed skulls IS HOW MOST PEOPLE PREFER OR ONLY HAVE TIME TO PLAY), there isn’t much to do. And NO ONE wants to keep doing activities like Overthrow ad nauseam. It was interesting the first few times, but after the 50th time, no thanks. So when we log on, what is there to look forward to? Nothing really. Everything just feels like a boring slog fest with no benefit. No Exotic Armor, can’t level up your power, there is really no longer any reason to log onto to Destiny 2 at all.
Which brings me to my finally point. Destiny 2 is supposed to be a “looter shooter” yet everything is so heavily RNG weighted (which I will never understand, because I will always believe it’s pure BS). Random to me means exactly that. Things are randomized. It doesn’t mean that some accounts get everything just handed to them, while other accounts suffer NEVER getting anything awarded to them. Randomization means ALL accounts should get lucky. After all, this isn’t a Powerball jackpot where Bungie has to give out Billions of dollars. Exotic weapons and armor should have a way better chance to drop for ALL players, not just a slim margined lucky few (that I’m still convinced are pre-chosen). But I digress, Destiny 2 is a “looter shooter” that is exceptionally stingy with loot. Further giving us even less incentive to play. And even if the game did give us all the loot we desired, there is no place to put it all. Vault space continues to be a major problem. IMO, all this looks like a bleak future for the franchise going forward. Many of you can disagree with me, but the huge player drop off after the Final Shape doesn’t lie. The very few people with a RAID completion doesn’t lie. The very few people I see with Exotic Class Items doesn’t lie. I’m saddened when I see this as for more than 10 years D2 has been my absolute favorite game. Even when most players dropped off during dry spells, I was still playing because there was always something to grind for as a solo player. But with the Final Shape, Bungie has ended even that small glimmer of excitement and I don’t know who this game is meant for or what it’s trying to achieve anymore.
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3 RepliesEdited by Artisan: 7/30/2024 10:41:02 PM
ArtisanD2 8,600 hours - old
Well thought out essay of points. Raids are, according to Bungie, something players "aspire" to play, but they actually don't do that much. Its less than 15% that have done even one. Why they pour so, so many resources into a small minority activity is bewildering and a waste. The opportunity cost is staggering: imagine the mountain of content for everyone that could be done for the entire game with all that development cost. As far as difficulty. You could literally clip here quote after lengthy quote of streamer-promoters who BEGGED and then DEMANDED the Raid being the hardest ever. Aztecross comes to mind who did this EXTENSIVELY but he's not the only one. According to True Vanguard his guides did very well for him, so you can see the logic and the payoff for them. Now this will stand as a complete waste of money with effectively almost no-one seeing this expensive content. What a complete predictable waste. For me the Legendary Campaign was the perfect opportunity to award the Exotic Class item - for all 3 Classes. Failing that a LLS completion. Dual Destiny should have been a mutiplayer matchmade activity, not requiring mics - which no one ( or few at best) likes. With Vault space as it is, at this old age of the game, the exotic Class items should ABSOLUTELY have been craftable. No doubt about that. I really don't think they know and certainly havent even acknowledged what a water-shed moment this is being forced on for soloplayers. These items are important enough to push most into a "do or die" decision. And because no matchmaking, no soloplaying, and mic required content is incredibly unpopular, previously only existing in Raids, that's turning into an "OK Bungie, die then" decision made. Its happening to be somewhat easier because of the strength of the competition, whether Elden Ring, The First Descendant (in my case), or others. There you can choose between soloplaying and matchmaking MP freely. Can you guys afford to completely alienate and lose soloplayers/matchmaking MPers? Seems you think you can. The Episodes arent cutting it. The unrelenting excess of the retconned LGBT story is staggering. I dont think they learned the lessons of LightFall at all and I think another 10% of their workforce are going to pay the price yet again for some of the above.