These Director's Cut posts have been excellent, and I really appreciate that you've done this. Sometimes when there's this much that simply needs being said, there really is need for just a giant wall of text. 11,400 words later though I don't have an answer to what is, for me, the single greatest question surrounding the future of the game: [b]Where is the World of Destiny headed? [/b] So much has changed since September 2014, but it wasn't until last year that I came across a clear indicator of just how much. I found Joseph Staten and Chris Barrett's [url=https://youtu.be/vUxRTCTr7ic]2013 GDC talk [/url]and was astounded by how well Destiny 1 had nailed the aesthetic they described. I was also disappointed but how much Destiny 2 has wholesale abandoned that aesthetic and now, after 5 years with this game, I'm finally at a breaking point with it. Without some indication that Bungie is at the very least aware of the impact these changes have had, Shadowkeep is the final chance to bring me back on board before I, thoroughly disheartened, jump ship for good. In the first Directors Cut, you open by stating that [i]"We want Destiny 2 to be an amazing action MMO, in a single, evolving world, that you can play anytime, anywhere with your friends."[/i] This echoes Destiny's original [url=https://www.polygon.com/2013/2/17/3993058/destiny-bungie-first-look-preview]7 Pillars of Design[/url], but it leaves out explicitly stating the first and arguably most important: A world players want to be in. This is also the closest you get in 11,400 words to discussing this core aspect of the Destiny experience, which is unfortunate because while players may be frustrated by sandbox balancing, and they may drift away for a time during content droughts, nothing will drive them away for good like tarnishing what brought them in in the first place. For me, that has always been the World Design. And boy, what a world it is. Or rather, was. I loved patrolling the dusty ruins of Freehold on Mars, scouting the overgrown and rain-soaked Academy on Venus, and perching atop the cold, wind-swept Mothyards in the Cosmodrome (it has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, my account status). I loved seeing the dark mirror of humanity in the Fallen; the mystery and inscrutableness of the Vex; the cold, militaristic aggression of the Cabal; the vicious and sinister purpose of the Hive; and the haunting and savage hunger of the Taken. I loved the grounded yet epic Sci-Fi aesthetic. I loved that the deeper you delved into any of the beautifully ruined locations, the stranger and more mysterious they became. Destiny 2 was a shock to the system. Where D1 was Hopeful and Inviting, D2 is fearful and suspicious*. Where D1 was full of Mystery and Adventure, D2 simply isn't.** Where D1 presented an Idealized vision of humanity's future, D2 is a space fantasy hardly bound by any sense of realism. And finally, where D1 had us play a pivotal role in defending our homes and reclaiming humanity's legacy, D2 constantly pitches us as pawns in the games of other, greater beings, or side characters in our own story as others talk over and around us. Forsaken and the annual pass have only come to bring into focus how much I miss from D1. I miss when enemies were treated with respect instead of as vermin to wiped out whenever they got in our way. I miss when our allies had moments of depth and real character, instead of being 2-dimensional caricatures of those characters***. I miss when we were Guardians of the Last City and not thugs just out to grab "sweet loot" to satisfy greed and personal glory, or murderers and hit-men on personal vendettas. I miss the quiet moments on patrol when I felt immersed in those rich and wonderful locations. I miss when the game paid attention to the small details, creating an internal consistency that brought those places to life. I miss when the game was above the nonsense that buzzes about in our modern world, and I miss when it aimed to be more than a treadmill with [url=https://youtu.be/15tqE-I8L4U?t=1238]good gamefeel[/url] and "sweet loot". Despite the vinegar though, I do still love Destiny and hold on to hope that its old promise isn't spent. I have [url=https://imgur.com/055b8ge]a screenshot[/url] from handing in a D1 gunsmith bounty where Banshee says "Glad to see you taking an interest. Helps advance the art. Yours and mine." I'm here because I do still take an interest, and because I want to help advance this art. And while I worry that I might not have done a good job selling myself here or that I may truly be too late to adjust this games trajectory, I'd give just about anything for an old ride along through the Cosmo and the opportunity to discuss and not just blindly exchange these walls of text. Maybe I'll go though what was actually in the Directors Cut posts next time. ****************************************** *Spend 5 minutes in both games' Towers and it's night and day. **D1 had content problems, sure, but that's more a pipeline issue. The promise that the next secret was just an unlocked door away was always there. D2 just feels hollow. ***Notably, the best developed characters in the game at the moment are the Drifter and Calus, both of whom are vain, selfish, devious, manipulative, and generally unpleasant.