I think the social aspects dying is down to two things. 1) it's a reflection of today's media, how people use it and how a game meets those standards, which is different to how it was even 5 years ago - attention spans seem shorter and gratification has to be instant. To use a term that Bungie themselves once used, it has to be "watchable", there have to be moments and clips that draw attention. A slow burner doesn't appeal to most of the game's intended audience anymore. 2) D2 simply has more stuff to do and we're a lot stronger in it; in D1, making those connections with random people could supplement content droughts, and it was easier for players to stand out in basic content. When I see someone blitz through Strikes with Trinity Ghoul and zoom around with Eager Edge, I'm not wowed because that's what most people are doing. If you 1 or 2-phased a Raid boss in D1, that was a massive achievement and you knew the people with you were great. Now, it's the expectation and anything less is a failure. I met my primary circle of friends in my adolescence by joining a custom games session in Halo: Reach after I was invited by someone I played against in Team SWAT 4 or 5 times in a row, so I'm appreciative of how games and the social aspect have influenced my life. The group has mostly fallen apart, but I still speak to my best friend amongst them regularly; often times, after a session on D2, we'll go to the Tower and talk about nothing for an hour or two. It's nice.

I love the movement and the differences among my three characters. No other game is so smooth and natural. I'm never fighting the controls because my Titan can't run in a straight line, like in Gears of War. It's not Unreal Engine, which I hate, and the button layout isn't stupid, like pressing Y to jump and L2 to run and other dumb layouts. I'm so used to my controller that sometimes I forget what the button combination is to get on m sparrow is. I just think about it and off I go.

Your paragraph brought back fantastic memories of D1!! Thank you so much for this! I definitely agree though, Destiny 2 will never have the same social aspect as Destiny 1 did.