I honestly think you're just embracing nostalgia. There is such a small difference between getting a reward now and year one that it is laughable. You remember how year one RNG Exotics worked? You shot a dude with health in the hundreds of thousands for five minutes and if you were lucky an exotic would slide out from between his glorious cheeks, and if you were extremely lucky it would be one you didn't already have six copies of. We're now in year three, and the only real differences are that the luck factor has been toned back by two or three notches and that bosses now pass suspiciously stained golden nuggets onto the floor in their death throws. I'll be honest, neither of those are a whole hell of a lot of fun, quite the opposite in truth. I had more fun chasing down Bad Juju than the Archon Priest regurgitating a Gjallarhorn after I put a rocket into his backside for the hundredth time. I definitely prefer the exotic bounties/quests as actually working towards something is simply more exciting and rewarding than it randomly falling from the heavens as another Val'us looses its bowels. There's also the fact that a quest chain allows for greater opportunity to flesh out both the weapon and the world more organically than squirreling it away on a website. Do you know why people used exotics? Because Gjallarhorn was the only one I can recall with firepower out the wazoo. Icebreaker, Bad Juju, and Invective all had infinite ammo but weren't all that special otherwise. Super Good Advice was a joke that I saw one person use in year one, only because Oracles weren't enemies. Patience and Time could turn you invisible. Plan C... yeah I have nothing to say about that one I only used it for about five minutes. Queenbreaker's, Dreg's, Lord, were more unique than they were powerful. Necrochasm, hahaha. Truth could take to the sky and spell out your imminent demise in Chinese and still chase you down but with the same warhead as most other launchers. Thunderlord's big thing was that it sped up. Exotics weren't designed as the be-all-end-all of their class, they were meant to be unique which most of them nailed without becoming an outlier. Speaking of outliers, what were the two most damaging weapons in year one? As far as I'm aware that would be Gjallarhorn and Black Hammer, and what did they have in common aside from insane damage...? Different class, category, and rarity so I got nothing. And just to touch on the excitement thing; I can't speak for you but the only times I ever got excited by a drop in this game was when I received a new item. Same is true of everyone I played with. We all laughed and joked and threatened to throw our xbox's out windows the first time someone in our group got something new but it was a one time thing and that, that hasn't changed. We still laugh and joke when somebody gets something new, and we still groan when we go on Plan C streaks, though now the blasted things have a purpose. You talk about Bungie devaluing Exotics when the only changes are to the RNG and while most exotics focus on being unique more than being the best of the best of the best (sir!). Sounds to me that your perspective has changed more than the "value" of the Exotics. Signed, Someone still salty about their ongoing Mk44 streak

Said it once and I will say it again: EXOTICS WERE NOT RARE IN YEAR 1. Anyone that thinks that they were are completely [b]F[/b]ucking delusional. If you played with all 3 characters and did everything you could in Destiny in Year one: 3 chances from Nightfalls 3 chances from VoG Chest 3 chances from Atheon 3 chances from Deathsinger 3 chances from Crota (if you were/are good enough) 3 chances when going flawless Multiple Chances from Prison of Elders Multiple Chances to get exotic quests from bounties Xur every single week Random Chances playing normal strikes and crucible matches Random Chances from Legendary Engrams Seriously, at the end of year 1 I had well over 150 exotic shard and that was after upgrading gear. "B-but there were so many people that never got Gjallarhorn or (insert random exotic here) until Xur sold so that must mean it's rare." No it just means there are people that had oddly fixed RNG.....I know people that Gjally's week after week when all they wanted was a Monte Carlo or Hawkmoon. Hell in year 2 they took away the rare chance to get them in normal and heroic strikes and normal crucible by making it so you had to use 3oC's to get any exotics to drop in those places. The only people that think they were really rare or need to drop less are special snowflakes that just want to be the only one to own a piece of gear that is declared "Top tier" when in reality they are just glorified legendaries that you can't re-roll.

I remember i literally put my controller down, left my house and ran a lap around my neighborhood screaming in joy because i was so damn excited when i first got Ghorn in Y1. No exotic in Y2 or Y3 has even made me get excited that I got it.

Op obviously never played year one. Gally sucks compared to most heavies now. Gally is only good for a bunch of adds. Sleeper beats it out in 99% of fights, assuming you're a decent shot. Dark Drinker is even better, by double in some scenarios, if you are fighting something that won't slam if you get close. If you are running Gally, I know your not good enough for my raid teams.

I remember getting kicked for getting Vex Mythoclast. That is all.