First off, a tl;dr, since this is a very long essay. [b]tl:dr,[/b] Sunsetting is necessary but implemented poorly, by reorganizing playlist/activities Destiny can fix the current issues. To start with it is important to establish that sunsetting is not only good, but necessary for the long term health of the game and the community surrounding it. Destiny is an enormous, intimidating game. It is also a game that thrives when there is a large group of engaged players participating regularly. In order to maintain and grow a player-base Destiny has to be accessible to new players; If Bungie only works to please older, long term players, the game will eventually die by attrition. That does not mean their needs to not matter, only that they are different and need to be balanced with accessibility. Sunsetting, along with the DCV, perform several key functions relating to keeping the game accessible to new players. First and foremost, it creates more of a level playing field. A potential new player could be overwhelmed at the idea of 4+ years of content to play through and guns to chase in an attempt to catch up with long term players. Knowing that for the most part other players will be limited to the most recent guns, tied to the most recent activities helps new lights feel like they have a chance to immediately gain strong, viable weapons that can keep up. In turn, this helps drive players, new and old alike, to engage with new content and keep activities filled with players. At this point I am going to turn to my example of sunsetting done right, Magic the Gathering. While complaints have always existed (what gaming community doesn’t enjoy a good complaint, amirite?) MtG successfully implemented a version of sunsetting (standard block rotation) in 1995, and that has been a large part of the game’s continued success over the last 25+ years. In brief, MtG consists of a series of “sets” similar to our seasons, and “blocks” similar to our years. While this structure and the terminology relating to it have changed a little in recent years, it is essentially very similar to Destiny’s schedule. Standard magic, generally considered the base form of magic, the sort you currently find on MTG Arena, only utilizes cards from the two most recent “blocks” or years. Once per year, the older of the two “blocks” rotate out of the format. This model is more drastic, removing a year's worth of content all at once, and has both advantages and disadvantages when compared to Destiny’s more staggered approach. While you could argue that rotation in MtG is the harder sell, due to it essentially invalidating cards (loot) you purchase with actual money, it has been going on for decades and is vital to the game continuing. Over the years, as MtG as a whole has continued to grow, the older, eternal formats have seen a noticeable decline. There are a variety of possible reasons for this, but an obvious one is that the level of buy-in required to compete is just too high for most players. In MtG that buy-in is actual money to purchase cards, as well as time to learn the format. In an eternal Destiny format that buy-in would be player time and effort to earn the loot strong enough to keep up. In either case, having a primary format with a lower buy-in and smaller pool of options is significantly more accessible to new players. Another key positive of sunsetting is that it keeps the meta fresh. I know that people have discussed this to death, but the fact is there will always be a meta, there will always be guns that are considered the best, and rotating those away is one of the most straightforward ways to keep the game interesting. I could write another full essay, with comparisons directly to MtG, indicating how this works and why it is important, but I’ll save that for another day (or if someone requests it) Now that I’ve discussed why sunsetting is important and can be done successfully I want to cover why sunsetting in its current version feels so bad as a player experience, and how that can be fixed. Anyone who spends time on the Destiny subreddit or the Bungie forums is aware the player-base as a whole (or at least those who speak up here) are adamantly against sunsetting. There are a few specific reasons sunsetting hurts right now, but the most obvious is that it feels bad to have to delete weapons and armor you spent significant time earning. I think there are two key fixes to this, and to me they both seem pretty obvious. Firstly, [b]do not sunset armor[/b], and secondly, [b]let older weapons have their place[/b]. On the first point, to be very brief. Armor is the basic land of Destiny 2. It is required for every activity, but it’s not exactly exciting. Armor has no impact on meta and sunsetting it has no logical purpose beyond extending the grind. I have yet to hear a good argument for armor sunsetting and would argue that the power cap on all existing armor should be removed. For anyone but the most hardcore player, masterworking armor is a serious chore. In addition, with the current mod system, multiple armor sets are required. Allow players to keep their favorite armor indefinitely and keep infusing it as needed. On to the real challenge, weapons. Currently you can use older, sunset weapons in the main Crucible playlist and have them feel viable due to power scaling. I would argue this is a poor place to make those weapons available, but it does show that while the weapons are sunset, they aren’t actually being removed from the game. To once again bring the argument back around to MtG, the primary format of play is Standard, which enforces the two block rotating schedule. I would suggest that all primary Destiny content (core playlist activities, seasonal and DLC activities) should have a minimum power cap to keep loot on a four season rotation. The key to all of this working successfully is to also include interesting, rewarding formats that allow players to utilize old favorites. In MtG you have both highly competitive formats (Modern, Legacy) as well as more casual and accessible formats (Commander, Pauper) that allow players to use larger card pools, sometimes with different rulesets. I would suggest Destiny needs to have both PVE and PVP options that allow players to occasionally use their old favorites and get rewarded for it. Personally I think these should pop up occasionally and be exciting events for players rather than being a consistently available activity. There are countless ways this could be implemented, but I have a few suggestions for options. On the competitive side of things, a few times a season Trials of Osiris could become Trials of the Nine, a competitive PVP format with a set power level, but access to weapons from the entirety of Destiny 2. Once or twice a season, open up a GM nightfall playlist with a balanced and then handicapped power level and access to all of the weapons. You could stipulate this format be only accessible to high power players if you want to keep the exclusivity of GMs. In addition, add to the crucible playlist a mode like current crucible that rotates in and out, call it crucible classic. On the more casual PVE side of things, a power level balanced version of Battlegrounds with open access to all weapons sounds like a great time. Give these modes their own specific, desirable rewards. My suggestion would be that they reward old, currently inaccessible cosmetics like shaders, armor sets and ornaments, as well as curated rolls of some of the classic guns throughout Destiny. In addition, these modes would have their own specific currency. The biggest hangup with creating premiere modes that utilize sunset weapons is that many players have deleted god-rolls that they worked very hard for, and would be justifiably very unhappy to suddenly need those items again. My suggestion for this would be to create a new vending system or expand the current one to allow curated rolls (possibly the modular pinnacle style with both PVP and PVE options) of classic guns to be purchased using a currency specific to these modes. In addition, if a player has the gun unlocked in collections, they will either be allowed to unlock the gun for free or purchase it at a steep (75%+) discount. I personally feel that although the community opinion towards sunsetting is currently hostile, making a few of these changes would directly address several player concerns while simultaneously creating a new format that could increase player interest and engagement long term. Putting my old favorite MtG cards in a binder after rotation and pulling them out months or years later for a new Commander deck is an awesome feeling. My hope is that one day we will vault our favorite weapons at rotation knowing that although we might not use them again tomorrow, their day hasn’t entirely passed.