For me it’s less to do with any one issue in Gambit and more to do with how Bungie has treated the mode. Despite how bad the PvP neglect has been, Gambit’s gotten it a hundred times worse. Not even a single new gamemode aside from Gambit Prime, which hardly counts anyways, since since it LAUNCHED. Gambit, to me anyways, is the concept of PvEvP in Destiny and should arguably be the absolute core of the game’s best offerings. Instead the identity of Gambit has become motes, primeval melts and invaders, which after what, four years now, has gotten incredibly stale. I wish Bungie had taken Gambit - PvEvP, not motes and invaders - and really run with it, continuing to build more modes and depth to it. Personally, I kinda wish there was something along the lines of a survival mode where you have to try and outlast your opponent with limited revives, but for every wave of enemies you defeat you can send something like a wave of hive guardians to the other side or you can risk invading yourself and cost some lives at the risk of trapping yourself and bringing your team down quicker. Obviously, it doesn’t have to be that specifically- that’s just one idea I’ve come up with. But I really do not understand why Gambit has been neglected to the state it has where we haven’t gotten one new map since SEASON OF THE DRIFTER?? PvEvP has so much potential in Destiny and it’s just been abandoned by Bungie :/

There's so many reasons but I think they all ultimately boil down to... Feeling as though you have to engage with content you do not want to, in order to receive something you want, or feel you need. Destiny players are (usually) very goal/reward oriented people. They rarely play the game/mode strictly for the joy of playing. Sure, they can find joy in playing, but they largely are doing it for the shiny thing at the end of the road that they want. Bungie has long purported that Destiny is a game for (as they say) content omnivores. They want and actively push everyone to participate in and interact with every part of the game. Makes sense, I mean, if I ran a bakery and everyone only came in to buy my coffee, I'd probably be pretty bummed that no one wanted my baked goods even if the coffee portion of my business was bringing in the bucks. Problem being, it doesn't really make sense in the video game world though. There's too many stark differences between the kinds of people that engage with each part of the game separately. For instance, if a PvE focused player is pushed into PvP, well they are probably not going to have a good time, and they will want weapon and game balance to be swayed in their favor, even though they spend a relatively short period of time in the game mode. This in turn makes PvP focused players unhappy as their experience is worsened by these players who don't really even want to be in that part of the game anyways! Bungie has been mixing pools of players for so long now, that deep and vehemently guarded lines divide people and their opinions about the game. Like a never ending tug-of-war the game has been pulled back and forth between these opposing view points as Bungie puts its thumb on the scales occasionally trying to find some fairy tale ending version of the perfect balance between the two. The people on opposite ends of the rope, have dug themselves ever deeper into the trenches of their own beliefs, every single time an adjustment is made. Never any progress, just a continual back and forth. Now comes Gambit... the PvEvP hybrid mode designed to blur the lines and get people on an equal footing, no more trenches, just TEAMWORK *angelic chorus Ahhhh*. But the lines are, nonetheless, drawn. PvE people don't want to engage with PvP, period, so they never invade, and serve only as easy fodder for the PvPer who now also has wallhacks, extra shields, and a steady flow of heavy/special ammo to pick them off with. This presents our first and arguably largest problem with Gambit. The people who engage with it, and at the very least a lack of role oriented queue. If you don't go in with a carefully curated (or at least halfway organized) fireteam of dedicated teammates who know what is expected of them and their position, good luck. All too often you'll see entire teams of ad killers, or a pair of mote thieves and some dudes just doing bounties, how about a new light in the intro quest, someone desperately trying to finish an exotic quest, someone just plodding through their resets without a care in the world about winning or losing, and one poor guy trying to win but is unable to carry the entire team in terms of kills, DPS, counter invades, etc. Matchmaking first and foremost is one of the most offensive things about Gambit. It hardly gets better with a team either... more consistent perhaps, but similarly unpleasant. Often with life, the human element is the most tricky bit to get right, so, this is somewhat understandable that it's the most glaring issue. Beyond the human issue, we have technical issues like extreme lag, frame drops, enemy teleports, abilities and perks not proccing because of the poor connections, motes that bounce eternally or fall through the maps and become irretrievable. Speaking of maps... there are so few maps to begin with, and several of them are just not "good" maps. You see the same terrain over and over, the same enemy spawns over and over, the same invader positions over and over, the same sightlines, the same bosses, the same strats, the same frustrations OVER and O V E R. On their own these things would be bad enough, but the never-ending inundation of the SAME problems... like a river carves the earth, one drop of water at a time, Gambit carves it's way into a negative place in people's psyche, one piddling annoyance at a time. All of this comes before the balance (or lack thereof) issues. The balance has been changed several times in Gambits lifespan. Never improved, just... changed. The glaring day 1 problems, still exist, with subtle nudges in one direction or another. For some this is important, for me it's just the cherry on top of the crap sundae. Don't really care what the balance is, because it's still Gambit. I hate Gambit. Simple as. I do however know one person who genuinely liked Gambit, but cannot stand its most recent update, so for players like him, I bring up the balance. Things like ammo availability, boss burn vs timegated segments, over-emphasis on invading/invaders, weapon and ability tuning. These are all at what I would call, "uncomfortable at best" levels, and I genuinely do not see how they could be balanced in a way the would be fun and engaging for everyone involved. Bottom line is, there are people that like gambit. But they are a fraction of a subset of the platforms population. People are why Gambit is so unpleasant, be it the matchmaking, the play style differences, the differences in goals/reasons to play, trolls, AFK'ers, etc. People are the largest part of why Gambit sucks. The game has a myriad of flaws throughout, and Gambit is just the slime that's trickled down through them all, coagulating at the bottom as some unwelcoming and repugnant sludge that everyone is told to enjoy dipping their toes in every season for at least two resets.

I liked Gambit and played it allot, but the invasions killed the fun for me. To many of them.

Invaders using Heavy ammo cheesy weapons that require no skill.

I don't mind it, but Xeno is getting kinda old in Gambit. It feels like you can't take any other exotic and remain competitive, because 1 good invade is enough to swing most matches.

Idk why because I think it’s fun to do PvE and PvP in one game mode and it’s fun to listen to the Drifter talk.

Because the constant invading and the invader getting 4 kills easily since he has wallhacks and overshields is just an annoying game mechanic in general. Not to mention players getting killed from broken or hard to counter exotics, rather than being killed by a skilled player via a sniper or different kind of combat skills (gunplay + abilities etc). It should be a thing somehow difficult to achieve, not a handout... Therefore It's not fun on the receiving end and therefore many dislike gambit. And as long as the match length is basically on Gambit Prime levels (1 Round), the whole experience is just a downer rather than being a fun thing for everyone. I gilded my Dredgen seal four times by now and decided to stop with that for this season. And as long as the whole experience stays this way, I refuse go play it in the future.

All things considered, Gambit's probably in a better spot now than it has been for most of its life. The only arguable part of its life that was better was during Prime, but current Gambit's already adopted most of Prime's core mechanics (while also addressing a couple key issues with Prime) that it's pretty much Prime Lite. As for why people still don't like it? I've got three main reasons: 1. Idiot/unhelpful teammates. No matter how good/bad you make this gamemode, no matter if you play freelance or not, your own teammates will still be the worst part about it if they're uncoordinated or off doing their own thing. This isn't inherently Gambit's fault though, nor is it exclusive to it. 2. Invasions. Balanced or not, many people don't like getting deleted and set back as a result, especially if the invaders frequently use heavy ammo and/or supers. This is probably more frustrating during the Primeval phase due to the healthgates. 3. Small map pool. Having only four maps isn't satisfactory, and most don't really feel all that engaging. There should be some new maps, and maybe freshen up old ones as well.

1. Invasions. Everyone invades with cheese weapons and it ruins all momentum on the pve side of gambit. 2. Immunity phase bosses. It creates a slog of a boss fight and Invasions during boss dps make it worse. 3. Heavy ammo spam. Most of the cheesy invade weapons are heavy weapons that one shot. Heavy is available far too much. 4. Matchmaking. The Matchmaking in destiny speaks for itself. No lobby balancing.