This campaign was by far the worst one yet. I don't want to have to figure out how to run mechanics and puzzles to get through the story. They add this nonsense to drag a 1 hour story out to 7 or 8 hours. I don't want everything to be a Vault.

The current head of "User Research" at Bungie is a guy called Dr John Hopson. You mentioned "Test Subjects" in your post, this guy wrote articles on behavioural science in games in part based on experiments on lab mice. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/behavioral-game-design Explains a bit about how the game is structured, why certain repetitive actions keep appearing and basically why it's built the way it is. I trained as an Interrogator in the military, lots of behavioural stuff and I see more than a few processes I recognise in this game, and the responses I see in players who do not like anyone having an opinion different to them is very unhealthy for them. Some of the messages I have had over the last few days, from some people who run around every thread taking people to task simply for being critical of Bungie and having an opinion they do not like are quite telling. These people are clearly low IQ, easily manipulated and actually not in a heathy place mentally though they probably don't realise that. Yet.

Finally someone who sees this game as a laboratory experiment instead of an actual game. Bungie has been turning the dials against players for a while now, pursuing the impossible goal of pleasing hardcore players instead of letting the game just be chill for the majority. They decided to go after the wrong demo and doubled down hard.

It’s working on me because I’m starting not to care. It was reset day and I didn’t even care to log on. They are slowly filtering me out and that’s ok too.

I think the issue is the lack of non-dev play tests. Like who tf thought it would be a good idea to pair Air Superiority and Void threat modifiers together? It turns the experience into a gallery shooter and deprives the player the ability to roam in such a beautiful arena. I think at this point Bungie needs to really have meaningful playtests for all their activities moving forward.

so now the normal difficulty is called unfun lol

I mean, one of the devs literally said she wanted to make that Final Shape strike super frustrating on purpose. I wouldn't put it past them.

The harder and more annoying something is, the bigger the sense of accomplishment after the completion. That is literally the entire concept of Dark Souls and a good direction for Destiny, which so far often feels too easy and repetitive. The new focus on mechanics is ideal for that, because it doesnt feel like cheap artificial difficulty as in bullet sponges and enemy spam (DS2 lol). E: What are you all still doing playing the game, when you want everything to be playlist strike difficulty? How can you think of difficulty as a pure negative in videogames? Goes to show its really just casuals and noob using this forum, because no active player who actually achieved something would argue against a rise in difficulty - the reports show it perfectly: none of the people complaining have ever made it into endgame. You all expect videogames to be a pure relaxation, why dont you read a book instead?

Try doing the 2020 lost sectors at 2000 power level lol. Almost 1 shot by any of the champs.

Today's facet of command nerf just killed my new favorite Titan build. It just went from fun to useless. I hate when they nerf -blam!- to the ground like that. #NerfTheFun

So. Final Shape. Everyone still think it's GOTY worthy? Better than FF7 Rebirth? Or P3R? Or Infinite Wealth? Or even Helldivers?

Most of the content is quite low difficulty enemy wise, mechanics have gotten more advanced but it shouldn’t beyond anyone to figure them out

That 12 man GM was not fun