[b]Destiny.[/b] What image or idea does the word conjure in your mind? [i]Destiny.[/i] They had me the moment they released the first trailer. Exotic worlds, sprawling forests, vast deserts... a lone Guardian in the ruins of an ancient building surrounded by woods. Adventure, exploration and wonderment. We were going to hop on sparrows with our friends and set off to new frontiers and old. The challenge was laid before us, [i]Become Legend.[/i] Those of you who have read some of my other posts know that I am passionate about this game. Those of you who've read some of my other posts know that my love of Destiny doesn't make me a fan of this version of Bungie by default. We all had our grand visions, expectations and dreams of what it would be like to finally set foot on these worlds, face these alien foes, save this mysterious Traveler and find our destiny. Reality. As I said, I love Destiny... But let's be honest. We all know that the Destiny that released was not the Destiny that Joe Staten had envisioned and certainly not the Destiny that we imagined in our own minds. The first hint that something might be off was Marty's departure. Then Joe left and it was hard to not wonder what could be happening. It was troubling to longtime fans that Bungie seemed to hold some disdain for Xbox players; after all they were the ones who made them the company they are today. Still, the game came along and we were given images and fed dreams on social media. The first hint that something was off was on my first mission in the Cosmodrome. I had my headset on and suddenly there was another Guardian... only they weren't talking. Oh well, there's another... "Hello!" ...but they aren't talking either. In fact, no one is talking. So I go to the Tower and is there really no voice chat in the game?? PvP. There has to be voice chat in PvP, right? Are you kidding me? No voice chat in PvP? What the hell?? The second hint was the first "Turn back Guardian...4...3...2...1..." Which was almost immediately followed by [i]Did I just hit an invisible ceiling??[/i] Of course we all know the rest. There was no story (there was however a Grimiore to explain why there's Earth gravity on the moon). We had enemies to fight which was fun... Even if we had no real idea why we were fighting them or why they each other. And it became clear what had happened because we'd seen it before. [b]Halo 2[/b] Bungie sold their souls to Microsoft and in return they promised them Halo 2. They had a grand vision for what it would be and they had a deadline. Unfortunately they overreached and they overpromised and rather than either side allowing the game to become what it was meant to be, it released half finished. Anyone who ever drove a Ghost up above the Delta Halo knows what a massive world they built. You could drive over the mountains, around the entire lake and even traverse its depths. Yet only a fraction of that world ended up playable in the final release. Destiny. I always say Bungie are the only company I can think of that found selling their souls to be so nice, they did it twice. The fact that they were able to purchase their freedom back from Microsoft was pretty unprecedented. The relative speed with which they proceeded to sell their souls to Bobby Kotick afterwards still astounds. They say those that don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Well Activision opened their coffers and with a toothy grin set a deadline for Destiny. Once more Bungie overreached, over promised and released a shell of the game they'd dreamed of. Only this time things were a little different. This time they were able to pick the pieces of that game that should have been off the cutting room floor and they were able to repurpose it and sell it to us as DLC. "Oh but we had to build King's Watch and the other locked off zones into the infrastructure" "It was all part of the grand ten year plan" They said with toothy grins. We complained about the lack of story. We complained about the repetitive and not very explorable nature of the worlds. We griped about the confusing and seemingly slapped together economies and we wondered aloud at the seeming intent of it all to draw out the content that did exist. But we kept playing because in spite of what Destiny wasn't, that moment of gliding through the air on a Titan and activating our Super and flying like the greatest videogame Superman ever and smashing our enemies was just f**king epic. We kept playing because the gameplay was amazing and the guns were fun. We experienced the joy of logging on at 4am to run to Xur. Yeah the game had flaws, but the diamond still shone through the rough. When The Dark Below released, we raised concerns when players were locked out of endgame content a mere 3 months after release. A rift opened up in the community and suddenly those without TDB were "cheap" or "poor" for not owning it but wanting to run a Nightfall or meaningful Vanguard Strike. Never mind that probably half of those that didn't have TBD and found themselves locked out were getting it from loved ones for Christmas 3 weeks later. My wife wanted to get me it for Christmas; I ended up purchasing it 2 weeks before because they'd turned it into a shell without it. When Crota's End released, we started asking in earnest for matchmaking options for raids. With the raid came new upgrade materials and we started asking for a functional unified economy. Vault space became an issue that still exists and we voiced that concern. Still we logged in. We ran the new strike. We competed in Iron Banners. We leveled second and third characters. We called for more endgame activities that everyone could run and not just those with 5 other friends. The most requested being a Horde Mode. House of Wolves. [quote]We'll find you enemies, but we won't find you friends.[/quote] A line immediately drawn in the sand. Of course Bungie probably didn't mean it as literally as it ended up being, but that doesn't make it any less of a sin. They'd already made enemies with the locked Dark Below content. We'd had the chastising, the name calling and the hatred between the haves and have nots. Now instead of being "cheap" and "poor", those who wanted matchmaking options to play endgame content were called "lazy" for not wanting to leave the game to play the game. We asked for change and got [i]philosophies[/i]. We stood together and we made them blink, but they knew it didn't matter because they had their next Ace to play. The Taken King. I will say that it did not look bad and some looked quite good. That said, I personally would prefer to fill out and expand the world and enemies that exist before adding more into the fray. Maybe Mercury will be awesome. Maybe it won't be another Earth clone with slightly different colors and fauna. I'd still have rather walked out of the Cosmodrome and out into Older Russia to cross those rivers and hills and explore those forests and find what secrets they might hold. We'll see, it may be great. It might even be the greatest thing since sliced bread. What it won't be is a good f**king deal for any of the millions of people who've already purchased Destiny, The Dark Below and House of Wolves. To go all in for me will put my investment at $140.00 Those who purchased the season pass are slightly less and those in Europe are quite a bit more. But we love the game and we've invested ourselves and our time into developing our characters and populating this world Bungie have created. Only they are selling a Legendary Edition to new players that includes Destiny, TDB, HoW and The Taken King for $60. [quote]Hey everyone, thank you for playing our game the past year and oh-by-the-way, F**K YOU[/quote] I can live with and/or get past the unfinished game, the lack of story, the mess of economies, the matchmaking left to players to develop and run. I cannot for the life of me figure out what they are thinking with this. It literally makes no sense. 1) You don't fleece loyal customers while giving away the farm to future customers. 2) It makes ZERO sense financially anyway. What would have made sense would have been to bundle Destiny, TDB and HoW for $60 and then charged everyone $40 for The Taken King. Giving it all away in one package for $60?? That's just stupid. 3) If you're going to value your new expansion as only being worth $60 when packaged with the base game and previous 2 expansions, you're f**king insane if you think that anyone is going to not feel completely ripped off and screwed by having to pay $40 for just TTK. I just don't know what the end game is at Bungie at this point. They've made it crystal clear through their treatment of their original fan base and now their loyal Destiny fans that they don't really give two sh*ts about anything but the next $$$ They patronize us with the line that our feedback matters, even if their algorithms keep meaningful posts from trending... So where does that leave us? Do we keep investing ourselves in this world or is it time to see what else is out there? Fallout 4 will surely put a dent in the player population. Is the Legendary Edition Bungie panicking and desperately reaching for new players? Because if so, you don't need to court the new so desperately if you take care of and don't f**k over the ones you already have. Anyway, that's where I'm at with the game. At a crossroads between what I see Destiny can be and what Bungie seem determined to not let it be. I'd love to know what you all think and I'd love even more for you all to let Bungie know what you think. Once more into the fray. Once more for what you believe. #bumpfortruth