I appreciate you point of view. But you must see the underlying problem with catering to a specific type of player. Money or lack thereof. Without Activision dollars every decision that effects an already diminished playerbase has implications for the long term health of the ip. Serious implications. I’m not sure if I class as casual or hardcore or what - but I have participated in everything D1 & D2 threw at me and at this point I have a fairly complete collection of exotics including malfeasance, thorn, nechrochasm (across D1/D2) etc etc I have clearly put in the effort long term. But bungie is asking a weary playerbase to knuckle down yet again and re earn a gun we have already sweated over twice before. I don’t enjoy passing on this quest but the experience described by many on here can hardly be described as fun. It’s great that your prepared to keep plugging away but unfortunately the gaming landscape has changed drastically of late & bungie need to start seeing the wider picture before it’s too late.

the long term goal is to have a game they can create for players. look at all the games out there that are 50-70 and have hardly any players playing them. i'm not talking aaa games but, those crappy ones that you see all over that fit a small niche market. Bungie seems to be looking to that specific crowd to please and will make money on it.. players like me buy the game, buy the merchandise, buy the trophy items from bungie, ingame stuff from eververse.. we spend 4-5 times what the game costs, replacing 4-5 casual players. no they may not make as much money, but, they also dont spend as much trying to cater to the wide swath of players demands, which saves time, which saves money. If you recall, the lore of the game is that the tower was destroyed, meaning our weapons were lost to us.. so in game lore that we now need to re earn these weapons again makes sense.. can they continue to destroy our tower and have us continually have to reearn this stuff.. probably not, that would be going to far but, once.. it may work.. they can't keep the same gimmick over and over.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it - I can honestly see a darkness style cataclysm in D3 yet again obliterating the vault and the weapons along with your 3rd earned last word removed... only to have weapons from D1 & D2 drip fed back in dlc after dlc. You know what the saddest thing is about that ppl will still play D3 regardless. I was one of those ppl myself but perhaps I’m not any longer.

I'll be honest, if they worked the lore properly and the story fit, it would be believable. I read all the lore though so I understand what is going on. IF you only accept the in game stuff, people won't like it. people will play though. I will play and be pissed if the lore is crap or I will accept it as ok, like I do now if the lore fits and it makes sense. We will see what happens. There is no game with the same graphics, soundtrack, crispy gun play and raids as destiny. It and the clan I run are why I continue.