DISCLAIMER: I've got some salty french fries. Don't get your knickers in a twist. Play our way. More and more, this feels like Bungie's mantra. People enjoy playing other games? Inflate the grind so they won't have time. Everyone is using a fun gun? Nerf it. They're STILL using it? Retire it. Less streamers are streaming Destiny? Bring back Trials. Nobody wants to play Trials? Bring back CBMM so every Crucible game feels like Trials. Nobody STILL wants to play Trials? Force them to if they want the Moments of Triumph title. STILL!? Make them p(l)ay for Solstice armor. You can say what you want about my tongue-in-cheek take on these things. Around this time last year, Bungie advertised a revitalized Destiny with New Light/Shadowkeep and armor mods that would allow you to, and I quote, "Build a better monster killing machine." The advertising streams leading up to the release of Shadowkeep placed a lot of emphasis on the idea of building your Guardian up to suit your play-style. A fat lot of good those promises were. From day 1, the inclusion of mechanics like Champions herded players into specific styles of play. FOMO content worked to ensure you were playing the modes Bungie wanted you to play. And then Luke Smith announced sun-setting to applause and fanfare the likes of which has not been heard since. When Moments of Trials asked me to win seven games of Trials for the title this year, I said, yeah, no thank you. I can live without a title. Well, I guess I can live without an armor set now too. I mean, there wasn't much incentive to grind for it anyways since I put the time into grinding out the previous set playing the same activities last August only for the set to be made almost immediately irrelevant by the introduction of Armor 2.0 and the 2.0 Solstice sets having piss poor stats. But you know what I said? -blam!- the stats! I'm here for the fashion, bb. But Bungie saw what I was up to and said, "We can't have that. Let's sunset armor too!" I suppose I should thank them since I'm now enjoying those high 70s and 80s from the Season Pass set, but this is also a reason for me not to give a damn about this upcoming lengthy grind or any lengthy grind in the future for that matter: Bungie will just retire the things I want to play with when they need to sell me something new. But being a stickler for cool shit, I would've probably grinded for that Magnificent armor had it not been for that detail they hid in the TWAB: Win seven games of Trials. This shit again. No thank you, sir. There are countless things I could do with my time and every single one of them is a higher priority than ever setting foot in Trials again. I played the new Trials the first week it came back. It was the same old doggy poop I didn't like in the first place. But that's fine. Not everything in the game needs to be for me. Let the moist, perspiring people enjoy comparing units. If anything, I'll see less of them in CASUAL Crucible. Bungie didn't like that. So they brought back CBMM. Maybe it is better for the networking since dedicated servers are far too expensive for a money printing machine like Destiny. But it doesn't change the fact that I have not enjoyed Crucible since the change. Iron Banner at least seems to favor SBMM, so I have a piece of driftwood in this sea of bad ideas. For now. So what is my point in this lengthy diatribe? Well, in a nutshell, I don't feel like Bungie gives a damn about me or my wants as a player so long as I put money on the table when the time comes. I mean, I get it. They're a voracious corporation with an unquenchable thirst for my wallet. But Destiny has the potential to be a game that has something for everyone. More and more, I feel like Bungie is not interested in making the game accessible to everyone. A seasonal celebration of heroes is not the place to put people out because they aren't good enough to do a Master Nightfall or they don't like Trials. It should be a place to bring the entire community together. That it doesn't feel like that kind of place speaks volumes about what I feel the bigger problems are with this game. You can agree, disagree, leave a lengthy reply telling me that I'm the problem because I want to play Crucible casually instead of rising to your level of sweat. It's all good, kiddos. I just want to say my piece about why I am disappointed by the announcement of Solstice and why I will not be participating in at least the aspects that require me to play parts of the game I don't want to. I know Bungie doesn't read these things anyways, but I needed to vent because I've been feeling more and more alienated by the game over the past year. EDIT: After some more consideration, I cancelled my pre-order. Preserving original post for posterity. Don't worry, Bungie. You've got my money for Beyond Light even if I probably won't play it until January since you're now releasing in the same window as Cyberpunk. That's fine, btw. You do you. I'm not actually upset about the release date change, but I do think it's going to be an awkward season given the stiff competition. But with Beyond Light, I'm giving you that chance to prove to me sunsetting in all its glory is the savior we need. If I'm right tho, if the game's not more fun for sunsetting, and if I continue feeling forced to play Try Hard for Osiris, I probably won't stick around for The Witch-King of Angmar. At least the paid version. I think it's silly that I should pay you to force me to play your way.