It seems pretty clear to me that the slowness of leveling was meant to encourage player engagement; keep them playing the game for as long as possible, doing as many activities as possible, with the ultimate goal of us hitting 550. The goal wasn't to maximize fun, the goal was to maximize engagement, or at least that's how it looks and feels. "Predatory" feels like an appropriate word, the current system feels like it's geared to extract playtime, not to reward playtime. "If you want that good Tier 5 gear, the first thing you need to do is play for a 120 hours." Yeah, if players don't feel like the time spent is worthwhile (and judging by player counts I'd say that's likely the case), then I think it's fair to call the system predatory. Bungie gets our time, our engagement, if they're lucky they get our dollars, but we don't get very much in return - at least not for the first hundred some odd hours.

Thats not predatory its just awful rewards and gameplay loop

If it's this way by accident, sure. If it's this way by INTENT, then I'm sticking to the word predatory. I feel like Bungie thought they had a way to make numbers go up, and stay up, for long periods of time, not because players were enjoying the game so much as because they'd all be grinding their way to LL400/500. "Numbers go up" isn't always predatory, but it definitely can be. The current system feels to me like it was designed with engagement and retention in mind, not enjoyability. How many players enjoyed the grind to 400? How many then enjoyed the grind from 400 to 450? How many are enjoying the grind to 550 right now? Maybe Bungie accidentally made a bad design choice, it happens, or maybe they were looking at metrics instead of player experiences. It feels like Bungie got our money and then strung us along; they gave us a carrot to chase, but placed it so far away that a lot of us aren't getting to it, we're meant to be content with a treadmill that only starts offering meaningful rewards after a hundred hours. It could be a confluence of bad decisions, or it could be by design, and their reluctance to soften the leveling system suggests to me that the system was by design.

Dude.... like 5 ppl are gonna hit 550 prolly. Like who cares... Why would anyone do that grind, just to be reset. Lol? It's clear ppl don't actually like this game. They don't want to actually play it. They MUST be rewarded. Forgot that the reward is actually playing the game.

[quote]They MUST be rewarded. Forgot that the reward is actually playing the game.[/quote] Destiny 2 is a looter shooter; part of the motivation for playing a looter shooter it collecting the loot. If the loot game is bad, that means a pivotal part of the looter shooter equation is missing. Yes, it's a problem that the loot portion of the game is mediocre to poor for players below the level cap, especially when all of us can remember a time when it wasn't that way. Yes, the loot portion of a looter shooter does matter, I don't think that's likely to change any time soon.

Well... actually no... it is action MMO. But clearly that discussion is moot.

[quote]Well... actually no... it is action MMO.[/quote] The loot matters in Action MMOs, too.