After a lot of thought, I've stumbled across the answer to why Destiny continues to have 3.2 million players every day, despite the rage and frustration over the broken loot system, and other RNG mechanics. I thought to myself: why do people continue to play despite being trolled by the loot system? Why do people continue to come back to Xûr every week, or beat the raid every week for their shot at loot, only to be disappointed by the endless wave of shards and sunbreakers? Why do legendary and exotic engrams drop armor for random classes? Why are rewards never tailored to your character? Why are they making [i]everything[/i] a dice throw? The answer is now plain as day, and actually quite simple. Bungie is taking advantage of innate human gambling addictions. There are reasons why Bungie continues to make everything RNG-based, despite the [i]obvious[/i] rage coming from the community: This artificially extends the life of the game. There is not enough endgame content to keep players busy from launch until December, when the DLC (disc-locked content) unlocks. If players work hard enough to obtain the loot through a reliable method, they're afraid they won't stick around until the DLC. Why continue to play when you've got everything you've had your sights on, right? Creating three characters still won't last if there are reliable ways of obtaining a certain piece of gear for those who are incredibly dedicated. Moving on to engram rates, they create exotic engrams to drop for random classes because A: they want to encourage people to start new characters (artificial lifespan), and B: they want to keep people coming back to Xûr. Didn't get the weapon/armor you want? Ahh, he might have it next week. But to get the materials to buy it, you've gotta play a bunch before you can buy it, when you have a 5/6 chance of [i]not[/i] getting the armor you want. They are capitalizing on the fact that people have innate gambling addictions, and [i]this[/i] is precisely what keeps people coming back. The RNG in Atheon's teleportation is designed to artificially increase the difficulty of the raid. Instead of creating mechanics that are difficult at first to figure out, they create a mechanic that destroys all forms of strategy and role-filling, as it [i]should[/i] be. The RNG in the Crucible keeps players playing for a shot at loot drops, which is why it's possible to get exotics as rewards, even for the player who goes 1-35 in Clash. Destiny does not reward performance [i]at all[/i]. It simply rewards you for being present at the end of an activity. There is no incentive to perform well. See what I'm talking about? Everywhere there's RNG in the game, there's another example of Bungie capitalizing on the innate addiction to gambling. It's all a slot machine, people, and guess what? [i]They own you.[/i] They own everyone who hasn't realized this yet. They own each and every person who continues to check Xûr every week, hoping that their desired Exotic will be for sale. And this is exactly why the loot system will never, ever, [i]ever[/i] be fixed. There's not enough real content in the game for people to come back to, so they make the entire meta-game a slot machine so that they can rope people into playing their gutted, half-assed, disappointing excuse for what we were promised was going to be a truly engaging experience. I'm on to you, Bungie. I'll be keeping tabs on the development of this game, but you have been exposed now. First it was the Disc Locked Content, then it was the unneeded nerfs, and then it was the RNG mechanics in the Vault of Glass. You may have everyone else fooled, but I smell bullshit. And I smell it [i]strong.[/i] It seems nobody cares about making a truly good game anymore. Not even you. [b]Edit:[/b] There are an [i]astounding[/i] amount of people in here who seem to think that I am complaining about having to work hard to get gear. That is [i]not[/i] what I am talking about. The only way to get to level cap is by rolling a dice in the Vault of Glass week after week. This isn't grinding, nor is this hard work. One could theoretically join in as a 25 just before the Templar is killed and receive raid armor. This is [i]not[/i] how a raid should reward people. There is no hard work where the particular RNG of this loot system is concerned. [b]Edit 2:[/b] [i]Because some people are apparently brain-dead, read this before you post.[/i] [quote]While every MMO has an RNG component to it's loot system, I feel that a loot system where you cannot get endgame gear other than playing a slot machine once a week creates artificial replay value. Leveling up your gear? It takes a while, but you will get there. Buying faction gear? Could take a while, but you will get there. Hypothetical scenario: The greatest Destiny player carries the worst Destiny player through the Vault of Glass every week. Because of this particular system, there is a good chance that the best Destiny player never gets raid armor, which is required to reach level cap, while the worst player acquires all raid armor and an Epilogue. Then Xûr sells him a helmet because the best player carried him through the weekly. See the problem here? People ultimately aren't rewarded for their skill in this game, as they should be. Other MMO's reward one mostly based off of skill and how much time you put into a task. When there is an element of RNG present, it is usually possible to farm the sources of the loot because of this very reason. In Destiny, it is the opposite. Players are locked out of the loot rewards every week after they complete the raid. Even if someone beats the Vault 50 times, it is theoretically possible to never attain appropriate rewards.[/quote]