[b]A Protest of Subclass Sunsetting[/b] Hello. A few hours ago, Polygon posted an article detailing some changes that Luke Smith wanted to see implemented with the old Light-based subclasses. Essentially, he wants to bring them into a customization system similar to what we see with the Stasis subclasses. Not a bad plan on paper. Of course, if I agreed with everything he said, I wouldn't be writing this. The real concerning part of the article was when Smith talked of "Honing an identity" within classes and subclasses. What he means by this is that classes like Voidwalker would get rid of Nova Warp because it isn't exactly what Smith refers to as "IP-defining". No one uses it, so by that logic there is no reason to keep it around. [i]THIS IS REALLY, REALLY BAD. [/i] This subclasses-sunsetting as certain content creators have called it is extremely concerning. Unlike weapon and armor sunsetting, which while unpopular wasn't unprecedented, this move is going to end up being both. Weapon sunsetting was necessary in order to avoid power creep and to make new loot actually matter. I don't think that Bungie executed on this perfectly, but sunsetting did the job it was supposed to do. I personally think armor sunsetting is frivolous and frankly unnecessary, but with the addition of Transmog coming soon, its something that the playerbase will tolerate and accept, albeit not exactly with love. However, sunsetting supers and abilities achieves nothing. There are two main reasons that Smith gives: First, a need to simplify the subclass trees or ease of use. Second, is a need for specialization between classes. Both of these reasons are illogical and frankly stupid. First, if there's the need to prune subclasses, which to that point I say: "Why?". The main reason to switch the Light subclasses over to this new system is to increase customization for the player. By taking away options, you take away opportunities for said customization. My protest of the second point ties into the first. Smith wants to create a "class jealousy" between classes through specialization, and in doing so basically force people to use different characters for different play styles. This is stupid. Players, both casual and hardcore, don't want to have to use multiple different characters to achieve what one character can do in theory. I love the fact that my Titan can use the same subclass to either create a buffing and protecting Ward of Dawn or have massive mob clear through Sentinel Shield. By pruning away at this subclasses and forcing specialization, Smith and Bungie would actively be destroying the customization that they want to foster so badly. I am an undergraduate studying economics, and while they are wide gaps between that and game design, there are some basic concepts that carry over. I can say while studying economics that the best way to get people to invest is to put money in their pockets. A disposable income is what fuels consumption and economic growth. In Destiny, the best way to foster investment into the game's systems of customization is to give players more options for customization. Subclasses sunsetting will not achieve this, and in the long run hurt the game. On one final note to Luke Smith, frankly the entire concept that he pushed in this article was offensive. As a player, it makes me angry that one would want to take away core gameplay abilities for no valid reason. But more so, to a developer, it makes me furious. Bungie employees spent God-knows how much time developing, tuning, and coding each and every subclass and ability. Yes, things like Nova Warp, Arc Staff, and Chaos Reach are what Luke Smith might refer to as "mediocre". But instead of giving his employees a chance to fix and perfect their work, he's surrendering on their behalf, saying that instead of fixing their game, they're going to perform unneeded amputation to the game's systems. If I were a Bungie developer, I would be -blam!-ing furious at this insulting suggestion. On behalf on both the developers and the playerbase, I hope to God that this is just another one of Savathûn's tricks. TL;DR: removing subclass options is illogical and hurts both the player and the developers.