My name's Jeff the cabal. I have been around these forums for quite some time, during the launch of destiny. I have played and have been in love with destiny for the past year. I usually will never hate on this game, and I still won't. [b]This post here isn't to hate, I really want to give back some constructive criticism about the game.[/b] I am easily considered by many a big ol desticle. I defend bungie, but to only a certain extent. If something isn't right, I will straight away point it out. Destiny. Let's all admit it, it is slowly dying. (Now again, destiny isn't dead, but it's obvious that the game is slowly dying. Every game is slowly dying, destiny is picking a paste rather more quickly than other games.) There is no way around it, as much as you try to avoid it, you can't hide from it. I personally don't like to believe it is, but let's face it, it really, realistically is. Me as a loyal destiny and bungie fan really don't want to see a game such as destiny go to waste. [u]This game is such a good concept, has such good ideas and thoughts that where put into this game! It would be such a waste if it all went down the drain. [/u] The lore for example, though destiny as a game doesn't have much, destiny in whole has an overwhelming amount of lore to it. This is all rich and beautiful lore that is locked up and settled in the grimoire section on the bungie website. Why is this a thing? Beats me. But there must be some reason behind it. Destiny as a game, doesn't have much and rarely does incorporate these bits of lore into the actual story! The vex? The hive? Cabal? Fallen? We know nothing about them, we know some due to expansions, but that's about it[u]! I honestly think that incorporating the lore in actual mainstream story would be a humongous step forward. People crave stories and lores. People crave knowledge of the world around them, and you bungie, you have it! You have it all! It's all in the grimoire and if you where to incorporate it into the story, it would greatly GREATLY improve the game as a whole. When destiny was released, by far the biggest complaint was the horrible lack luster story. [/u]It honestly was one of the worst stories I've heard from a video game. (Again, I am usually not one to hate or bash, this is strictly my opinion. Feel free to have a different opinion.) Destiny lost a whole lot of its fanbase because of how boring the story was. There was no hook, there was nothing to get you going. You got revived, you fight the fallen, you woke the hive, you discovered the vex and ran into the cabal. You then fight the "heart" in the black garden and up to this day many people don't even know what the heart was. (Of course some do, thanks to grimoire. But I'm taking about in game wise.) Bungie is at least heading in the right direction, especially with the taken King. Story telling in this dlc really improved. We got to know more about the world around us. The NPCs in the tower are alive now rather than mindless NPCs. They all have characteristics, emotions, feelings, they all are different and they all should be that way. They shouldn't all just be sweeper bots with no emotion whatsoever. Bungie is definitely heading in the right direction with this one, we know the world around us, we know more about our enemies, NPCs play a role, a good hook and interest to the story, the quest introducing more story to the world around us, it is all working. It's great. Keep it up, we as a community really wish to see more of this in the future. Another thing that destiny can improve is the leveling system. Bungie, you admitted it yourself. When vanilla was around, a big portion of the fanbase left after reaching level 20. It is noticeable too, you have said it yourself, we as a community have seen it with you. A big chunk of the fanebase left when light level was introduced. Some left because they didn't know what to do. Others left because they hated how the RNG worked for leveling up, there are numerous causes and reasoning behind people leaving at this time in the game. I believe the leveling system should just be a bit more simpler. The leveling system now is starting to look a whole like the old leveling system, relying on RNG drops from raids and trials. This I believe has taken a big hit on the game too, leveling in this game shouldn't be determined by a computer saying yes or no, it should be based on hard work, effort, and dedication. The house of wolves, you where gate teed etheric light to level up weapons and armor. People worked hard in the prison to get these things, they grinder the prison, the put hard work and dedication to these things to level up, and that's exactly how it should be. [u]When people work hard, they want results. No one is going to work for no reason. There must be an outcome. It's pretty much how economy and human works. People work to get money. No one is going to work just because they can. They want an outcome. If there is no outcome, no one will want to workforce it. In destiny, it's like going to work, and your boss telling you "hey, at the end of the week, you have a 50/50 chance of me paying you. You will go to work with doubt knowing that at the end of this long Grundy hard week, you might just get nothing. Well, that's how the raid loot works now. Bungie, if you think that this "chance" will motivate us to work for it every week, it's not. It might work for now, it might lure people in to grind and grind and grind mindlessly at this gambling simulator, but once this game goes up there in 4-5 years from now and the whole entire community knows your tricks, it's honestly not going to work.[/u] Weapon balancing is a given. Especially destiny as an RNG based game, balancing [i]really[/i] needs to play a big roll. Bungie is on the right direction of trying to balance these weapons as much as they can slowly, but we all just wish if this can all be done and over with. I know balancing weapons in this game is much more complex and harder than it actually sounds, but once you nail it, it's there for good. Hand cannons, pulse rifles, shotguns, they will all have a use and be good for certain situations. That's how it should be. [u]Pulse rifles shouldn't just rule all the ranges and situations, hand cannons shouldn't rule all situations, no weapons should. I would like to hear myself say before every crucible map "hey, I'm going to us ____ because I think this will fit ____ map better" more often. This adds so much more verity to the game, which is another big complaints of destiny. [/u]Bungie is heading in the right direction, but it will take some time. Slowly but surely. The grinding. I love MMOs and all games related. Destiny although may not be an MMO, it has strikingly similar features to it. There is a huge debate in the community about it, and I can see why. It's not an MMO but it does have striking resemblance to one. It's like a dog dressed in a rabbit costume. Is a rabbit? No, but does it have 2 long ears? Yes. Does it have whiskers? Yes. Does it look like a rabbit? Yes. [u]MMOs and RPG games tend to be based off of grinding. Grinding is a huge aspect of the game, often time this grinding will lead you forward to something in the game. This grinding is [i]suppose[/i] to be loved, is suppose to be enjoyable and should simply be tied closer to the game itself. Some examples that Bungie ailed was the sword bounty where you need 25 kills in the crucible with a sword. This is a small example of good grinding. This type of grinding gets players to play the game, and to enjoy themselves while doing it. It leads people to play crucible, and explore different aspects of the game some people don't normally visit. This is fine, it's perfect.[/u] But grinding like finding 100-150 planet materials? Really? This is simply unnecessary. There is no reason why someone should have to do something like this, there is no reason why a person has to spend hours upon hours of sitting on patrol, waiting for planet material to spawn, grab 3-6 natural and sit there again waiting. There is no reason for it, this is an example of bad grinding. Micro-transaction. I am pro micro-transaction, HOWEVER, for cosmetics items and things of that sort. Micro transaction as a whole is looked down upon by the gaming community, and especially in a game like destiny, it is very looked down upon. However, some games do it right. And so far, destiny is on the right track. Like I said previously MMOs have a huge grinding aspect to the game, and there shouldn't be an easy pass by that to victory. There shouldn't be a way to "skip" the grinding. Micro-transaction should simply stay emotes, maybe shaders, ships and sparrows, even emblems. (I believe that ghost shells and class items shouldn't have light. They are alone cosmetic items and players shouldn't be be force to use something like a cloak they don't like because it brings their level higher.) if ghost and class items for their light removed, I would then suggest ghosts and class items should be sold by Tess. But you Bungie as a company NEEDS to promise this, because although some might not worry, some people are skeptical. You need to be straight forward and say that this will stay cosmetic only. Again, this is my constructive criticism. I still love this game, I still play this game daily. I am a huge fan of you Bungie and a huge fan of this franchise. I am giving some feedback back to get destiny more recognized, to maybe help fix this game up a bit. I am here to try to help voice my ideas, and voice the communities ideas. Thank you for reading my post. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions. -Jeff the cabal <3