The talented folks who create Destiny 2, like those who create many games, are aware of an uncomfortable truth about game design: that in order to be compelling and remain economically viable as a live service, a game needs to grow and change like a living real-world society or environment. Fun-killing imbalances have to be found and corrected, new content has to be added, and some old content may even have to be removed. Characters may even need to die in order for other characters’ lives to be credibly in jeopardy - and therefore part of an exciting narrative with meaningful conflict in it. Even Cayde’s death served a purpose in making the stakes of the Tangled Shore storyline and the battle for the Dreaming City more compelling, as the escalating hunt for those ultimately responsible for his murder (Savathun’s the puppetmaster, Uldren was mostly just mentally ill, poor guy!) became more meaningful. After saying all that, it may seem odd (even callous towards Cayde!) to say that I don’t think that limiting the use of old weapons in endgame content would make the game more fun, engaging, and successful, overall and in the long run. Stay with me, though, if you’re interested. I want to point out that just because old things fading away or being destroyed is often a necessary part of change and creation, that does not mean there are no wrong choices to be made about what fades. To be engaged in something for a long time, most forward-thinking people need to have a certain sense of continuity, a certain level of confidence that what they invest in a hobby will last for a certain amount of time. That amount of time doesn’t have to be indefinitely long - even the people who love D2 the most don’t believe they’ll be playing this game throughout their entire lives; maybe after ten years or so, they’ll just replay an offline version of it from time to time, the way one does with beloved classic games. When I think ahead that many years into the future, though - beyond fifteen months - it seems absurd and sad that the use of older, favourite weapons would be restricted in endgame activities, the most engaging, lively part of an action MMORPG. In an MMORPG where weapons are essentially just a set of statistics with skins, this would not be an issue, but thanks to Bungie’s amazing artists and game designers, Destiny 2’s weapons are far more than that. My trusty Right Side of Wrong is more than that, with its familiar hollow rattling noise and the idiosyncratic kick that seems to fit right into my virtual hand with each trigger pull, different from even other guns of the exact same name. For many dedicated players, whether they play PvE or PvP or both in equal measure, being forced to put down old favourites when they go into endgame activities like new Raids or Trials of Osiris is going to dramatically decrease their enthusiasm for the game. It’s going to make them feel like their effort is even more futile in this game than it is in real life, which is the opposite of what games should be. In real life, if I acquired a nice firearm or bow to do range shooting or hunt deer, it could even outlast my own natural lifespan with proper care, allowing me to grow familiar with it and get fun and use out of it, even if I owned other weapons for other purposes. Why can’t my Right Side of Wrong at least last the lifespan of Destiny 2? Well... I understand that more weapons means a more difficult time balancing the game, and that it’s difficult to keep attracting new players and growing the game if the sandbox stagnates. However, as far as I can see, D2’s fundamental design dictates that the balance is never going to be perfect, and returning to the way D1 worked (for a certain period) does nothing but swap back to an older, more transitory form of this same set of problems, rather than actually fixing them. If there’s a compelling reason why the cost-benefit analysis on this works out differently than I think it does, though, I’d really like to understand it. Thoughts?