I've played since Beta. I am a Day One player. Had a falling out of Destiny before The Dark Below was released. Picked Destiny back up two months before The Taken King and have played almost every day since.
I have deleted two characters, my OG Titan and a Level 2 Warlock (lol). I made a new Titan when I came back to Destiny so I could have a new Character with my friend. This new Titan I have though I couldn't be happier with, currently sitting at 332 Light without doing the Hard Raid yet since the April Update. Check him out!
According to the DestinyTracker site, between all three characters I have 37 days and some change played which equals 888+ hours. Not bad for completely missing out on (essentially on The Dark Below and House of Wolves).