On what the BRAVE Arsenal offers

Destiny 2: The Final Shape is officially one month away. The long national nightmare is almost over; Destinyplayers will finally have something new to complain about that isn’t executive tomfuckery at Bungie or the possible threat of a closure from Sony. But “almost” isn’t “totally,” and a month is a long time to sit and stew in one’s juices, especially considering the previous five months of doing exactly that. So Bungie has given the players the Destiny equivalent of a Final Fantasy XIV patch content drop: a miniature campaign and mode of play called “Into the Light” and “Onslaught,” respectively. 

Into the Light is essentially about the player saying goodbye to the Vanguard, to the Last City, and to everyone who has helped them along their path to finally confronting the Witness inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler. You talk to Eris Morn and Suraya Hawthorne, Ada-1 and the Drifter; you track down Archie, the adorable EXO-dog we found during Season of the Seraph, as he romps around familiar, if disused old haunts throughout the system. Each moment is sentimental but brief, amounting to a single text card detailing your interaction with these characters the way a Dungeon Master might during a weekly TTRPG. 

Onslaught, on the other hand, is all about the action. In its most basic form, “Onslaught: Playlist,” it is a 10-wave siege-breaking operation conducted in various key points near the Last City and the Cosmodrome. It takes about 10 minutes and is for more casual play. Its more challenging iteration, simply titled “Onslaught,” is a 50-wave run with a legend mode where enemies get progressively more difficult and eventually your ability to freely respawn is restricted (on legend mode, this happens immediately). You have to defend a point called the ADU from these waves of enemies, and you do so not only by shooting them, but by shoring up actual defenses, like tripwires, decoy sweeper bots, and Scorpius Turrets on loan from Cabal Empress Caiatl. In order to beef your defenses up, you have to collect scrap, and that is where the shooting real good comes into play. 

Onslaught is a lot of fun, but the difficulty curve is a bit steep, especially if you’re just casually stepping into a round. In order to do legend Onslaught, you have to actually craft a build that can handle large numbers of trash mobs mixed with high-level targets while staying alive consistently and cleanly. It’s also a bit samey, switching back and forth between just three or four locations and really only using Fallen and Hive mobs as fodder. The question then becomes, “why would anybody play this for a month straight?” And the answer is honestly one of the more brilliant/devious implementations of FOMO I’ve ever seen Bungie pull out: The BRAVE Arsenal.

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The BRAVE Arsenal is 12 high-level weapons from various points across Destiny‘s timeline. There are five kinetic weapons: the Hung Jury SR4, a Dead Orbit-derived scout rifle originally locked behind Nightfall rewards starting in Season of the Splicer; Blast Furnace, a pulse rifle from the Black Armory days; Succession, a sniper rifle from the Deep Stone Crypt Raid; Midnight Coup, a hand cannon originally earnable during the Leviathan Raid back in OG Destiny 2; and the Mountaintop, a breech-loaded grenade launcher earned by resetting your Crucible rank with Lord Shaxx back in Season 5 (this grenade launcher absolutely dominated the Crucible for a HOT minute). 

The four energy weapons in the set are: Elsie’s Rifle/No Time To Explain, a Void pulse rifle first introduced as a campaign completion reward in Destiny back in 2014 and reintroduced during the Beyond Light expansion in 2020; the Recluse, an Arc submachine gun with a brutal reputation in PVP, originally earnable starting in Season 6 with the completion of the “The Stuff of Myth” Crucible Triumph; Forbearance, an Arc breech-loaded wave-frame grenade launcher earnable in the Vow of the Disciple Raid; and Luna’s Howl, a Solar hand cannon Crucible Rank reset reward from Shaxx all the way back in Season 4.

Finally, the three power weapons include: Hammerhead, a Void machine gun first introduced with the Black Armory in Season 5; Falling Guillotine, a reward sword with massive AOE damage from the Season of Arrivals season pass; and Edge Transit, a meme grenade launcher earnable in the world starting in Season 4 (the reason this one is a “meme” weapon is because it wouldn’t fucking stop dropping as loot in every goddamn activity during Season 4 and for a while afterwards). 

Each of these genuinely iconic weapons were either incredibly sought-after or incredibly notorious among players, even though many of them have been replaced by new loadout metas, combat strategies or simply better weapons in their archetype. But the sentimental value of each can’t be denied – even for Edge Transit. They’re weapons that defined Destiny 2 in a lot of ways—for better or worse. And their appearance now, at the end of the road, has afforded Bungie the opportunity to really play up the finale-ass drama of this whole affair; it’s alsogiven players a reason to not only come back, but to stick around.

Into the Light has introduced a new social space, the Hall of Champions, where you can go to talk to Shaxx (instead of his usual spot at the top of the Tower), get bounties, and earn rewards. As you level up your Rank with this version of Shaxx (he’s also still stationed at the Tower), you’ll earn pinnacle relatively-high-stat Parade gear from a special section of chests. The room also features a new side-vendor, Arcite 99-40, a former combat frame who briefly provided players with Crucible bounties and rewards at the beginning of Destiny. Arcite is the true VIP here, because he handles the BRAVE weapon missions: 12 missions that correspond with each BRAVE Arsenal gun’s archetype. None of these weapon missions are especially difficult to accomplish, but they are long, with each involving the player landing hundreds of precision kills or rapid-fire kills in quick succession. Onslaught, naturally, awards bonus points for these missions. Each mission awards a specially curated version of each weapon that marks its distinction from the “normal” rolls by having a special “limited time” ornament and perks selected by Bungie devs themselves. In other words, the Recluse you earn from doing “Recluse Endangerment” might not be a god roll, but it’s pretty damn close and it looks different even from the other BRAVE Recluses floating around. 

I’ve written 1050 words up to this point, most of it preamble, to say this: after several hours of grinding, I’ve finally completed each of these goddamn missions. And now I have to ask myself whether or not it was worth it. 

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In a cosmic sense, the endeavor of asking oneself whether it’s worth it to spend several sustained hours playing the same 15 minutes of a Lightfall campaign mission to gradually chip away at ten or eleven different weapon challenges just so one could get some holofoil guns as a reward… is kind of pointless. We all die and I’ve spent a day of my life I’ll never get back doing this, but that kind of condemnation can be levied at every other thing we do. I wanted to do this; therefore, on some level at least, it’s inherently worth it. What complicates things is the fact that I’ve written thousands of words in the past on whether or not playing Destiny 2 is worth it to begin with, and the sum-total of my work in this regard skews toward the negative in the final calculus. I have been very down on this game, especially in the last two or three years; after all the fiery criticism I’ve thrown towards the game, am I really falling for a nostalgia trap in the final moments of this game franchise’s “first” arc? 

Y’know, like, kind of?[1]

Putting all of this aside for a second, I actually do think Into the Light is worth doing. I think it’s a great mini-campaign for new and returning players to indulge in, even as the rest of the game is a hot goddamn mess. If you’re new, haven’t played for awhile, or quit at some point during the past year, Onslaught and Arcite’s BRAVE missions are a great way to not only get a set of quality weapons before The Final Shape, but they’re also excellent crucibles to help players improve their skills with all weapon types and get to know more complex aspects of the game like loadout management and buildcrafting. 

Of course it isn’t going to hold your hand at every step; Destiny has literally never done that, even when it’s made strides to make the game easier for new players to comprehend. There are still clunky and confusing parts of the game that require subscribing to several different YouTube channels to learn about, like subclass verbs and gear modification, and at this point Bungie is literally never beating the “just watch MyNameIsByf’s six-hour explainer on what the fuck is happening in this video game” allegations, but unlike the slow and convoluted New Light new-user onboarding campaign, Into the Light and Onslaught are about as plug-and-play as Destiny 2 has ever been. 

In fact, I think it’s a way of engaging with Destiny 2‘s fraught and fractured history with the least amount of attendant baggage. It helps set The Final Shape – and beyond – up as a sort of fresh start, a blank slate. Whether or not Bungie will have the chance to actualize the new, fresh vision of their game this all implies remains to be seen, but for my part, I’m satisfied to start anew with my BRAVE Arsenal and Parade gear in hand.

References

↑1	I’m also going after the “Superblack” shader, for what it’s worth; I just need to reach the pinnacle of Shaxx’s vendor rank before June 4.

The new Fireteam Finder rules when it doesn't suck

Aenz and I walked into the Deadsea. A grey-and-red indicator flashed along the bottom of my screen—our companion from the Entrance area through the Cube encounter had departed in the Wasteland. The Kell Echo would be difficult without a third fireteam member. But this is sometimes just the risk you run when you form parties through the Fireteam Finder.

LFG finders are commonplace in most other MMOs. Tools like the Duty Finder in Final Fantasy XIV and the Group Finder in World of Warcraft help players get together quickly to complete high-level content and daily roulettes. This helps lower the barrier to content that is otherwise difficult or impossible to do solo. For many players who aren't in clans or who don't have dedicated raid/dungeon parties, this is a blessing. But for the vast majority of Destiny's decade in operation, such a tool just hasn't existed in-game. 

That is, until this winter. 

The Fireteam Finder was launched alongside the Dawning seasonal event. It's still in beta, but the thing is basically feature-complete. you can either search for existing listings or create one yourself for the activity you need to do. The process is painless, quick, and best of all: simple. There are eight activity categories:

1. Campaign: allows you to gather players for regular and high-end campaign activities for Beyond Light, The Witch Queen and Lightfall, including the weekly legendary playlist.
2. Crucible: allows you to create fireteams for Trials of Osiris, Control, the Competitive playlist, a private match and 6v6 quickplay.
3. Dungeons: allows you to get a fireteam together for all eight currently-available dungeons, from Shattered Throne to Warlord's Ruin.
4. Gambit: team up for a public or private Gambit match.
5. Raids: jump into a party or create one to tackle the game's most difficult challenges from Last Wish to Crota's End Remake. 
6. Seasonal: everything from seasonal events to an Exotic Quest Rotator can be found here.
7. Vanguard: choose from Nightfall, Grandmaster Nightfall, and Vanguard Ops activities.
8. Other: Offensives, Free Roam, Nightmare Hunts and Social parties all welcome here.

My experience with the Fireteam Finder has been mixed. On the one hand, I've been able to complete a bunch of activities that I otherwise would have continued to studiously ignore. On the other hand, I find that the random mashing-together of players in these higher-level activities often led to bigger challenges than if I had simply asked folks I knew. 

Screenshot: Blueberries.GG

Aenz was inexplicably already across the Deadsea by the time I got to the lip before the ribbon road. I hesitantly boarded my Skimmer and started the treacherous descent. As I wound my way down to the tractor beam that would carry us to the Kell Echo's boss room, I found myself beset upon by Taken ads that my sole partner hadn't bothered clearing. How had they crossed the chasm so quickly? 

Prophecy is a dungeon that was introduced almost four years ago. In the time since its release, I've played it a grand total of once prior to my current sojourn. My last attempt was with friends; we impromptu loaded in late at night and the combination of my exhaustion and some of my fireteam's inebriation led to a long, slow slog before getting smashed repeatedly by the Kell Echo. We never went back to it. 

I'm here now because it's required to complete Riven's Wishes VI. The reward is two ahamkara teeth, which can be traded for stuff. Since part of this project is getting through all the content stuff Bungie had to throw at us to fill time during the added six months between Season of the Wish and The Final Shape, I had no choice but to return to the dungeon that so handily smacked us down four years prior. 

Back in the Season of Arrivals, when Prophecy first launched, the Power Floor for the season was 750. Its pinnacle cap - the absolute strongest you could be - was 1060. Walking into the dungeon's Entrance area at power level 1824 made enemy bullets and energy blasts feel trivial. Sure I could die, if I stood still and didn't fire back, but I didn't have to worry about that causing the whole party to lose time. Plus, when Prophecy first came out, there was no buildcrafting, limited modding, no Stasis or Strand weapons or abilities, and little in the way of variation for how these kinds of activities had to be run. Success in dungeons and raids often came down to: god-rolled weapons, the right exotic armor, and high levels of coordination and prep with your team. Today, I'm strolling in with two random other Guardians on a less-than-optimal Strand Hunter build with a Quicksilver Storm I haven't unequipped since March of last year, a random Void wave frame grenade launcher, and a Cyrtarachne's Facade I got out of the first Riven's Wish prize pool. 

Random matchmaking has always worked fine in Destiny 2, considering most of the matchmade activities are fairly mindless. Running the same dozen strikes or so, which have no variation in goal or difficulty, becomes a process of mechanical execution rather than anything approaching tactical prowess. Playing regular matchmade Crucible or Gambit is like playing solo; very rarely can you pull off anything in these modes as a team without being mic'd up with each other. 

The Fireteam Finder lets you match up with random Guardians with or without mics. It is still a crapshoot as to whether you're going to get skilled players who know what they're doing in an encounter. Recently I put a call out for a Fireteam who could run with me through the final mission in the Lightfall campaign on legendary mode; the first group was... less than successful. We made it to Calus, but struggled to get past the first arm of his boss fight. The second group was more successful, but one Guardian ducked out (a fairly common occurrence if progress isn't being made according to... whoever's plan) before we got to Calus. It wasn't until I made a group specifically to tackle the final encounter that we were able to get through it. 

In other situations, I've found myself the only part of a fireteam who remotely knows the mechanics of the content we were running; in others, I've been caught between a Guardian Level 10 player and a Lvl. 6 player who were essentially struggling for control of the pace of a mission. I've had both fireteam members eject, including the original party leader; I've bailed out of my fair share of botched missions. 

Could more granularity fix this problem? More descriptive choices in the Finder itself? Would it be better or worse to compel players to play with mics on? Could there be a queue strictly for people like myself, who hasn't spent the better part of a decade running dungeons and raids in this game? I don't know. 

Screenshot: Blueberries.GG

Aenz and I both died on the platform with the tractor beam on it. We were trying nonsense with our Skimmers, and it resulted in a wipe all the way back to the beginning. That was how I learned of my partner's secret: the new Skimmer has a trick mode that can last for as long as the board has juice and you don't hit any obstacles. Press B to grind in midair. I watched as Aenz floated down to the platform with ease. I tried to follow suit, but ended up dying from a treacherous ledge. Aenz, to their credit, continued to the Kell Echo and triggered the emergency teleport to their side.

Defeating the Kell Echo turned out to be a trivial pursuit. Once Aenz deposited the necessary light and darkness orbs, we simply ganged up on the Kell - me with my wave frame grenade launcher and Aenz with their Well of Radiance. We ended the Kell in two rounds, where previously with friends we hadn't managed to take out more than a quarter of his health per round. After a brief trip to the end of the dungeon, we paid our mutual respects through the equally-experimental commendations card and parted ways, probably never to cross paths again.

***

A thought I've had repeatedly as I've played Destiny over the years is that, fundamentally, the game is meant for much younger people, high school and college-age kids. This is juxtaposed against the fact that so much of the game's aesthetic, narrative and mechanical trappings are meant to entice OG Halo fans and their ilk. The Fireteam Finder is proof of this, I think. On one hand, it's nice to have; theoretically, anyone can finish any content now, without needing to search for an open clan or random group of internet friends to do so. But on the other hand, experiences like mine in the Prophecy dungeon are profoundly lonely. We'll never know why our third Fireteam member left; I'll never know why Aenz didn't just return to orbit and space me out of the fireteam like junk from an airlock. But our victory, what is supposed to be a joyous moment, nevertheless felt weirdly muted. A quick tip of the hat, and then back into space, like ships in the night.

Guardian Games Day (Well, Night) 1: Sparrows are out, Skimmers are IN

Every year, Destiny 2 holds the "Guardian Games," an inter-class competition to see who's the best at the game's various modes: Nightfall, Crucible, and Gambit. The challenges change each year, and the winners take home sweet prizes both individually and as a Guardian class. Last year, the class winners were Titans. In 2022, it was the Warlocks. Hunters - my class - won in 2021. 

I haven't really cared about the Guardian Games in past years. I was a casual participant in 2023, but it was mostly to get some of the guns. This year I'm playing to win. I want to experience everything - the highs and lows, the stunning wins and gutting losses, the pride and the passion of Sport - that the Guardian Games offers and represents. 

In addition to the honor of playing a video game real good and getting praise for that, there's a concrete reason for participating in the Games: new hovercraft new hovercraft new hOVERCRA-

I really wish Destiny 2 had a photo mode.

That's right motherfuckers we have skate/surf/snowboards in Destiny 2 now, hell yeah yeehaw fuck you

It has been so, so long since there has been any innovation in personal craft design in Destiny 2. The game is six years old and people are still pining for Sparrow Racing, a mode that only appeared in the original Destiny back in 2015. So to go from flat out not-shit for almost a full decade to suddenly having a craft you don't just sit on that lets you do tricks, is nimble and also is cool as hell? Folks, I think I speak for the entire - yes, entire - fan community when I say hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah.

It's pretty easy to get your first Skimmer - that's what they're called. You just have to start the Guardian Games quest with Eva Levante and do a mission or two. Play the Games a little. Then she'll give you a Skimmer she's got lying around. But to keep the Skimmer she gives you, you'll have to work: 1200 Guardian Medals deposited, or top 10% score in Nightfall, or three open Focus Activity winners packages.  None of these are difficult, but they will take some time. Once any one of those challenges are complete, though, the board is yours. 

Guardian Games lasts until March 26! Eyes up! 

oh shit look at this Iron Banner highlight video that Blogger bitcrushed to fuck

 

Destiny 2 Is Good, Actually: FAQ

Hello and welcome back. I wanted to take a second to address some concerns regarding the title and general thrust of my website, Destiny 2 Is Good, Actually, And I'm Tired Of Pretending It Isn't. 

The last thing I would want is for anyone to take the purpose of this website and misconstrue it, so I've decided to put together a "Frequently Asked Questions" page that will hopefully assuage any doubts. 

1. So Do You Think Destiny 2 Is The Best Video Game Of All Time?

No the best video game of all time is Ace Combat 7. Or maybe this.

2, But What About All The Bad Shit That Happened In And Around Destiny 2?

I understand why you think I'd be upset about things like "Lightfall not being all that great" and "the PVP environment being wrecked for half a decade" and "the Destiny Content Vault sitting as the most baffling game development decision I've ever seen." And I genuinely am upset by the layoffs back in October. But here's the thing. none of that shit made me stop playing the video game for longer than a few weeks. I don't know what to tell you, man, I think Destiny 2 is a good video game and even if it dies after the launch of The Final Shape, even if Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to be an evil megacorporation about shit and forces Bungie into more layoffs and turns the game into a gacha farm or something, I think an ineffable part of me is gonna continue to be like "no I liked playing Destiny 2 otherwise I wouldn't have fucking done it for six full years." 

3- Okay but what about-

Shut the fuck up about Nimbus they're fine. I don't care if you think they're cringe or woke or whatever, just shut the fuck up.

4.) what specifically about Destiny 2 are you a fan of? 

so there are a couple of angles I can approach this from. the first angle is simple gamefeel. The experience of playing Destiny 2 from a tactile and sensory perspective I find enjoyable. I like the way it feels to move around in the world, the sense of physics and momentum in friction with the supernatural powers I can employ through the course of gameplay. Lately I also really like buildcrafting: learning which weapons, weapon perks, gear, gear mods and subclass configurations work best together to beat ass with. I can and have run around inside the various sandboxes of Destiny 2's pocket universe for hours, just getting into fights and having fun with explosions. Strand also deserves a special, specific mention here, because the additions to gameplay it's made alone almost completely turned me around on the game last year, by itself. 

the second angle of approach is story. narrative. plot. lore. whatever you want to use to describe what's going on in the world of Destiny 2, the careful and meticulous and daring and inventive output of the myriad writers who work and have worked at Bungie over the past decade or so to make Destiny and its sequel feel both real and fantastical, full of legends and allegories and also stuffed to bursting with seemingly-mundane day-to-day life shit. The way the story has gradually evolved to be much more complex, nuanced and full of contingencies and compromises than ever expressed in the first entry in the franchise makes me so happy to this day. Even when the narrative swings and misses imo, I'm able to appreciate the fact that they made the swing anyway. I have nothing but love and respect for the writers. 

finally, I think I'm just enamored by the ambition of this game, by the fact that even a decade on, with a bunch of shit working against it, there's still this little glimmer of potential in everything the game does. In a games scene that is steadily rejecting live service games, and despite a few fairly rocky and troubled years, Destiny 2 somehow still has the juice.

I could stand to live without quite a few of the big influencers and about 60 percent of the community, though.

VI. You've written some critical words about Destiny in the past, sometimes harshly critical words. What's changed?

Nothing! The stuff I've written in the past and my current project here are on the same critical wavelength. Every word I've written about Destiny has been from the perspective of someone who broadly enjoys the video game but doesn't vibe with a particular narrative beat or does not like some of the possible directions the game could head down. One thing I've had to learn over a half-decade of becoming a critic - and something I am still internalizing - is that as long as I'm not out here trying to be an armchair game developer, it is better to vocalize my criticism rather than pretending that any criticism of my favorite game somehow does damage to it. 

Ultimately it comes down to this: I am not out to convince anyone, necessarily, that Destiny 2 is good or bad. To borrow my least favorite tendency from academic writing, I am really more out to show that Destiny 2 is an interesting game to examine, that it's worth the time necessary to dive in and examine what makes it tick. The substance is there, and it's worth sifting through cruft to get at. 

five. you suck at Trials

eat my ass

Destiny 2 is Good, Actually, and I'm Tired of Pretending it Isn't

are you tired of being nice? don't you ever wanna go apeshitt? 

hi, I'm Kaile, and for six years I've played Destiny 2 like it was my job. for a little bit there, it was! but I'm tired of pretending that for most of that time, I haven't had an absolute shit-hoot playing the video game Destiny 2 by Bungie Inc. 

this is a fansite I'm making for Destiny 2 in honor of Critical Distance's Fansite Jam. it's going to feature older writing of mine, newer hot takes, and never-before-seen terrible decisions I'm making about the video game Destiny 2. Thanks for stoppin' by! 

On the Trolley Problem of Playing Destiny 2

This post is a repost from No Escape. 

The final season of Destiny 2, “Season of the Wish,” released today. As is usually the case with seasonal updates, Season of the Wish comes with new gameplay modes, new gear and weapons, a new seasonal artifact to level up, new challenges to cross off your list, and new narrative content to sink your teeth into while we all wait to open the Witness’s gate and face him and his Final Shape in the Pale Heart of the Traveler… next June.

Season 23 was always going to face the issue of being the “last” of its kind: next year, when Final Shape lands, Bungie is moving to what it’s calling an “episodic” format with its inter-expansion content, and with that comes new possibilities for gameplay and narrative delivery. But will we be able to make it there? And what are the costs for those that try?

Last month Bungie fired roughly a hundred people seemingly at random, including legendary composer Michael Salvatori and veteran Bungie artist Lorraine McLees, as a result of the company’s revenue falling short of expectations by a reported 45 percent. In addition to this decimation (a literal reduction in workforce of 10 percent), it was rumored that Bungie would have to push The Final Shape back and Marathon would be delayed until 2025. This rumor was finally confirmed after weeks of silence by the Destiny 2 development team on Monday ahead of Season of the Wish’s launch. The Final Shape now launches on June 4, 2024, extending the gap between Season of the Wish and the expansion by four months.

Game director Joe Blackburn also made a video summarizing the situation, taking the time to detail interim content that would possibly get players through at least the last two months of waiting.

There is no doubt that the remaining staff at Bungie are working as hard as they possibly can to make a good day-to-day video game while also crafting a satisfying conclusion to a nearly decade-old story arc. The pressure they’re under to deliver something that is both an explosive end and an enticing beginning to whatever comes after Final Shape while also living in fear of possibly losing their jobs the next time the executives and attendant bean counters don’t like how much money their work made must be more than immense. If Bungie employees weren’t already thinking about unionizing they should be working on that as soon as humanly possible.

But also… I’m thinking about my own personal relationship to this video game. I’m thinking of the brief-yet-very-high highs and very long, extremely low lows. I’m thinking about how I made, and then lost, friends who wanted to play this game with me over the course of the last half-decade. I’m thinking about the burnout I’ve experienced, the way that burnout twisted my perception of the game into something it wasn’t. I’m thinking about how other games that have lasted at least as long actively tell their players not to worry about logging in every week if they don’t want to, in order to preserve their enjoyment of the game. I’m thinking about what I personally want from a game like Destiny 2, and how that has always been in tension with what the game promises.

First and foremost, I fell in love with the story Destiny has been telling for a decade. The way it has evolved and complicated itself as time has passed. The ways in which it has attempted to integrate its context-rich lore into the action-centered ongoing narrative. When Bungie first announced it was switching gears toward a world that evolved every week and from season to season, I was more than a little excited; I really did want to see how the story would benefit from that kind of slow-roll of new events.

When I say I fell in love with Destiny‘s story, though, I mean it—and only it. I don’t do competitive multiplayer. I rarely join casual Crucible matches in order to complete some weekly task or other. I don’t hunt for the best gear or weapons. I don’t raid or dungeon-crawl, barely do the strike playlist anymore, and I am among the apparent vast majority who just does not touch Gambit at all. When the unrepeatable story missions are done, when I’ve fulfilled my quota for the week’s activities in order to get the little chunklets of narrative that Bungie lets sift out week-over-week, that’s it. I turn the game off. I spend the next six days doing other things. Even before the layoffs, I had no idea how the developers of this video game could ever make me do more than what I’ve committed to here.

Unfortunately, it now feels as though the stakes of my decision to play or not play the game are higher, while my actual desire to do so has decreased.

Looking out over the next seven months, according to Blackburn and the dev team, we have the opportunity(!) to play through the entire narrative arc for Season of the Wish, immediately followed by a new gameplay mode called “Wishes,” from November 28 to late February. Wishes are described as “progression-based quests.” Without speculating too hard, I can only imagine these quests will reward players with special gear. Moments of Triumph is once again returning for people who want to grind out a whole new triumph seal, and Guardian Games has been moved to March. Blackburn teased some kind of interim content drop happening in April called Destiny 2: Into the Light, which he promised would help players at every rank and experience level get ready for The Final Shape, and this would last until June 4. He also promised that as we get closer to the next expansion, they’ll show us some gameplay tidbits. Nothing here’s especially objectionable, but I gotta be honest with you, I’m not seeing any appointment playtime here. Like I’ll do each week’s story content, for sure, and I’ll check out Into the Light, but nothing else is really calling to me, you know?

I have always believed that games should not take up all of our time. No one single game should ever be able to monopolize all of your waking hours. I know I’m not the only one to grow tired of Destiny 2 at this moment in time. And I know now that there are financial consequences for burning out — ones I should by no means be responsible for, but which still have me hanging out to dry nevertheless. If I don’t play Destiny 2, if I don’t preorder the expansion, if I don’t buy the Witcher gearset from Eververse, who’s next on the chopping block? How many people will lose their jobs in the next layoff? Bungie and Sony – and the rest of the people with money at the top of the games industry – have made it clear that they believe the talented, dedicated people who make every video game we love are expendable. And they believe it is our fault if they don’t make as many millions of dollars a year as they guessed they would—as they expected, demanded, were entitled to. And so, via the transitive property, if another 50, 100, 200 people get the axe next time around, it is our fault. We were bad consumers, so the innocent devs had to go.

I have to reject this framing. We all have to. There’s no version of capitalism I particularly like, but even if we’re stuck thinking in capitalist modes like a bunch of neoliberal eggheads insist we are, this absolutely cannot be the version of capitalism we land on. It is going to ruin both producer and consumer, and not “eventually”—in short order.