Hello everyone. My name is Mike and you’ll be seeing me pop up every now and then as Destiny Tracker pushes to include more original content to the home page. As for me, I’m a Beta player on Xbox. I’ve been here through the highs and lows of Destiny for the past two years but I keep coming back. So let’s talk about that. Destiny is not perfect - it never has been - but it has garnered a serious following. But times aren’t great right now, are they? We’re in the middle of a long content drought and getting through this time can be difficult. Grief is a word that comes to mind so let’s explore that a bit.

From dictionary.com: Grief *[greef] noun 1. keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret. 2. a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow. idioms 1. come to grief, to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble; fail: *Their marriage came to grief after only two years. 2. good grief, (used as an exclamation of dismay, surprise, or relief): Good grief, it's started to rain again!

Keen mental suffering or distress may seem excessive when describing a video game, but then again Destiny isn’t just a video game, is it? Those of us who play it and play it regularly have come to know it as so much more. I know if you’re like me you’ve spent far more time on Destiny than you want to admit. You’ve completed all the raids, you’ve collected all the achievements, you dream about finally making it to the Lighthouse. Ok, that last one may just be me, but the point still stands: If you’ve done everything there is to do in Destiny, what do you do?

Destiny seems to be one of these rare games that exceeds normal gaming and can cause a bit of an addiction. There are many reasons for this, which we’ll dive into another time, but if you’re a Destiny addict, this is a very rough time right now. Content droughts are never fun, but with Destiny they seem to be extra painful. So in the interest of easing everyone’s pain, let’s walk through the steps of Destiny grief together.

Denial “There’s lots to do in this game.”

From the outside looking in, there are quite a few things to do in Destiny. Bungie has been very good at dangling the carrot (or doughnut if you prefer) right beyond our reach. This is one of those reasons for the addiction in the first place. There’s always one more thing to do. The Taken King excelled at this, while admittedly Rise of Iron does not quite live up to its predecessor. But between raids, strikes, Trials, Iron Banner, even just regular crucible, there is always something you can do in Destiny. But as your light increases and eventually hits 400 (and if you’re playing you will hit it, long gone are the forever 29 days) you’ll find there are fewer and fewer meaningful things to do. You can only run the raid so many times. You can only run strikes so many times. And if you’re like me and hate fucking shotguns in the crucible….

Anger “There’s nothing to do in this game.”

There’s a reason the Destiny subreddit renamed itself “Rahool’s Salt Emporium” last year. The state of the game in general wasn’t too good. Lack of game balance, no updates, Destiny 2 just around the corner…. Wait, what year is it? I just got the strangest sense of deja vu. Weird, it’s like Bungo didn’t learn anything from the great content drought of 2016. And that’s the thing isn’t it? Here we are AGAIN. There’s nothing to do. The crucible is only fast firing pulse rifles and shotguns. There’s no variety and there’s no incentive to change things up. To make matters worse Deej is back to once again making vague promises of things to come in the weekly Bungie blog posts. It’s infuriating to be treated with such disdain from Bungie. I wish there was something I could do….

Bargaining “I wish there was something new to do in this game.”

We’ve all been there haven’t we? Wishing for something new to do between major releases. The promise of the Silver system to fuel new content between expansions unfortunately never really did live up to our expectations. That may be due to the community over-hyping the notion, but we have gotten something which is definitely better than nothing. It’s been unfortunate though that the events we have been given have just been for the short term. And this even goes back to the first Queen’s Wrath event back in Year One. Events in Destiny don’t last very long. And while we have since gotten Sparrow racing, Festival of the Lost, The Dawning, etc, these small little blips on the radar have never really amounted to anything. Sparrow racing should have been a full time thing since launch. And yes we can finally do it in private matches but the magic is now gone. It’s hard to get excited about it now. It’s hard to get excited about anything….

Depression “There’ll never be anything new to do in this game.”

Woah there Debbie Downer, there’s no need for that. Sure, there’s nothing new to do anymore. Sure, game balance is a mess. It’s been how long since we got a weapon patch? Don’t worry, things have been working as intended, I’m sure we’ll see a nice fusion rifle nerf again and all will be good. Sigh.

This is arguably the hardest part of these steps and where most of us probably are right now. We all love this game. We wouldn’t be complaining about it if we didn’t. I’ve long argued only the fans get to talk shit about Destiny because we are the ones who truly know the absolute frustration that this game can bring. And that frustration has taken many forms over the past couple years. In fact, I’d say they’ve followed these steps precisely. We’ve denied it’s flaws, gotten angry at them, wished for something better, and were disappointed when nothing changed. We’ve all lived it. Since those early days going all the way back to September 2014, we have lived through it all. But you know what, we’re still here.

Acceptance “This IS Destiny.”

Destiny is not perfect, it never has been. Those of us who have played since the beginning know these struggles. We have survived content droughts, bad RNG, buggy raids, sniper rifle shotguns, the list goes on. But we survived. We are still here and we still love this game. And if that’s not a testament to what Bungie has made, I don’t know what is. This is a truly great game. Bungie has created something truly unique that does transcend the boundaries of traditional gaming. Shared-world shooter is only the tip of what this game can be. Bungie knows this and this is why we keep hearing about a drastic overhaul in the works for Destiny 2. Taking what has worked and further refining it. And they’ve done this since the beginning.

Remember the introduction to quests we got in The Dark Below? Remember how awful they were? Fast forward to The Taken King and the current quest system. It’s night and day. And it was a change for the better. Sure Destiny still has its flaws, we all know them and we all wish they could be fixed. But this IS Destiny. Bungie has created something truly great and they are continually working on it to make it even better. Unfortunately these things take time and as much as that might suck there are other alternatives. If you took a break right now, the game will not disappear. Destiny isn’t going anywhere. And when the next update comes, which it will, the game will be even better for it.

I hope with this we can let the healing begin. Now if you’ll excuse me, these minions of The Darkness won’t slay themselves.

Until next time Guardians.