In its most recent news, Bungie treated the Destiny 2 community to a little bit of everything concerning darkness and light. The most significant new item is Halloween’s Festival of the Lost has been prolonged for another week up to November 11th, a new Orders system in the Renegades update and quite a few activities in the stores and for charity. But let’s consider it, the main event? This time, the community is reacting very harshly in the replies but not in a positive way.
How on earth did we get to this point? Let’s discuss what happened in a chronological order. The yearly Halloween event in Destiny 2, Festival of the Lost, was about to end its run but now it is around for a while longer and this means more time to collect those spooky masks and who knows, perhaps even get that ever-elusive Superblack shader that people are always talking about. For instance, ‘Kj 🫶’ wrote “Day 3 asking if super black will be coming during this FOTL 🙁 I wasn’t able to play last year when it was a FOTL reward.” Just to make it clearer, it really is a struggle, fellow gamers.
The introduction of a new Orders system by Bungie is the second important point. It is not quite certain if they are replacing the old bounty system or perhaps the seasonal challenges? It is unclear, which might be one of the causes of the players being so confused and angry. A user by the name of Revan Reborn 1 began complaining, saying, “so… you are now actively punishing players going into Renegades if they actually played this season and rewarding people that are not going to come back anyway? this is why everyone has left!” That’s a major disappointment.
The reaction from the community could be characterized as… let’s use the term ’emotional’. I mean, really emotional. There are a few players who are very upset among them BoonsheeGaming, who stated “This dev team needs to be fired I stg. Amateurs could program a game better at this point.” That is quite a strong statement but it does give an insight into how the public is growing more and more irritated by Bungie’s decisions.
However, there are also some positives. Actually, some players even go so far as to say they like the new Orders system design. Steve (@SycKnight) stated, “I like the layout and streamlining of this new Orders system at first glance. Looking at this apart from Destiny 2’s other current problems, it’s a nice change in QOL.” So, at least one player is not completely on fire about it.
Bright dust economy appears to be another issue that players are disputing heatedly. They are doing complex calculations in the comment section, figuring out how much bright dust they will be losing under the new system compared to the previous ones. Beau S. did an elaborate comparison of the new system with pre-The Final Shape numbers and the verdict is… bad for current players. It feels like Bungie is changing the rules of earning cosmetic currency every few months and no one is able to keep up with the new game that is going on.
And then, the ‘returning player’ vs ‘consistent player’ debate is the one that gets all the attention. Ethan (@DTheWhiteWolfD) raised the central query: “So does this mean that anyone who has been playing is basically getting the short end of the stick? I, my fireteam, and my clan have all been playing… none of us will get the blessing or returners so what does this mean?” It is rather strange that players who have been loyal through thick and thin might end up with less than the ones who dropped out and are just coming back.
The Festival of the Lost is being plagued by some technical issues as well. Jerry Oliver (@Revjerryo) jokingly said “And also in the twid this week we rename festival of the lost to ‘festival of so many bugs its completely unplayable’. Have fun or don’t we still have your fuckin money!” On the contrary, Dave Peterson had a more practical suggestion “To fix soft lock issue just put a couple breakable pumpkins around boss area.” That’s right, players sometimes come up with good ideas.
It is really intriguing to observe how divided the community is at present. Some players have completely had it with the incessant system changes in Destiny 2 while others are willing to wait and see how the situation develops. Cameron Brooks (@CameronBro200) expressed one side the best, “This is legit no different than seasonal challenges💀 how do you guys continuously put out shit blog post after shit blog post? It’s actually crazy.”
Nevertheless, there is a player like Lego Melone who has adapted her shopping habits saying, “That’s why I have been one of the few it seems that told Bungie to screw off ages ago and stopped purchasing Silver items and only buy once it comes to bright dust.” Smart move, genuinely.
The entire case gives the appearance that Bungie is forever inventing systems which did not need inventing in the first place. Like, do you remember when they threw bounties away and everyone was quite content with it? Now they are resurrecting something which closely resembles bounties and players are simply not letting it go. _daijoubuu put it very simply: “Welcome back bounties! No one liked them but at least we don’t have to waste 30 seconds pulling them from the app or picking them up! 🤠”
In the end, Bungie finds itself in a bit of a dilemma. They want to maintain the freshness of the game while still taking the players’ feedback into account, but it seems that every alteration leads to a new division in the community – one that is satisfied and another that is displeased. The new Orders system might turn out to be an upgrade once people get accustomed to it or it may be yet another system that is completely reworked in 6 months. Who knows at this point?
What is clear, though, is that the Destiny 2 player community is very passionate about their game, even when they are being critical. The detailed analyzes of bright dust economies, the suggestions for overcoming gameplay hurdles, the perpetual requests for specific cosmetics like Superblack – all speak to the love of the game. Even the most furious comments are usually backed by some valid criticism somewhere in the mix.
So what does all this imply? The Festival of the Lost has been prolonged, a new possibly good or bad system is coming, and the community of Destiny seems to be divided more than ever. The Orders system could end up being fantastic once we get through the initial stage. Or, it could just be another entry on Bungie’s long list of systems that have been introduced but later abandoned. Only time will tell but one thing is for sure – the Destiny 2 conversation is always interesting. PlayStation and Xbox players are both affected by these changes.
