Destiny 2’s Bungie‘s event Arms Week is about to be over tomorrow at the time of the weekly reset and the community’s reaction is nothing less than mixed. The event brought more complaints than celebrations, according to social media reactions.
So, what exactly Arms Week was? It’s the best Destiny 2 event for players as it gave them the chance to grind and rank their event standing to get excellent weapon rolls. This time the major attention was on shotguns. Hence, the Bungie tweet about keep “your enemies closer to your favorite Shotgun.” Nevertheless, the response was… not very nice.
The event ranking system seems to be a real headache for participants. One user called SandmanX095 swore in Spanish that he was “minus 60 levels for rank A” and required a guardian rank of 11 for level 5 loot, which suggests a lot of grinding needed. Conversely, jammypup lamented he was “maxed out with zero crossbows”, implying that there could be serious drop rate issues with the event’s special weapons.
Then the timing issue comes up. The users’ sentiments were best expressed by phrog_lmao who remarked, “This is a cool event but it should last two weeks because it is always more pressure than it needs to be. Stop with the FOMO and let us enjoy it at our own pace.” Such a fear-of-missing-out design philosophy has been a constant complaint in Destiny 2 for years now, and Arms Week appears to be pushing those same buttons once again.
The weapon balance issue isn’t escaping criticism either. Esseaghost bluntly stated: “All that I got from this week’s event is that shotguns are not as good as other especial weapons.” Ouch! When your shotgun-focused event makes people realize shotguns aren’t great… that’s not good at all.
Perhaps the problems with the event are the symptoms of a bigger issue of player dissatisfaction. The content of the comments suggest a communication breakdown between Bungie and the community. To the release of his dissatisfaction, JordanSVP said “the repeated pattern of great communication for a month or two, and then when the morale goes down a lot, we don’t get any kind of substantial communication about what they are planning.”
JoshM574 expressed a similar thought, saying that Bungie should “come out and just agreeing with people that things aren’t great atm?” Communication breakdown seems to be a sore point, and SeanFrancis suggested that “our (fantastic) CMs and social teams are subject to red tape and limitations on what they can communicate.”
Even speculation about the reason behind the intermittent communication has emerged. SeanFrancis said he has seen on Glassdoor that one complaint against Bungie is “too many people needing to approve things”. JoshM574 speculated that the management might be the reason, since perhaps “you can’t do x, y, z because it might affect Marathon” – referring to Bungie’s new extraction shooter that is in the pipeline.
It’s also hard to ignore the player count issue. ScoobyDoo88888 was very clear: “Literally, nobody’s playing, you are just taking from the remaining wales, wish you good luck with that.” It seems like “wales” is an autocorrect mistake for “whales” (meaning big spenders), but the underlying message reflects a wider concern about the population of Destiny 2.
Some players are coming up with very radical measures. CosmicVoid5002 suggested making “everything before the edge of fate and final shape completely free” and likewise reviving “community-related events like sparrow racing.” Others still like DidYeAye0 went even further: “you should be refunding your player base at this point.” Yikes!
However, not everyone has a negative perspective on the event. SycKnight mentioned he was “around 7 or 8” rank with “some pretty good rolls though,” thus at least some players are finding value in the event. Sw1tchBl4de13 simply wrote “Rank 1,” and it’s not clear whether that is a complaint or an accomplishment.
The going for the weapon seems particularly punishing this time. A lot of players complained about drop rates especially for the crossbow weapon which is said to be one of the event rewards. When players reach the highest rank of the event without getting the special weapon they want, that is a problem with the design which goes beyond the usual complaints about the grind.
What is more, there are some rather… interesting comments made in reference to the developers themselves. Tilvius sarcastically remarked: “I’m stunned these weapons don’t have pronouns like the the cringe devs.” Well, that indeed is a point of view, but it does not seem very clear what exactly sparked that particular expression.
In the light of the larger picture, it appears that Arms Week is happening at a low point in Destiny 2’s continuous rollercoaster ride. Bungie is reportedly busy wrapping things up for Marathon and other projects, some gamers feel that their favorite game is getting less attention. TheSaltyKing47 and LongshotWild’s mentioning of “closing zippers” is… well, let’s just say the metaphor probably doesn’t relate to actual clothing.
Now that Arms Week is over, it becomes clear that many players in the Destiny 2 community are not satisfied with yet another time-limited event featuring untrustworthy drop rates. What they want is better communication, no FOMO, and significant improvements to the core experience. It is uncertain whether Bungie will take up the challenge but for now, the shotgun-themed event seems to be leaving quietly rather than with a bang. The weekly reset cannot come soon enough for those players eager to put this event behind them.
PlayStation and Xbox gamers have been following similar controversies in other titles.
