We've talked about it a bit already, and it's the only thing that folks around the 'net seem to be talking about in regards to Destiny 2.

I still have mixed thoughts on the matter, but I've read and watched some stuff about it in the last week that spurred some thoughts.

The first is this story over at Polygon. It's a long article with lots of stuff that we already know, but is summed up with this:

In Destiny 2, you have to play just as hard and just as well as you did in old school Destiny to collect your sets of raid and Trials gear. You just don’t have to play as much. That doesn’t make Destiny 2 a worse value; the lack of grinding makes it a better game.

I completely agree, and I think it's ultimately a good thing.

Kotaku also posted an article about the end game. This line, in particular, rang true for me:

I get where everyone’s coming from on this one. Part of me does perversely miss the endless grind of the first game, even while I mostly recognize Bungie’s streamlining as an improvement.

I'm right there. I recognize the improvements with Destiny 2. I think it's ultimately a better system. I miss having a goal, a drop I was hoping for, a reason to hop into strikes for an hour.

The last is a video by Datto (video embedded at the bottom of the post). I don't particularly like Datto, and I don't like some of things he says in this video (near the end of the video, he says he played The Witcher 3 for only ten hours because at that point he had seen everything the game had to offer, which might be the most asinine thing I've heard all week). However, he offers a few solutions that I quite like.

And it brings us back to microtransactions and the Eververse store. The example Datto provides is the Grimoire Score from Destiny (I've also heard some folks on a podcast talk about something similar). Getting score and cards for defeating types of enemies, doing events on worlds, etc. You all know what it was like. What if something like that were still in the game, but instead of getting Grimoire score and cards, we got cosmetic rewards? Get a bunch of kills with Sunshot to get the Sunshot ornament. Kill a bunch of Cabal to get a Cabal inspired Shader. Go back to strike specific ships, sparrows, shaders, etc.

Fundamentally, getting all of those things from Bright Engrams (whether you "earned" them or bought them) is pretty lame and way less fun than getting those to drop after the end of a strike, or at the end of a long goal of killing 50,000 Cabal or whatever it might be.

As I said, my feelings about all of this are still mixed. I like where the gun game is at--I'm glad my ability to do well in the game isn't dependent on lucky drops of god roll weapons. That's all fine. But I still can't help but feel that something has been lost along the way. There needs to be something to chase, I think, and Destiny 2 doesn't provide that. I think there's a middle ground between Destiny 1 and Destiny 2, and I think cosmetic items may be that solution. They need to continue to offer plenty of unique, cool cosmetics as drops like they do now with the Bright Engrams, but offer other unique items, shaders, ship skins, emblems, auras maybe, through specific activities and long-term goals to give the players that want a reason to go do the 450th Public Event on Earth.

I look at Destiny 2, and I'm genuinely a little surprised at the lack of such a system. Hell, look at the record books from Rise of Iron. I completely expected there to be something similar in Destiny 2 from day one. Maybe that's a little heavy handed for a brand new game, and it'll come at the end of year one as Moments of Triumph again. I even look at the kiosks in Destiny 1 and how the "Collections" tab in the vault is a poorer implementation of that idea. I liked seeing all the available shaders, ships, sparrows, etc., and being told exactly how I could get my hands on them. The problem with Destiny 2 is that the answer to that seems to be "Grind out or by Bright Engrams," which is way less cool than doing the Black Spindle quest for the ship, or any specific activity for a thing tied to that activity. I wonder how much the existence of the Eververse would affect (or did affect) such a system. It seems like the focus is now on grinding out loot boxes (which you can also buy, obviously) rather than doing cool things for specific rewards.

Any yes, I know, the fun of playing the game is its own reward. It is, and I am having a blast in the game still, even after nearly 100 hours so far. I'm not lacking for things to do, and I'm glad that I'll be able to put Destiny 2 down for a while for Mario Odyssey and the Horizon: Zero Dawn expansion without feeling like I'm being left behind. But that doesn't have to exclude specific things to work towards, either.

SPOILER WARNING: There is a random clip of the final encounter of the Raid like halfway through the video.

He does give a spoiler warning before it shows up, but the visuals of the video aren't at all important or relevant to what he's saying, so you can just play the video in another tab and just listen.

The last is a video by Datto (video embedded at the bottom of the post). I don't particularly like Datto, and I don't like some of things he says in this video (near the end of the video, he says he played The Witcher 3 for only ten hours because at that point he had seen everything the game had to offer, which might be the most asinine thing I've heard all week). However, he offers a few solutions that I quite like.

Games are literally a job for Datto. Destiny is his job. Lack of things to grind for means he can't make videos, and doesn't make as much money. One should not design a game around such concerns. The grind is bad. Period.

This is once again about the real insecurity of hardcore players. All of them want something to set them apart from others, be that gear that takes forever to get, items that take feats to obtain, or even visible ranking systems in PvP. All of these are about comparing yourself to other people. It's not enough to just enjoy a game from moment to moment, and overcome the challenges for yourself. There has to be something to show for it. And the grind is perfect, because if it's one thing hardcore players have more of than the casuals is time.

I fell into that trap a long time ago. But I learned and wised up.

The idea of an 'endgame' itself needs to go away. Des2ny is a huge step forward, and in fact should go even further in my opinion with eliminating endgame activities. No 'endgame'. Just 'the game'.