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I hope Bungie continues with this level of challenge and complexity into future raids.

Some folks in the Destiny community are angry at Bungie, and feel like the studio has made the raid too difficult for the average player.

Which is it? Is the raid challenging, or is it difficult? I wouldn't expect a games journalist to know the nuance of the difference.

Difficulty is straight up how hard something is. Lifting 10 pounds is more difficult than lifting 5. But it's basically the same thing… just harder. Challenge is about complexity. Playing a grandmaster is more challenging than playing an amateur; as he will be using more advanced moves, strategy, feints, etc. It's NOT basically the same thing.

Difficulty and Challenge can be linked. If you have to lift 3000 pounds, that's more difficult, but you'll have to get creative and lift it in a different way.

You need a mix of both, but I think challenge should be relied on more heavily, as it is more rewarding to overcome. Having everyone be too low a level is just difficulty…

In short, ask yourself how a player would overcome a problem. If the solution is within them (better strategy, more practice, etc) then that is good. If the solution is without them (power level number going up, a more powerful gun) then that is not as desirable.

Also there is zero reason why a 530 and a 560 version could not have been released at the same time… the hardcore players could chase the higher light version and still have the prestige, but the challenge could have still persisted between the two.

For all the wonderful things in Forsaken, I'm a little worried about the nature of the raids. Raids were one of my favorite activities in Destiny 1. In Destiny 2, they are starting to lose me.

The artificial difficulty based on light level is one problem. The fact that the people who actually cleared the raid used the prime engram exploit, the one thing Bungie was "punishing" people over, is quite telling. I've only gotten one Eater of Worlds clear due to a dwindling player population. Just a month after launch, when those still playing in my clan were high enough level to clear the raid, there weren't many people left interested in playing. It makes me wonder who the audience of this game really is? Is it an enthusiast like me or the hard core, content creators, and twitch viewers?

Then there are the more unforgiving mechanics. A system the enforces mistake free play rather than exciting strategies or creative problem solving. The token revive system would force wipes due to circumstance ("Sorry, I know I'm right next to you, but I can't revive you again.") Combined with really tight timing in places like the Spire of Stars (which I still haven't cleared) and my clan went from running sherpa raids in D1 to having set raid groups. They regrettably didn't want to allow new people in because it was just a pain trying to take a weak player through the raid and were lucky to have consistent clears themselves.

Raids are one of the unique things to Destiny. To slowly alienate a large portion of the enthusiast community to appease the content creators is a self defeating strategy. Eventually the casuals will leave, then the enthusiasts, and then content creators complain and leave because they have no audience.

There is nothing wrong with having difficult endgame content, but it must be approachable. Most enthusiasts aren't trying to be world's first, but they do want to get a raid clear and make it a fun part of their weekly ritual. It's the whole idea of having a normal raid for the enthusiast community and a prestiege for the hard core community. Remember when you got a raid down and you could chat about other things and joke instead of telling people to be quiet to hear the call outs?

Even though I'll personally suffer (sounds like no backpacks will be available).

I'm not reading any more of this kind of thing though. That came perilously close to spoiling my blind status.