TLDR: I’m taking (at least) a week off from Destiny.


I’m tired.

The true Endgame of Destiny is the fact that there IS NO ENDgame. You play patrols to complete bounties to rank up gear to play higher level content to get higher/better rewards that need to be ranked up….Let me say for the record that I know this is not new information; the loot treadmill is well known. Last night though, it got to me.

Last night was “The Straw”…
I was playing my 2nd Alt to rank him up to Iron Banner-3 for one more Etheric Light, which thanks to all the buffs actually went fairly well, but still took several hours. Finally, I had enough rep and bounties to push over Rank-3, so I headed to the Tower. Then…. Nothing. My ISP must have decided that 1am was a good time for maintenance because no amount of rebooting or restarting hardware or software on my end restored my internet connection (which was in fact working just fine again when I got up at 6:45 this morning). I couldn’t get reconnected before the reset. On top of that, I had stayed up WAY too late for how early I have to start work every morning.

Three hours of Iron Banner – Wasted. No, the “play is its own reward” argument is not enough to redeem itself here because the only reason I was playing Iron Banner was to rank up for Etheric Light. If I wanted to just play for fun I would not be in Iron Banner (I wouldn’t be playing Crucible at all “just for fun”, for that matter). It’s literally akin to playing level 34 or 35 PoE for 3 hours, only to get booted and loose all progress. In either case you’re playing for 1 Etheric Light, and one connection glitch can cause it to be completely lost with no path for recovery.

This is not the reason I’m taking a week off. It may be the proverbial straw, but it’s not the camel. On the whole, my game-time/everything-else balance is off. Even though I only play a couple hours a night, which is low in my opinion of the gaming world; it’s too much. It’s taking focus away from my family, which in reality has a WAY better long-term rewards system, and I want – nay, NEED to invest more time there. My wife has been trying to open my eyes to this for months, and I’ve relented a few times, but it hasn’t stuck. Last night though, it sunk in. The loot treadmill will still be there next week (or next month, or next expansion…), and I’ll still have fun whenever I log back in (because despite this rant, I do in fact have fun playing Destiny); but with God’s help I will do my best to bring balance to the forces in my life – and right now that means disconnecting the Xbox for a while.

I’ll still check in and follow along here – y’all are a fun bunch – but you won’t find me on XboxLive for at least a week. I’ll see you when I see you.