First off, I'm not making an observation on value or worth. I'm also not making a judgement on what is and isn't reasonable behavior/pricing/value/product. We (the internet community) are exposed to hyperbole and thought germs, and they breed. It would be good to acknowledge that some times. None the less, even the Bungie apologist in me can get a little tired, and I find it helpful to take a step back and reason out why people may feel the way they do, and why I feel the way I do.

From where I stand, it's not a single thing that is pricking the community's nerve. It's not the cross promotions. It's not the Collector's edition. It's not the additional playstation exclusives. It's the combination of it all within the context of where we are coming from.

Reasonable or not, I think many of us had the impression there would be more content in Destiny and in The Dark Below. House of Wolves was generally seen better, but for my own part I don't know if that's because it met initial expectations, or simply that my expectations were much lower. Note: See first paragraph again.

So here we are with a more expensive expansion on the horizon. We have doubts. Bungie is rightfully unwilling to tell us about the number of story missions and exact content for the reason that it's not set in stone, and would spoil the surprise. But all that leaves us is knowing that there is a $40 expansion coming with an undefined quantity of content, and any content we DO hear about is behind additional paywalls.

I don't know what the solution is. Maybe if it had all been spaced out more. Perhaps it's to go back in time and temper expectations of the game. Our initial expectations have created this little fear of what will be delivered. If Bungie had exceeded our expectations with content to date, we wouldn't give a rats ass if a tiny quest were wrapped up in an energy drink, because we'd be confident that the next expansion would be enough. Instead we're hungry for content and change, and everything we know about is broken up and charged for with products a good number of us don't want.

Thus, the little things that we're hearing about don't serve to give us confidence and alleviate our fear, they actually serve to promote it.

I hope that the reason Bungie is willing to do this is because they are extremely confident in the quantity of content in The Taken King. Perhaps they even know that the content carved out is stuff that sucks and we'll only ever play once. But if Bungie isn't confident, and the community judges the content quantity a little low, all of this will inevitably be dredged back up again in a couple months.

My advice to the community is to wait and see. Everything that is happening needs to be viewed in the context of the Taken King. But we don't have that context yet, so let's try and wait.

My advice for Bungie [dons Cody hat] is to try and slow the pace at which we find out about content that won't be in TTK. Or, try and temper it by providing us with information on the cool things we DO get. If for example you have 50 more of these excluded quests that are part of 50 more promotions, it would be a really good idea to tell the community that the Taken King will come with 1000 new quests on its own. If we had an ideal of what fraction of content wasn't in TTK, we'll be less likely to let our wildest fears run rampant. No one wants rampancy.

I think that's what's been slowly eating at me. Not knowing what the context for all of this is. Now it's off my chest, and I can go back to being the apologist. I'm still hopeful and trusting, and will continue to argue with some of you under the assumption that Bungie isn't evil or conniving, and is doing their best. The End.

Appendix:
I kept trying to work 5 pounds of veal and choo choo trains into this post. I was never happy with the placement. I'm still posting the movie clip though.