Then again, where else am I going to go--Halo? Forge does come out this week..

Halo's dead, and the fileshare system is as horrible as it was in Halo 4. Don't be stupid. There are other, better games out there to ditch Destiny for if Bungie eventually commits the cardinal sin that ruins Destiny for you.

Also: long time no see.

Not really. A level 25 boost does nothing but save you some time (at the cost of precious XP for your subclasses), and Bungie gave everybody one for free.

The question is of course why you'd want and actually ENABLE people to skip parts of your game? Wouldn't it sound ridiculous if with Halo Bungie had said "We gave you 10 levels, but if you pay more money you only have to play 5 of them?"

What if the part you're letting them skip was heavily criticized and the content they are skipping to was heavily praised? Bungie gets more money and players get to the better content (and the multiplayer activities) faster. It's win-win... Except for the price.

(And the funny thing is that I got these items on Xbox, but their light was low, and the boost was negligible, so I never bothered to wear them. So much for that!)

That's just the thing. People did complain about these items until TTK came out and we discovered how useless they are. After playing TTK for an hour I had far better class items that didn't cost an exotic slot.

They have the Life Exotic perk, so you can use them with another exotic. They can also be infused now. You can bring them up to 310+ and walk around getting more exp all the time now.

Exp = motes, and I'm always short on them. Maybe because I've been giving them all to the factions…

Until Bungie starts offering:

-Guns

-Perks

-Gear

for money, the game can't really be pay to win. Besides, saving that 10 hours leaves you 10 hours without practice on that character or their subclasses.

Ultimately, what difference does it make other than helping someone participate in group activities?
A significant bummer for me when I started on Xbox was that I was locked out of pretty much every single activity because my level was too low. This removes that issue, but doesn't do much more for players.

Because a better solution would be, somehow through Bungie.net, flag your account with the highest level your character has reached on any platform. Got an Xbox recently? Well, your bungie.net profile has a level 40 hunter. So, when you start up the Xbox game, you make a new character… who can be anywhere between level 1 and level 40. Your choice.

Wouldn't that be much better? If it's a barrier, eliminate it. Don't just make the problem go away with money.

That would be fantastic... For a subset of the community. Does nothing for new players, which this is more geared towards...

I'm not going to say that's not really a problem… because with a social game it is. However, if you look at TTK, you can pretty much play by yourself through the quest progression and reach a light level very close to what you need to start playing King's fall. Just by playing through the game, you are pretty much ready to go to give the harder stuff a try.

I imagine a similar thing is true if you just buy the game and are totally new. You can either play through the regular story, or use your level 25 powerup and jump into TTK. If you are completely new, these experiences are new to you too, and you should ostensibly enjoy them.

It becomes an issue, when like you, you've done it all on a different platform and just want to get to the good stuff right away. But new players aren't going to have that problem. I see it as a failure of design if when upon buying a new game, it's suggested you need to spend even more money to actually enjoy it.

How is someone who paid extra to level up going to enjoy the game more than someone who hasn't played the game at all and experiences it at his own pace? Does the game simply get more fun by throwing more money at the screen?
I see why you're against free DLC.

(And the funny thing is that I got these items on Xbox, but their light was low, and the boost was negligible, so I never bothered to wear them. So much for that!)

That's just the thing. People did complain about these items until TTK came out and we discovered how useless they are. After playing TTK for an hour I had far better class items that didn't cost an exotic slot.

It's off by a power of ten like the weapon balance changes. It's really $2.49 :-p

(I wonder if this stacks with the buyable exotic class items that increase subclass leveling speed). Pay 45 dollars and you can absolutely breeze through!

Yeah, see, I wonder why people weren't nagging about that one (well, they were, but for different reasons). You paid extra to get an exclusive class item available nowhere else that actually granted you the ability to level up the new subclasses faster. Where was the "not cosmetic" outcry then?

(And the funny thing is that I got these items on Xbox, but their light was low, and the boost was negligible, so I never bothered to wear them. So much for that!)

Then again, where else am I going to go--Halo? Forge does come out this week..

Onslaught 2.0 ? :)