Although, as I've said before, I think Destiny isn't actually the game I want (nor is it supposed to be), and I've got to deal with that.

That's a way too mature attitude for the Internet ;)

The only real models for it are RPGs, or Borderlands. Borderlands has a very linear plot, and is the closest to Destiny's current form, but is very focused on the four archetype characters and the main enemy. Exploration is a bit limited.

I don't think exploration in Borderlands is any more limited than in Destiny. It certainly feels a lot more coherent, though. The issue with Destiny is the multiple planets. Borderlands feels more coherent because everything is connected, and I think that makes the entire available playspace feel a lot larger.

I'm really hoping that Destiny 2 adds NPCs out in the wilderness, and really expands upon the world spaces you can zoom around in.

That's the one thing I keep hoping for, too. I'd love a more Borderlands like structure with NPCs out in the world, giving quests, some small settlements to encounter, etc. Destiny is in this weird in-between state between a full blown RPG and a straight shooter, and I think Bungie really needs to pick a direction and lean into it more.

Although, as I've said before, I think Destiny isn't actually the game I want (nor is it supposed to be), and I've got to deal with that.

That late change in direction didn't give them too much time to refine and rebuild things, and they have wandered into somewhat unknown territory. The only real models for it are RPGs, or Borderlands. Borderlands has a very linear plot, and is the closest to Destiny's current form, but is very focused on the four archetype characters and the main enemy. Exploration is a bit limited.

I'm really hoping that Destiny 2 adds NPCs out in the wilderness, and really expands upon the world spaces you can zoom around in.

I'd really love a halo 4 Spartan Ops show, where you played weekly with new cutscenes and story continuation, but Microsoft Dropped that pretty quickly and I wonder how expensive it was vs. the return. Likewise Sci-fy's Defiance had a tie in game. I don't think anyone has gotten an interactive series to work yet, but I imagine sooner or later a it will happen.

Firefly's two pilot episodes (Serenity, and The Train Job) were both excellent. The "pilot" for the new Battlestar Galatic (its four episode miniseries) was amazing. Even the pilot for Babylon 5 (The Gathering, which was clearly a bit woobly and budget constrained) had a lot of good story and world building. Keeping it in the realm of video games, Halo: CE's 2nd mission (Halo) was great. As were Halo 2's (Outskirts), Halo 3's (Crow's Nest), ODST's (Tayari Plaza) and Reach's (ONI: Sword Base).

Destiny's first mission was what we'd come to expect from Bungie, but it's 2nd (the one where you kill the archon to get your NLS Drive)... I was pretty dang disappointed when the ending timer came up only a couple minutes of gameplay all the way back during the beta. Yes, some missions, like taking out the House of Winter's Kell or activating the Vex spire deep within the Cabal base, or the Exo Stranger mysteriously not having time to explain were pretty good, too many of them were "go to place, shot thing, mission ends." I'm not nearly as down on the playability of Destiny's year 1 missions as some are, but I don't think they would have made Destiny a successful pilot. It was Destiny's incredibly strong core gameplay and sci-fi styling that kept it going, not its year one story...

Yes, there's now something of an established world for the writers to play in, but setting up that world in the fairly lackluster way that Bungie did isn't something to be played up, in my opinion. The Grimoire has been great all along. The story and missions within the game? They took a while, in my opinion...

That said, I do have a lot of Hope for the Future. (Because that joke never gets old!)

So like a lobster, you are functionally immortal.

Lobsters aren't actually immortal. Every moult is deadlier than the last, and it appears that if they live long enough, they just stop moulting and thus deteriorate. While they do seem to stay active as they get old, they technically experience senescence.

Likewise humans via genetic engineering have been adjusted to live over 130 years. Awoken live even longer, due to being trapped between pulses of Light and Dark and having that mess with them.

The initial concept was that the golden age lasted a long time. Long enough for several small wars to break out and be resolved, and for exploration of other star systems. The city itself took time to build, even after gathering people to it, several hundred years at least.

The scary question here is: Do we not remember because that's how being revived the first time works, or because something (the Traveler? the Darkness?) doesn't want us to remember??

And yeah, Exos probably have a extremely lengthy lifetime. Cayde-6 (as an Exo), for instance, was body guard to Maya Sunderesh on Venus back during the Golden Age.

Which makes me wonder why our account of the golden age is so sketchy. Why not just… ask the Exos who lived in it?

Because they don't remember. Many of them have had their memory wiped several times. (Cayde-6, Lakshmi-2, etc). For instance, from Cayde-6's journal:

Spend some time with an Exo who';s been through it like we have and you'll see all the tells.

We've got issues

See, the reboots, they don't wipe it all away. Not everything. And the new life – plus the Light – does something real funny to what's left. Amplifies it, scrambles it, reshuffles the fragments like a dealer riffling a deck of cards, putting the hands we've already won and lost back into play.

Most of us do what we can on our own to forget.

Let the itch go unscratched.

Me? I learned long ago you gotta play the hand you're dealt.

So, here's a little bit of what I remember. Strike that.

Here's a little bit of what I know.

It ain't all right, but I'll be damned if it ain't the truth.

And yeah, Exos probably have a extremely lengthy lifetime. Cayde-6 (as an Exo), for instance, was body guard to Maya Sunderesh on Venus back during the Golden Age.

Which makes me wonder why our account of the golden age is so sketchy. Why not just… ask the Exos who lived in it?

The Exos we know now were deactivated at some point, and brought back to life by Ghosts (some of them through fixing them, some of them using the power of the Traveler). They actually lost their memories and many people are attempting to help them recover them, with very limited amounts of success. This seems like a cop out, but it's pretty in line with beings brought back to life by Ghosts, they seem to remember little if anything about their previous life.

And yeah, Exos probably have a extremely lengthy lifetime. Cayde-6 (as an Exo), for instance, was body guard to Maya Sunderesh on Venus back during the Golden Age.

Which makes me wonder why our account of the golden age is so sketchy. Why not just… ask the Exos who lived in it?

And yeah, Exos probably have a extremely lengthy lifetime. Cayde-6 (as an Exo), for instance, was body guard to Maya Sunderesh on Venus back during the Golden Age.

Which makes me wonder why our account of the golden age is so sketchy. Why not just… ask the Exos who lived in it?

At a sheer minimum the Golden Age must have lasted 300 years (or how else would we know our lifespans had tripled?) and it must be 200 years or more since the Collapse (or else The City couldn't have taken "centuries" to build). Given that, and that Saladin is aged but not elderly, I think there's got to be some Light-based slowed aging for Guardians going on here, not just the Golden Age tripling of lifespans.

Signs point to yes. One of the first things your Ghost tells you once you reach the Tower is that The City took centuries to build. There's plenty of other references to similarly long periods of time having passed since the collapse. It seems pretty clear that some Guardians have lived for hundreds of years since being found by their Ghosts, but do they age, die and get brought back to life again and again, or are Guardians frozen at the age they were when their Ghosts first revived them?

I was unsure before, but now I assume that we are frozen at our age, mostly because of the latest Rise of Iron trailer with Saladin. For being REALLY old, he looks fairly young.

But we also have Exo guardians. Presumably they don't age at all making the question perhaps nonsensical.