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since then I've been playing on PS4 with my old Destiny crew instead. Much fun!

Edit: worth mentioning that the only things I've paid for have been convenience items. I havent bought any weapons or characters with real money and I don't feel penalised for it at all. I have bought some Platinum (the premium currency) to support the devs, but I've not felt the need to spend much of it yet.

Here's a brief history of the annual Christmas time events.

Here's other major stuff:
- Players found an exploit to get bajillions of in-game currency. Rather than reverting the game world back to before the exploit was found (which the devs could have done), they opted to roll with it, and introduced some serious currency sinks into the game. One was destroying a builiding in the main town and letting people donate money to fix the building, another was the ability to put hits out on players for large sums of money, and the last was introducing some "prestige" items that could only be bought for amounts of money so large that they were obviously bug-money.

- The servers went down one day, and when they came back up, the devs had added some "spiders in the machine" as enemies to symbolize the actual spiders that had crawled into their server for warmth and shorted it out the day previous.

- Loads and loads of scripted, one-time events that dropped unique items you can sell or use (sometimes both).

I'll grant that this is a web-based, stick figure drawing RPG that is mostly text, and is thus not subject to needing all of the super high-def artwork, animations, and voice acting that a AAA title would need, but it's the approach to having a living, breathing world that evolves along with the players that I wish "Persistent world" AAA devs would follow.

Also, Asymmetric (the devs of KoL) are staffed by... 3 people? Maybe 4 at their peak. So with 500 people, imagine the level content they could move.

Because you have gushed about this game, I looked in to it. I haven't played (and won't, perhaps that's worth a post), but the one thing it appears Bungie could learn that would help is that Warframe appears to get more bang for their buck with the areas. The levels are smaller and much less detailed, but you're actually doing stuff on them.

Not entirely true. Once you learn to "fly" with melee combos, you start just rushing past everything that's not an objective. However, every level is procedurally-generated, so navigating is always "fresh". The multiple pathways within every "room" are also pretty fun to master.

Also, Zephyr. If you can get your hands on her (not too hard, she's a clan-research Frame), navigating the game will always be fun. But Nightmare missions (think Nightfall for regular missions) are kind of the counter to that quick navigation. In those you need to be checking every corner, and familiar rooms approached from different angles can prove terrifying. But Nightmare missions are fun because they challenge you and reward you with great mods... I've had some "watercooler moments" like saving a prisoner from execution with 00:00 seconds on the clock while shield-less and surrounded by enemies, and stuff.

If you look at the raids, the areas are much much smaller than the planet areas, but so much is packed into them. Destiny needs to utilize the space better, although it's probably easier for the raids since you don't have to design the spaces around patrol and public events. If anything, a lot of the story missions should take place on 'story only' areas that are not connected to the patrols.

That I agree with entirely.

Running the Will of Crota has an interesting encounter. You are in a public area (Skywatch), but a story-specific enemy gets dropped off. This, and the first Cyclops on Venus are two of the only Public story encounters that I can think of... More of that would be cool, especially if it utilized mostly-empty areas (remember when Bungie told of how we'd end up pinned down with little hope when suddenly a random Fireteam could show up and save us?)...

There's a very limited number of colors you can use to customize at first. You need to buy new palettes with premium currency (which you can acquire by paying real money or selling stuff to other players).

Keep an eye out during Holidays. This past week, they had a St. Paddy's day color set for 1 credit. Easter's coming up, so I imagine they might have another. Also, their anniversary is this next week. Players will be getting a handful of free stuff just for playing, and a color pack might be on the list.

(Also, depending on your console, they do have exclusive color sets available for 1 credit).

On top of that, they're switching a lot of models over to the PBR system, which will allow for further customization.

Evolution!

Every 'frame is like a different class. They have their own stats and supers. Weapons, however, are completely interchangeable. On top of the equipment and 'frames themselves are the augments (Mods), which enhance and might even significantly alter how you play out your loadout. To use the Mods, you have to go through an investment system, where you need to level up your equipment (by simply playing with it, like Destiny) to attach more or upgrade existing Mods.

So yeah, unless you go on a shopping/building spree, you should have no trouble keeping your 'frame as good as you want.

Because you have gushed about this game, I looked in to it. I haven't played (and won't, perhaps that's worth a post), but the one thing it appears Bungie could learn that would help is that Warframe appears to get more bang for their buck with the areas. The levels are smaller and much less detailed, but you're actually doing stuff on them.

Not entirely true. Once you learn to "fly" with melee combos, you start just rushing past everything that's not an objective. However, every level is procedurally-generated, so navigating is always "fresh". The multiple pathways within every "room" are also pretty fun to master.

If you look at the raids, the areas are much much smaller than the planet areas, but so much is packed into them. Destiny needs to utilize the space better, although it's probably easier for the raids since you don't have to design the spaces around patrol and public events. If anything, a lot of the story missions should take place on 'story only' areas that are not connected to the patrols.

That I agree with entirely.

Sounds awesome! Looking into purchasing now... how much are new players penalized? Will I ever be able to make it to the top? Or will I forever be behind since I didn't participate in the prior events?

I started back in December of '13, and Sammy started in August of '14, and we're pretty much on the same level. The only penalty for new players is access to a handful of rare mod sets, but they've been slowly adding them to new minor Events, and you can trade for them, although they tend to be pricey (in-game items and currencies).

As far as "making it to the top", you can go to the chats and find clans that recruit new people pretty easily. Many times the people in clans will be more than happy to help you out. Prior events mostly shape the current state of the world. A Grimoire-like library is being added to the Relays, and the in-game codex can explain almost everything.

Also, I've gone into PvP matches as a very low level character, and I've come out on top. It's balanced in neat ways, though PvP is getting a great overhaul this week/month.

There's a steep learning curve, but once you figure things out, you're set.

This is almost definitely a part of the problem. With Destiny 2, Bungie should either drop next gen so they can use the current gen to its full potential, or do what they're doing with Rise of the Tomb Raider, have one studio work on current-gen, one work on last-gen. I feel like those are the only two ways to get past the limitations of the last-gen.

Console wise, Destiny 2 will definitely only be on the "next gen" Xbox One and Ps4. You can be 99.9% sure on that. Not even a speculation.