Now, I've been absent from this Utopia-turned-hell-hole for the last few months (Bant for not licking Bungivision's boot and creating a discussion thread about the likelyhood of the D2 Beta being the D1 Beta all over again) and likely missed any and all of the potential salt, excitement and the like involving Digital Extreme's plans for their game [i]Warframe[/i]. What I want to do is see if I can't bring up an actual discussion about how [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYOZ0rPzqXM]Plains of Eidolon[/url], and the inevitable, subsequent updates that will bring more 'Patrol' missions to [i]Warframe[/i] could potentially be a bit of a saving grace, both as an alternative to D2 and as potential competition for Bungivision's new... thing. On the one hand, Many of us here in gaming are aware of [i]Destiny[/i]'s flaws, from the Story and artificial grind to the toxic community and poor management of the game. We aren't entirely blind to what's been done with the game and the incredibly unimpressive time-line of events it's got as a legacy. The first point is here. [i]Warframe[/i]'s PoE update could very well turn in to that alternative to Destiny and Destiny 2. Especially on the PC side of things where many, many gamers are incredibly apprehensive of Bungivision's disastrous, if somewhat short, track record. For those of us who kept slipping in and out of Destiny, be you on console or PC, for that mechanically sound and aesthetically tempting experience of an Open-Zone shooter that you really couldn't get elsewhere, PoE could very well offer a safer, [b]free[/b] and equally enjoyable experience. Been burned by the monetary-centric handling of Destiny and don't feel like risking being caught twice? [i]Warframe[/i] could be the answer you need. There's more to be said, but to minimize the 'Wall of Text, TL;DR pls' posts, it's here. [spoiler] [i]Warframe[/i] also has the distinct advantage of having an actual player driven economy, like the one promised in Destiny. On top of an actual plethora of unique weapons that aren't all just different visuals of the same Archetype and actually look unique through-and-through. On top of that, the game is free, and if you dedicate the same focus and attention that [i]Destiny[/i] players did for their game you can have [b]all[/b] of the nicest things in time, due to being able to trade the premium currency. Missions are procedurally generated as well, so aside from questline missions you arent going to run through the same level twice backwards, upside down and at night. Frames, which equate to [i]Destiny[/i]'s classes total in at around 35 unique ability sets and there are hundreds of individual weapons. [/spoiler] On the other hand, Plains of Eidolon feels like a direct response to [i]Destiny 2[/i]'s PC release. That being said, PoE could be the Competition [i]Destiny 2[/i] needs. It's my firm belief that the development team behind [i]Destiny[/i] executed their tasks as poorly as they did for two major reasons. One: Activision, the company behind the yearly releases of [i]Call of Duty[/i] was breathing down their necks, and, Two: [i]Destiny[/i], as it stood, had no competition that had a solid foundation behind it or was well known enough to steal the spotlight for even a second. Digital Extreme and [i]Warframe[/i] are both of these things, with a [url=http://steamcharts.com/app/230410]Concurrent playerbase of aproximately 55,000 gamers on steam alone[/url]. [i]Warframe[/i] also boasts [url=http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/11/16/warframe-player-count-at-its-best-month-ever-in-terms-of-users/]An astounding 26,000,000 in unique created accounts across the board[/url], though it's worth noting that these numbers are from the Holiday season of last year and that they only represent the number of registered accounts and not necessarily the number of active players. This translates in to a solid foundation, an impressive player-base and the potential to put it in to direct competition with [i]Destiny 2[/i] should PoE be executed properly. That means that for the first time, Bungivision's game could have something to be compared to, that they would have something that would set a bar that needs to be met lest they be met with more outrage than last time. Competing with a free game is no easy task, especially not when that free game has double the content of equal-or-greater quality to the prior installment of your game. It would mean that Bungie would need to provide consistent updates of content that is on-par-or-better than Digital Extreme's or potentially lose players, or at the very least face the ultimate insult to a Dev Team that is that 'We can get more and better for free'. Personally, I hope for the Former. Adversity begets change. Perhaps if Bungie was faced with the loss of players to a competitor, the quality of things would be forced to increase in order to bring them back. Lets get a bit more discussion, yeah? TL;DR, for those of you too lazy to read: Plains of Eidolon can be either the thing for people who don't trust Bungivision, or the thing to make [i]Destiny 2[/i] step it's game up. Not calling PoE a 'Destiny 2 Killer' but at the very least, we could see a game changer, something to test just how much Loyalty can mean to a gamer. Warframe's a hard game to start, but then again, [i]Destiny[/i] was a hard game to justify.