Dear Bungie, Thank you for creating the world of Destiny and for the most part, I believe the team at Bungie has done an incredible job. However, the world of Destiny has been undermined on more than one occasion due to a lack of direction or understanding regarding the consequences of its decisions. 1. Sunsetting Sunsetting is a mistake. The reason offered by Bungie in favor of sunsetting is power creep. Meaning that Bungie can’t continually create new perks and weapons without causing power creep. The problem with this argument is that Bungie is saying that there is a cap beyond which the efficacy of weapons cannot exceed. If this is true and we’ve reached this cap, then that means all future weapons released will be no better than what we have now. This means that when our current weapons are sunset, we will have to pursue replacement weapons that are no more powerful than what we lost. In other words, Bungie will be disrespecting the time and effort the player has put into acquiring their arsenal. Bungie will be breaking a promise that it made to its player base years ago in D1, which is to respect the time of its players because Bungie will be outdating a players arsenal and replacing it with like substitutes that players have to reacquire. Players rightfully expect to get new and cool weapons and the impetus is on a game developer to create new and novel ways to do this while avoiding power creep. Sunsetting is no more than Bungie throwing its hands up in the air, giving up and passing the problem onto the players to solve, by having players climb the same ladder over and over again. If Bungie’s response is, don’t worry about sunsetting because we will give you new and desirable gear, then my response is sunsetting isn’t necessary. Sunsetting is not necessary if we are given new and desirable gear. Players pay for your game and we expect you to solve this problem. Don’t kick the can down to us. Finally, Bungie did a great job with the weapons this season, new perks, no power creep. The fact that you did this undermines your own belief in support of sunsetting. 2. DLC Content I believe we need to cover the DLCs to fully address the sunsetting issue. I do not and players should not expect expansion level content for the DLCs. For the paltry sum that we pay, Bungie does a decent job with the DLCs. The problem is Bungie hypes up the seasonal DLC so much as to create unrealistic expectations of expansion level content. Given how little the DLC’s cost, it would make more sense to develop new guns and gear and to make them accessible via the three core activities in the game. Strikes, crucible and gambit. And, if there are additional resources, then tune the three game modes with other activities like Trials, new maps, or game tweaks to make them better. A new event is not necessary every DLC. The horde mode public events were novel the first time in the Undying Mind expansion, but then reskinning the event into Sundial, Towers and now Contact is rote and dull. I can’t imagine many end game players who like to do public events. Get rid of this fluff and focus the DLC resources into the preexisting meaningful content. As far as weapons in the DLC, don’t even need weapons with new perks, maybe one pinnacle to lust for but no more. Then when expansion time comes, Bungie should have had the time and resources to create new and desirable weapons, with new perks which do not cause power creep issues. Alternatively, charge more for the DLCs so you have sufficient resources to meet the expectations you’ve created in your DLC advertising. 3. SBMM or CBMM This is a debate that has raged within crucible for as long as I can remember. Before we get into the details. Bungie needs to stop and recognize that when the community “speaks”, that people speak when they are unhappy with the state of affairs. Just because there are people clamoring for change does not mean that there isn’t a large group of people who enjoy the status quo. On more than one occasion, Bungie has listened to the people who “spoke”, to the detriment of the game. For example, 4 v. 4 or 6 v. 6; or whether special weapons should be predominantly used in the crucible. For the most part, I understand that Bungie was listening to the community when it transitioned from 6 v. 6 to 4 v. 4 in the crucible and when special weapons were effectively removed from the crucible; and listening to the community again when Bungie reversed these changes. (I am intentionally omitting all the arguments as to these two topics, as the details are not germane to this writing.) Bungie needs to stop listening to the people wanting SBMM or CBMM. Whichever option is chosen, either high skill or low skill players suffer – my lifetime KD is 1.47, so either MM doesn’t affect me much, I’m in the middle of things. The game shouldn’t penalize one group over another. SBMM should be implemented such that a larger variety of skill levels are in a lobby, but never so that an 800 elo player matches a 1500 elo player. Alternatively, create a SBMM AND CBMM lists for the same event AND prominently display both on the director. When there was SBMM and CBMM for control, the CBMM was hidden in the left-hand corner of the screen as an after thought . . . . Now that we have CBMM for control, you have to go to Comp . . . for SBMM. Neither option gives a player a fair chance to choose between SBMM or CBMM. Its obvious that Bungie likes to gather data from players to test its ideas. The seasonal artifact comes to mind. Its obviously a test to see what mods might or might not be considered for permanent implementation in the future or as a “crucible” for design ideas. At no point has SBMM or CBMM been given a fair shot. Put two control lists, with equal billing on the director, one with SBMM and one with CBMM and give the players a fair chance to choose. Both SBMM and CBMM have their issues, everyone can argue ad nauseum what they are and you will only ever hear the arguments of the people who want it different than the status quo. Take my idea and give the players agency to show which they actually prefer. Also, MTashed had a video about how he thinks the current state of the crucible is fairly balanced. I’m not sure if CBMM has anything to do with his observations – since he is far above average— but I tend to agree with him. Good job Bungie. If I may make two request for my time and effort into this writing. One, it would be nice to know that you’ve seen this post. Two, make exotics less ugly and introduce ornaments to fix the ugly exotics. One Eyed Mask, Foetracer, Synthoceps, Eternal Warrior, Wormhusk Crown. I’m sure these concepts looked great when drawn, but in game they are terrible. Why does a Titan helm look like a Teletubby wearing a pirate mask?