The story laid out like this is not in the game, but all of this is taken directly or indirectly from what bungie provided as story. I love that they are leaving it to us to understand for now. Videos like this build community. And one day we will see just how right or wrong we were.

I wouldn't mind extended storylines provided by the community, but a lot of this stuff I consider essential to understanding even what is going on, let alone understanding the stakes of what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, for me, stuff like this comes across as the community doing Bungie's work for them, and that's a shame because 1). while this is great, it's not as high quality as something Bungie might do, 2). most players will never see it, and 3). it's completely removed from the game. On the latter, I've already beaten Crota several times. I've completed Eris' quest chain on all of my characters. Until watching this video, The Dark Below essentially was, "go here, shoot bad guy in the face, because reasons." I had almost no concept of what was happening beyond the game's mechanics, and as a result, a lot of the visceral power of those experiences were sapped. The Dark Below was just some more stuff to do. There's this thing in storytelling (I know a fair bit about storytelling) called subtext, and it drives intrigue. The sense that there is something underneath the superficial details of plot and character is what makes a story interesting. It helps to build tension, and it's here where communities can come together to read into and interpret actions, decisions, and consequences to make the story into something greater. I live for that. But Destiny's overt text is so incredibly thin that no subtext can exist within our direct experiences. Revelations fall flat because they have no context. They are essential details we've been denied. I'm not saying all of this needs to find its way into the game. I'm saying I'd like to see more of it in the game.

I guess I'm okay with it because of my love for dark souls franchise which leaves storyline pretty open for interpretation. The big draw if the game isn't the amazing story but if you take the time to explore you find so much. It fits perfectly with the way the entire game is laid out, the more you explore in the souls games the more you find, but you can simply choose to play as well. On many ways bungie uses this same method to tell their story.