Destiny 2 – Lightless

Destiny is a franchise I’ve always held dear. I’ve spent years playing through the first game, the sequel, and staying up to date with its expansions. Yet, despite my attachment, I can never shake the sense one I suspect many players share that its immense potential has been squandered. Bungie has allowed the game to drift so far from what it could have been that, for me, this wasted opportunity is what ultimately pushed me away.

Destiny constantly wrestles with its own design its RPG systems, MMO elements, community demands, and developer vision. Everyone involved seems to have a different idea of what the game should be, with no middle ground. It’s all-or-nothing thinking, and that inflexibility has left the game without a clear identity.

The community itself is deeply divided. Some players want a stronger RPG system, others want it weaker. Some want a static sandbox with minimal changes, while others demand constant evolution, with new updates and systems every month. These unfulfillable expectations only breed disappointment. The more toxic the discussion becomes, the more it drives away moderate players, casting a permanent cloud of negativity over the game.

The shift to a free-to-play model has had mixed results. Personally, I believe Destiny should have gone with a straightforward subscription system. As it stands, the seasonal model is essentially a subscription in disguise, except it also has to cater to free players who can’t access most new content. This creates a lopsided ecosystem where a significant portion of the player base contributes nothing financially but still influences design decisions. A light, cancelable monthly subscription could simplify things—players could pay for a month, enjoy the content, then step away until the next major update.

at first it was a one-time purchase model. then it shifted to a paid model with varying sizes of DLC. then there was a price increase with DLC tied to a seasonal model. Then we finally sit here at the current free-to-play system, with separate seasonal and expansion purchases layered on top.

As more content is cut and placed behind paywalls, long-time players feel they’re being charged more for less. New or returning players face a confusing mess: Do you buy the complete edition, just the DLC, only the season, or separate content keys from the in-game store? Worse, the model shifts so frequently that anyone who leaves the game for a year comes back to a completely different system.

The PvP and PvE communities want fundamentally different things. PvP players prefer static perks that rarely change, which removes any incentive to chase new loot. PvE players crave constant gear upgrades, which fuels unchecked power creep since gear is never removed from the pool. This forces developers to inflate stats with every release, making enemies into overtuned bullet sponges or undertuned trivial pushovers.

Destiny’s success was both its greatest achievement and its downfall. It exploded onto the gaming scene, inspiring countless imitators—but its biggest competitor turned out to be itself. Constant mismanagement, shifting content quality, conflicting community demands, and aggressive monetization have pushed the game to its limits.

Had Bungie course-corrected early on, perhaps the franchise could have reached its potential. But now, with layoffs cutting into the talented team that built the game players once loved, Destiny feels destined for decline. As content becomes more stale and less inspired, the game will only spiral further into irrelevance—a collapse brought on not by its competitors, but by the weight of its own success.

The sad fact is that for Bungie, the darkness has consumed you.