#so “it’s too difficult they shouldn’t be in raids” is a poor excuse to me

[fierykitten2]

Pokémon fans don’t understand that “event-exclusive” means that Wake and Leaves can’t (and shouldn’t be at least until the next time they appear in a game that isn’t SV) be found in the game outside events part 8000000000000000

[prplpnk]

Letters

The battle against the Legion carries on. Caraenyl, who has been safely holed up at the Hall of the Guardian, only wants one thing.

This took me way too long to write lol. Please enjoy! <3

 My Dearest Kai,

 I hope this letter finds you doing well. Congratulations on being named Shadowblade, we have to celebrate that when you have the time. You must be very busy, with all this nonsense I hear coming from the Broken Shore; it feels like ages since you last wrote me, but I more than understand that you have very little time to yourself these days.

The Tirisgarde are keeping me busy with research; I’ve lost count of all the books I’ve read about Felo’melorn, but at least the fictional ones were a nice break from the monotony of facts and speculation.

This might not be possible to answer, but do you know when you’ll be able to meet up again in Dalaran? It’s alright if you can’t plan too far ahead, with keeping a strong presence on the Broken Shore, coming to the aid of people when packs of Legion randomly invade, plus setting up raids on the strongest Legion holds. I wish I could be there with you, fighting by your side, but nobody will give me permission! Archmage Hikoto says I’m not ready and that I’m most needed in the Hall, but I don’t really buy that.

Hardly a moment goes by when I don’t think of you. Please, please stay safe and don’t do anything too reckless or I’ll write El and Luu and ask them to drag you away.

I love and miss you, very much.

 All My Heart,

Caraenyl

After letting the ink dry, Caraenyl carefully folded up the painfully short letter, placed his love’s name upon it, and fed it into the magical portal upon the mailbox within the Hall of the Guardian, his home for nearly the last year. He sighed, hoping Kai wouldn’t be disappointed with how short it was.

Cara had been writing to Kai at least once a week since he’d been stuck in the Hall, a floating mage tower above Dalaran. At first, it was easy enough to fill up two or three pages, but of course back then had also included updates to his health and the wonders of being in such a magically-charged place; something the mage hadn’t experienced in years.

Now, with the charm warn off, his body fully healed, and his mundane job, Cara seemed to have very little to write to his fiancé about.

The mage sighed and made his way up to the sleeping quarters. It was getting late; most of the apprentices and those who maintained the Hall were getting ready for sleep, while others readied for the night shift.

Caraenyl’s bed was small and cold, sitting in a large room with many other similar beds, most already filled with softly snoring mages. Cara got beneath the covers, not bothering to change into nightclothes as they were never warm enough. Curling up tight, he knew it would be another night with little sleep. The large fire floating in the center of the room gave off a gentle glow, but little to no heat and the mage could never get warm enough.

He drifted off only to be awoken a couple hours later by a severe chill down his spine. Cara was freezing and he got up, keeping his blankets wrapped around him, walking towards the glowing fire. He almost thrust his hands directly into the flames, but it still took several seconds for him to feel the heat against his skin. The mage placed his slightly warm hands upon his face, a feeble attempt at transferring the heat.

Several minutes of this only managed to wake him up instead of really warming him and he groaned quietly in defeat. Tossing the blankets back onto the self-making bed, Caraenyl grabbed his long cloak and headed through the nearly empty halls to the portal that lead to the city.

Dalaran was only slightly warmer than the Hall, but still floated very high up; Cara was convinced it kept the chill from Northrend. The city was fairly quiet, the lanterns giving off a warming glow as towers stretched into the starry sky. Most of the shops were closed, save for blacksmiths and armorers; adventurers darted in and out of those buildings despite the late hour. The mage slowly walked the streets, letting his mind wander. He found it difficult to not think about Merekai and Elithuin, his dear lovers. It had been some time since he’d seen either of them; the Legion was keeping everyone on the front lines busy, including all of Cara’s friends.

Caraenyl sighed heavily, plopping down upon a bench near the bank on the Horde side of the city. He felt so useless; he’d been healed for many months now, but he still wasn’t allowed down into the Broken Isles.

It had been a mistake, poor judgement on his part. Cara had been so excited to actually defeat the Legion when they first returned to Azeroth (they were the ultimate force behind the destruction of Silvermoon, thus the true killers of his family) that he didn’t wait for the others. He had ventured into Val’sharah to first assist the druids with driving out the new kind of Nightmare that was poisoning the land. The Nightmare, as the mage found out, was vicious and unrelenting. Caraenyl had barely been able to get away from some kind of swamp creature and had been severely hurt in the process.

Twisted ankle, broken ribs, fractured wrist, broken arm, slight concussion, black eye and a myriad of bruises, bumps and lacerations; the healers at Dalaran were sure to point out every injury to Kai and El, who had both rushed to the mage’s side upon receiving the news. Neither looked happy and Cara couldn’t blame them. He promised to not do that again and to rest.

With Caraenyl not being in any condition to fight, the leader of the Tirisgarde suggested he help Edirah, the Tirisgarde Researcher, with looking into the full history of Felo’melorn. Cara found he didn’t have much choice and agreed, sitting at a table surrounded with books day after day. The mage quickly found that, while he did enjoy reading, doing research was extremely boring.

During the last year, Cara found himself certain of two things. One, Edirah was keeping most of the good books for herself and passing on the second-grade to crap books about the legendary weapon to Caraenyl; and two, Archmage Hikoto, leader of the Tirisgarde, had been asked by Kai and El to keep him safe.

The mage felt more than ready to be out on the field, killing demons and helping to destroy the Legion, all beside his lovers. All his requests to do so, however, had been denied.

He hugged his knees upon the bench; what he wanted more than killing demons was to just be with the men he loved again. He missed them so much; at least they’d see each other more on the front lines and could sleep together in tents between battles. Cara wanted to feel their warmth beside him again as he slept.

“Feeling sorry for yourself, are you?”

The mage jumped a little at the voice, looking up to see an undead woman walking up to him. She wore dark leather, her head hooded and face covered with a mask. Caraenyl could only make out the eerily dark sockets where her eyes should have been and he swallowed nervously. “E-excuse me?”

“You’re Caraenyl,” she stated flatly, standing beside the bench.

Cara glared a bit in suspicion. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m a member of the Uncrowned; Shadowblade Korveris talks about you all the time.”

The mage’s ears perked up. “You know Kai?”

“A little,” the rogue said, rolling her shoulders, “though I feel I know you more. The Shadowblade worries for you and that’s why I’m here.”

Sitting up, Cara smiled. “Kai sent you!”

“No, the stubborn fool doesn’t know I went looking for you. Doesn’t know a lot of things, that one.”

Confusion swirled around the mage’s head. “Well… you found me. What do you want?”

“You’re turning the Shadowblade into a tight knot of worry; he’s sending half of the Uncrowned to watch you when he should be sending them to spy on the Legion.”

“Why would—”

“Because of your letters!” the rogue snapped, her slightly hoarse voice sounding even more grated. “Every letter you send mentions how you want to go to the front lines in this war, but the Shadowblade knows you’re not ready and is fearful you’ll do something stupid.”

Caraenyl scowled, standing before the slightly shorter undead. “It’s been a year! A year of taking it easy, reading books, doing boring research; I am ready to fight!”

The rogue simply looked at him for a moment, Cara still not sure if eyes filled her dark, creepy sockets, before quickly striking. Her left foot swung out, scooping the mage’s right foot out from underneath him and he fell back, his right leg locking at the knee harshly, making him cry out as he hit the cold walkway. Pain shot from his knee and he reached down to gently rub at it, stiff muscles screaming at the touch.

“That injury is older,” the undead stated, crouching beside Caraenyl, “and it seems it never healed properly.”

The mage hissed, adding a bit of ice to his knee and choosing not to comment. It was an old injury, one incurred while invading Draenor. His right leg had pretty much gotten mangled while destroying the Dark Portal; once proper portals had been set up back to Azeroth, Cara had been escorted back home while his loves continued the fight against the Iron Horde. His leg took the longest to heal, but even then he had been warned that it might not ever be the same. The muscles healed too tightly around his knee and while Cara learned to walk without a limp, sudden movements that put too much weight or pulled the muscles taught across his knee would cause severe pain.

‘This time was supposed to be different….’ Caraenyl shook his head as the pain ebbed. “You got me with a cheap shot, I can handle myself.”

“Like you did in Val’sharah?”

The mage tried not to flinch as he sat up, slowly rubbing his knee. “I’ve admitted that was my fault. I should have waited for Kai and El to join me there.”

“You shouldn’t have gone at all!”

Cara glared at the rogue, starting to get annoyed. “If Kai had been there—”

“Then he’d been the one hurt, covering for you!”

“I wouldn’t let that happen!”

“How could you stop it? You couldn’t keep yourself from getting hurt, let alone protecting anyone else!”

Caraenyl’s hands curled into fists. “I nearly lost Kai on Draenor… I will never let that happen again.”

“He nearly lost you on Draenor! That’s why he’s keeping you away from battle now!” The rogue sighed, her next words soft. “He’s already gone through the loss of people he loves; Shadowblade Korveris doesn’t need to go through that again.”

Cara’s expression softened and he looked away, remembering Kai had been married many years ago and lost his wife to disease and childbirth, his child died only a couple years later due to a heart problem. That’s when he’d moved to Gilneas, abandoning the farmhouse he had.

Silence fell between them as Cara remembered his fiancé’s expression every time his past family was brought up, the sadness in his eyes and that spark of fear the mage could never understand. Maybe he did now. It was for him; looking back, the mage realized that fear was about losing another love. Caraenyl couldn’t blame him, he still had similar fears of Kai leaving him, although not as strongly as he once did.

Maybe… maybe the mage was being a bit selfish, wanting to fight beside Kai despite his knee. This undead rogue was right, he really was in no condition to fight properly and hold his own without putting those around him at a greater risk, too.

Caraenyl nodded softly in understanding; the rogue helping him to his feet. Her hands felt colder than his as she held them, again looking right at the mage’s face. “I hope the next letter the Shadowblade gets will ease his worries.”

Cara smiled a little and gently squeezed her hands in response, nodding again. His voice felt tight, his heart knowing what he should say to Kai but still not fully wanting to.

“The last thing I have to tell you is this: If you get yourself killed and put Korveris through that trauma again I will personally ask the Dark Lady to raise you as undead so I can kick your ass myself.”

The mage felt the blood drain from his face at the threat and he swallowed his fear to settle uneasily in his gut. “U-understood!”

The rogue stared for another moment before releasing his hands and walking away, cloak billowing behind her.

Caraenyl watched her back, confused for a moment before it fully dawned on him who he’d been talking to and he called out, “Avalina?!”

The undead woman stopped, looking over her shoulder. “That’s your only warning,” she stated and continued on the path, soon disappearing around a corner.

Cara stared after her, frozen in shock. Had that been Kai’s late wife? Would a member of the Uncrowned be worried or upset enough with how Merekai was behaving to come find the mage and talk to him about it? Cara had a feeling the person he’d talk to was in fact Avalina Korveris, but really had no way to prove it. Not that he really wanted to run to Kai and tell him; if that was Avalina, she would have told him, right? And if she didn’t, there was a reason for it and Cara realized it wasn’t his place to say anything. How happy would Kai be, anyway, knowing that his late wife was one of the walking dead?

Shaking off that revelation, Caraenyl returned to the Hall of the Guardian and climbed back into his small, cold bed. He no longer had any urge to sleep, but his still-sore knee needed to be put up for a few hours. He kept it iced as he stared out a nearby window, thinking about the next letter. It would have some finality to it and he wondered how his fiancé would handle it.

Several hours passed, sunlight was just starting to peer through the window. Cara’s knee felt better, but he was still careful as he made his way down to the desk he’d been occupying for the last year. He got out a fresh piece of parchment, ink, and his favorite quill and started to write.

 My Dearest Kai,

 I know I wrote you only yesterday, but there is something we need to talk about.

First, I’m sorry for the selfish way I’ve been lately. I guess you’ve always known that my right leg didn’t heal properly and I am no longer valuable in a serious fight. I see that now and I’m sorry to worry you. I no longer want to fight with you, not if it means I could be the reason behind injuries or loss of life. I was being stubborn.

Which brings me to my question; would you like me to go back to our home in the Hinterlands? I’ve learned the portal spell to Dalaran quite well by now so it wouldn’t be a problem to bounce back and forth to see each other whenever you get the time.

It’ll be hard being so far away from everything, but I’d rather be waiting for you to return safely than you constantly worried about my safety.

I love you, Kai. I look forward to your next letter.

 All My Heart,

Caraenyl

 The mage sighed, once again waiting for the ink to dry before folding the letter, addressing it to Merekai, and placing it into the portal upon the mailbox in the Hall. A small smile graced his lips when he returned to his desk.

Cara would wait; soon they could have their wedding and be together forever.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Homestuck Liveblog #163

UPDATE 163: List of Retc--oh, What the Hell?

Last time John kept doing his retcons, telling Terezi to not be an awful investigator and not blame Vriska for the troll murders. Also Gamzee has been subdued and tied up. That’s actually quite a bit change! Let’s see if the consequences of doing that are as big as I hope they will be!

Side note: Vriska and Meenah are in love. Good for them. Back to the plot!

Last time Roxy had gotten killed when she saved Roxy from the good ol’ trident throw trick, much to Jane’s horror. Mind controlled or not, she’s very upset about this recent development. I’m sure it’s partly because despite the control it’s still Jane, and partly because this is bound to be a heroic death and a dead Roxy completely derails the Condesce’s plans. Way to ruin it all for your evil overlord, Jane!

She immediately tries to revive Roxy, but in the eyes of everyone else Jane was there throwing blue beams on their deceased friend. Of course they wouldn’t take kindly to that. They attacked. Oh, but before I continue reading this dialogue, the image over it is rather important, mostly because it’s a mystery.

Hm? Why’s there a ? there? Let’s see...I think there’d be no reason not to draw Dave. It can’t be John, he’s not in this universe – unless he appeared via retcon, that is. I suppose it’s possible it could be Jade sans being controlled, but Jane has said absolutely nothing about Jade. I mean, seeing her partner in crime on the other side of the fight would warrant a mention or two, wouldn’t it? All in all, I’m not sure what’s the deal with this.

JANE: But more importantly, my friend, who surely stayed dead.  JANE: Poor Roxy. 

Ah, don’t worry, Jane, she’s going to appear at any moment along with John! Not that you know it. Calliope feels guilty for wanting to see Roxy, even if it’d mean she’s dead. Hah, can anyone just wander inside your dream bubble, Calliope? I’m more and more surprised Lord English hasn’t stumbled upon it, hahaha. Okay, not really.

Jane wants to make amends for having killed Roxy, apologize and maybe make a trollsona for her once she shows up. Hm, they all still think they’re dead. I understand they may consider that possibility, but why would any of their friends kill them? I really doubt any of them would be like ‘oh, Jane betrayed us and she was evil all along. Welp, sharpen your weapons everyone’, at most they’d knock them out and try to find a way to snap them out of the mind control. Unless things went horribly wrong, that is. That’s always a possibility.

Yeah, look at that, Jane is convinced she was killed instead of subdued or simply knocked out, and that one of her friends did it. I mean, I’m sure even the trolls – they would have no reason at all to care about Jane – would know killing her would fly wrong with some of the other players, not to mention it’d make things more difficult overall.

CALLIOPE: do yoU remember who it was that killed yoU?  CALLIOPE: not to hoUnd yoU for details, bUt trivia like this tends to be historically important.  CALLIOPE: plUs, i woUld like to draw this scene. :u  JANE: I'm sorry. My memory of the incident overall is quite vague. JANE: But it wouldn't surprise me if the one who dealt my fatal blow was the leader of the raid.

You mean Karkat? I mean, Dave wouldn’t want to, and I can’t picture Kanaya or Terezi being the leader. Rose is the other option, given that this was a rescue mission to get Roxy and Jake back.

The topic changes to that leader, the ? person in the group. Jane has a few things to mention in order to build up Hussie’s reveal. Hah! Not very subtle there, Hussie!

JANE: This hero occupied a blind spot as much to the Condesce as to my present recollection, but of this much I am sure. 

Could be a Void player, then? I mean, besides Roxy, the only other Void players I’m aware of is Equius and his ancestor. I don’t think any of John’s changes would have resurrected Equius or stopped his death, and I seriously doubt they all decided to bring one of the troll ancestors back from the dead just for kicks and giggles. Or maybe the life ring was used in one of the ghosts, and that’s how neither the Condesce or Jane expected them.

JANE: The hero was bold, wily; the sort of firebrand personality they needed to take such a stand.  JANE: An intrepid soul who was not about to take the verdict of paradox space lying down.  JANE: You see, Callie, your historical documents make no mention of the leader of the raid, because originally, the curtains closed early on this plucky customer.  JANE: But the hero was written back into our story by some inscrutable gambit of circumstance which we may never fully understand. 

...

...wait a second.

...

...

...Hussie, please tell me you didn’t do what I’m starting to suspect you did. You—please, tell me I’m being paranoid. There must be something I’m misinterpreting. Please, tell me he’s not going to resurrect Vriska – and not just any Vriska, but a Vriska without any of the development from the events after her death. Someone tell me I’m being stupid with this deduction of mine. Wouldn’t be the first time I overthink or outright miss some sort of indication, tell me it’s happening again.

Okay, back to John. “FL1P” “KNOCK HER OUT. YOU C4N’T L3T M3 K1LL H3R”

FUCK IT.

This is as good as a confirmation. I mean, who else would she be referencing? I can’t believe it. Damn it, Hussie, what the hell?

Okay, look, I like Vriska, but this is kind of a souring development for me. It’s just that—it really doesn’t strike me well that Vriska’s development is all gone, and a version of her without all that is brought back. I feel...hmmmmm...cheated may be the right word. It’d be one thing if Vriska had died in that moment and didn’t appear so many times as she did after her death. Although she died, it felt like she still had a lot to do. Slowly she had phased out of the spotlight, her time had passed.

And now here she’ll go, she’ll be back and without any of the development and awareness she had gained. Everything the other Vriska did and everything we saw was pretty much for naught. No, this is bad. I reject this development. This is—Hussie, this may be the development I have loathed the most in the entirety of Homestuck.

Maybe I shouldn’t be reacting like I am reacting right now. The thing is, there’s one thing I hold sacred more than anything else, no matter what genre I read. I used to spend most of my time in the mystery genre, and since a lot of it relies on characterization and development I have come to appreciate it as the main force in any story. There’s nothing I like more in anything than characterization and character development. That’s why seeing this happen really, really strikes me badly. It feels like I wasted time watching and appreciating the other Vriska’s development, and I hate that. I have spent dozens upon dozens of updates reading about that Vriska. Months. And I liked everything she went through, I appreciated her development and although lately I wasn’t exactly jumping with joy at her romping around dream bubbles, that was a result of her development. To know that it’s for nothing because she’s likely to keep drifting out of Homestuck’s plot and that this entirely different version is going to be around now in what’s potentially a front and center position – she was mentioned as the leader, after all -- well, I really don’t like it.

I can’t believe it.  This is—I can’t. I’m frustrated this is bound to be a big result of the retcon, besides the fact everyone is alive. Maybe this won’t be as bad as I’m thinking it’ll be. Maybe Vriska’s presence won’t be as big of a change as I fear. Maybe Vriska won’t have as big of a role as I’m thinking she’ll have. I’m hoping she won’t.

...you know, I’m rather bummed that this all has gotten to the point where I’m dreading the rest of Homestuck. Thank goodness there’s not that much left in this story. But still, this is depressing.

Also, I suppose some may point that this retcon also erases the characterization and development of many other characters too. Yeah, I know that, but you know what? That doesn’t mean it’s all gone. It’s a retcon, but it isn’t like all those characters are changing drastically. The one big thing I’m supposing will happen is that Terezi won’t ever get involved with Gamzee, and won’t ever restore her eyesight, but other than that I think everything else will be like it was in the now-doomed timeline. Rose will still gain a drinking habit, Kanaya and Rose will still be a couple, Dave and Rose will still be nervous about meeting their alpha counterparts, and Jade, well, I’m a bit excited to see how she’ll take John’s existence after having to be alone in the battleship for three years. What I’m trying to say is that they’re not going to be completely changed because of the retcon. This doesn’t change them that much. That’s the one consolation I have now.

Okay, I need a rest. I’m stopping for now. The update will continue in a moment.

It’s almost midnight, may as well work on this a bit more. Honestly I’m still rather angry with this all. Excuse me while I breeze through. Summary: John appears, shouts Terezi not to kill Vriska, and sucker-punches her. Every troll who arrived wonders why John is here. John zaps away to return to his planet in the now-doomed timeline and pick up Roxy and the planet itself. He gives Roxy the ring, doesn’t give Terezi or Vriska the wallet, and that’s it, I’m ending the update here. I’m done.

Next update: five updates

[brothermouzongaming]

Warmind thots

Better if only by a bit

I understand that Vicarious Visions made this expansion, a fact that is a little troubling if you ask me and my pessimistic tendencies. Even with that information, I almost forgot another developer had taken care of this expansion because it was very much along the lines of Bungie’s typical format. I still feel that these thoughts and feelings are relevant and still perfectly appropriate despite Bungie doing this a little differently this time around. The fact remains: nothing is going in the game that doesn’t have Bungie’s approval. Hell, as far as we know Vicarious merely did what Bungie would’ve done anyway, following a template that was explicitly written by Bungie. From what I understand they did design the Raid Lair but I doubt they were given such liberties with dlc given what we have is reported to have been lined up for a while. Regardless, the overall message of this is that the Warmind dlc is an improvement. The subtext is that such an accomplishment means fuck-all in the face of what can only be described as a huge flop for both Bungie and Activision. Despite what the financial reports may say.  Changes to exotics are great and give us something to grind that improves our favorite guns. Escalation Protocol is a challenge that takes coordination but is still a great idea at its core. Nodes are another means of grind that again give guardians a reason to come back. Curse of Osiris was a low bar to step over, but at least they did it and did it fairly well.

“Dress-tiny”

Good god how is it that the dlc adds blander armors. I think the focus on armor is all wrong and centered way too much around looks but since it’s here; the least they could do is stand out. Hunters get straight up screwed with some of the least impressive and lazy designs I’ve ever seen. Literally solid color sleeves and a slightly different glove design. Titans are clearly the character type that inspires the artists the most because from the looks to the functionality they have it the best hands down in my opinion. My preferred class, Warlock, sits somewhere in the middle. With armor pieces that work like a dream in the field, some that are beyond useless and those are just the exotics. The legendary pieces rarely vary in any significant way beyond a couple points this way or that way between the whopping three stats you have to manage. So looks are really all that is left, and there isn’t anything definitive about a lot of these “legendary” pieces of armor. The shader situation is an absolute trash fire, hopefully, the Warmind dlc was gonna add some interesting tweaks to the color scheme...imagine my surprise when the color pallets are few and far between as far as anything really distinguishable. I put on four shaders on some pants and they all looked exactly the same. That’s one of Destiny’s many problems, it’s only half in with all of its ideas.

“Remember whoo you areee”

Lion King reference aside, I can’t be any more serious. *snaps fingers repeatedly* Hello Bungie, wake up! You are squandering all the goodwill built up in your past successes. I understand this is far from the team that brought us Halo: CE but I would’ve thought they would be fighting in its memory. The ambition is there, I commend and respect that much. The effort and execution, however, has been wildly lackluster. I can forgive a large amount of D1′s problems, it’s an ambitious idea that was gonna have some kinks and issues in it. 

Company’s like Ubisoft and Capcom are giving away the occasional free update to games like The Divison and Monster Hunter World respectively. For Destiny 2 to become essentially the biggest flop of this generation and offer no respite or token of gratitude to the fanbase that stayed is miraculously idiotic. Oh what’s that? They gave us the broken Prometheus Lens? Aw, that’d be nice if it wasn’t the only gesture Bungie has made, and it released so broken it singlehandedly turned the Crucible into laser tag. Yes, that was fun, but it wasn’t even something Bungie did, it was an accident. That accident for a short period of time was the most exciting and engaging thing that has happened in D2 for a while now. The initial concept of Destiny is very promising, especially when you find out it’s in the hands of Bungie. I can’t help but feel that somewhere along the way they realized that the idea was better than the actual physical manifestation of it. Now that they’re in way too deep, all they can do is press on through the self-made muck and mire. Doing what they want to expand the franchise rather than improve it; coming from a developer I once revered it’s both infuriating and deeply saddening. Please Bungie, get it together for your sake, not ours. I’m not buying D3 and I have a funny feeling a decent amount of people won’t either, you aren’t an indie dev with no experience. Why are you acting like it?

Copy and paste

Warmind’s loot pool is vastly more interesting and enticing than that of Osiris. The sharp geometric shapes, as well as the sounds and skills associated with the guns, are very distinct and dare I say enjoyable. They don’t drop quite as often, Destiny has reverted back to its old ways in that sense and I’m not against it at all. If we get everything in the first week what’s the point of paying so much/ what’s keeping us here? My issue is the recurring problem of both reskins and returning exotics. Osiris was fairly wrought with reskins and even worse with poor and just unsavory perks, these guns rained from the sky I practically had to set up a direct deposit to my trash bin. Even better, these weapons seem to be tiered and earned with different kinds of currency. Now getting that new auto rifle or sub-machine gun feels good when it drops and not repetitive. The bringing back of D1 exotics is nice, there’s no reason in the world why some of these guns can’t and shouldn’t exist in this game. When two of the four guns are D1 guns, that’s when I get peeved. There needs to be more, I’m not talking truckloads but half the guns shouldn’t be D1 guns not for dlc we paid for. Honestly, how hard is it to design a new gun, what are you guys saving it for D3? Why not put out as much as you can to satisfy a fanbase that is struggling in the here and now? Seriously would it kill you guys to throw us a bone beyond fixing the issues we shouldn’t be dealing with at all? I know I can come off as entitled, but realize that this is a game with so much money behind it that I’m genuinely uncomfortable with the figure itself. This money could’ve gone to like... help people. Bungie got $500 million for the franchise as a whole, let’s say it broke up evenly which is about  $166,666,666. Where the fuck did that money go? Destiny 2 is essentially one massive asset flip and when players like me were told D2 would progress the series, it’s done almost nothing but regress. So maybe as a paying customer who has been deceived and lied to since day one of this game, maybe in this instance entitlement is a little understandable. 

Change ‘Gon Come

The exotic changes are good, this is a big step in the right direction. Destiny beat its dick to no end about being a power fantasy, then D2 came around and took away the power. These guns are starting to feel exponentially better, really living up to the “exotic” term. Escalation Protocol is brutal, I’m worried it is more difficult than any random group of guardians can handle. The most I’ve done a run with is four or five and I’m suspecting it may take somewhere up to seven. Hard isn’t bad but it’s crushing to the point where I can see players avoiding the event entirely to go complete something they actually have a chance of achieving. The title of this segment is two parts, change is coming to Destiny in the form of the development end. Changes to the game that are efforts in the right direction to give this game a sense of life and purpose. We’ll see what E3 holds, this “Comet” expansion is gonna be featured due to their “brand new game mode” or whatever, something that’s “never been done before int he genre of FPS”. I have no idea what that means but it sounds like th same high aiming that got us in this mess to begin with, we will see. The other half is the changes in the form of who plays Destiny/ how many people will be playing Destiny. I said it earlier and I’ll say it again. Four years is too long for a big name dev like Bungie to say “sorry guys, making games is hard”. You signed up for this, you had time to prepare. No one asked for Destiny, and though making games is no doubt very difficult; I don’t see how you can use that as an excuse in a case of sheer negligence and outright maliciousness by Bungie. Change ‘gon come, one way or another.