Why I Stopped Playing Destiny 2

I've been a loyal Destiny player since its inception. I was given the opportunity to play the Alpha and Beta versions of the original Destiny as early as April, 2014 before it's official release in September, 2014. I have been playing Destiny and Destiny 2 since then all the way up to January, 2022 when I ceased playing. Just shy of 8 loyal years with hundreds and thousands of hours spent and with well over 1.2 million confirmed enemy kills.

Many players of Destiny games dropped off after finishing the story and didn't even want to put up with the grind of every new Season over the years. Each new season did provide new weapons and new armour sets, and variations of combat arenas but was mostly the same game. Rinse and repeat. I went through several years of it, because it was enjoyable and stress-relieving.

What put me off recently though, was the following. In November, 2021 Bungie had sent me an email asking to participate in a survey. If you filled out the survey and were chosen as a candidate you could be given a $450 gift card. Then, you would be interviewed by a researcher, and given a 7-day set of tasks within game. Here is an exact screenshot image of the wording. [click image for sharper view].

I went and filled out the survey which was much more substantial and in-depth than I had imagined and it took quite a while to fill out. I submitted the data, but I was never contacted again...

I felt like I was suckered into giving all this information with no reward of any kind or with any consideration. The next few times I booted up Destiny 2, I felt like it was monotonous work and all the fun had been sucked out of it. It no longer felt enjoyable. To me, it felt like having someone dangle a piece of crispy, delicious bacon in front of my nose in order to get all of my information, but only to give the bacon, and other goodies to someone else. Maybe the chosen individuals had put more effort into the game or maybe they were just more famous and had more followers/subscribers on their streaming and social media accounts. Either way, it demotivated me, and I effectively quit the game after that.

Maybe I set myself up for disappointment but it soured my view of the game. I realized that Bungie (and all game developers) were just like any other company out there, finding out what people want so they can exploit money out of them. Did I shell out over $100 dollars for the new Witch Queen expansion? No I did not.

Reviewers are saying that The Witch Queen expansion is the best version of Destiny 2 yet. This created some mixed feelings with anger and disappointment, but with some hope as well. I will eventually go back to the game to satisfy my curiosity and see what people are talking about, but for now it has freed up some of my spare time so that I can play other games that I've had on my radar for a long time.

Here's some Destiny 2 clips that I captured as an elite veteran.

https://youtu.be/RJfyviS5GSo
and
https://youtu.be/DqYPVQqLWP4