You're Choking the Game - Here's Why
I talked about this ancilarily in my PTS megathread but this is an evolving issue that has been brought more into the forefront with the second PTS Phase and the recent Guardians event.
I just want to centre this discussion around one question - what do you want me to play for?
Do you want me to play for better loot? Me too, yet the only difficulty that offers the best loot has massive intradifficulty swings in The Summit which is frustrating and poorly balanced. One floor of six waves of grenadiers, warhounds, tanks and rushers, and then one floor of one wave of reds? It might be worth the pain if there was better loot drop rates - but there isn't unless you add more directives and create even more of a difference between the difficulty swing. Don't get me started on the frequency of drone events, invisible geometry, or ridiculous number of projectiles you have to deal with.
Do you want me to play for the diverse activities? Looter shooters rely on being replayable - i'm fine with that. There's a surprising diversity of mission and activity types. Some of them are very poorly designed like DARPA - I can see why that has been pushed into the dark corner.
Do you want me to play because there are unique rewards? You give all but one exotic and all the new gear in the season passes. The exotics don't feel earned, they feel bought. I'm not impressed when I see someone with a memento - why would I be?
Do you want me to play because there are seasonal events? I'm glad they've been changed, they really needed to. They felt a lot like the rest of the game - chores, chores, chores. I have absolutely no idea who decided having a guardian, hidden at the back of the map on legendary and who never goes out of cover is a rewarding mechanic to fight around. Some decisions are just beyond my understanding.
Do you want me to play because there's rewards for it? Commendations are useless, some are still clearly broken and don't track, awarded for things that are just not worth doing or are plainly just chores. Apparel? Do you expect me to use my stockpile of keys attempting to get that one boring-looking pair of shoes with a less than 1% chance to drop, despite whatever number it says (epic statistics). What should I use my mountain of textiles on - definitely not on any of the cooler gear that you have to pay for.
And now comes the Optimisation Station - do you want me to play for perfect gear. No, I don't think I will. Another crafting system - the nail in the coffin. A full and final departure from mechanics players would want to engage with. Address the lack of diversity or chances in getting certain gear - weapons with two talents. Why do you think working towards being not even as powerful as most enemies despite having 'superior' weapons and equipment. When did it stop being a mission to make being powerful fun? Since when did being an agent with all these awesome utilities become such a disappointment to use in the grind for..... well I don't know.
And the Scorpio got nerfed. A weapon with interesting traits and would have moved the meta in the right direction - snuffed out.
https://imgur.com/a/7MHKVaq
I just want to point out the stupidity of Guardians as it still currently exists.
What do you want me to play for? Whatever it is, you're working against it.