(Disclaimer) I do not wish to discuss this with anyone here, unless bungie themselves asks for clarification on my thoughts. Reply if you'd like, just know my words are intended for, and directed souly at Bungie. (Might revist this post a few times to search for typos. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience.) This question i have been asking myself, and figuratively speaking I've been asking bungie for years. I've played since d1 beta, but only really focused heavily on destiny once d2 launched. Bungie seems to try and satisfy everyone all at once, more often than not. When d2 first launched, the endgame was "public events". Even if we didn't have static roll weapons, and double primaries, the playerbase would've easily had the same falloff. Simply because "the casual audience doesn't enjoy having a ENDGAME". Forsaken gave us a endgame. Everything about the dreaming city, be it the raid, dungeon, gear, and so on catered to the endgame. It was easily the most successful destiny expansion to date for countless reasons. Shadowkeep and beyond light did what d2 year 1 did, except with lost sectors, janky strikes, and mostly menagerie rip-offs throughout those years. Witch queen repeated the formula of forsaken's success, and prooved itself to be a great experience. It was carried a bit by the 3.0 subclass update, but regardless it's still relavant. Then lightfall happened......... All the hype in the world, with nothing but strand to show for it. No narrative, terribly cassual raid, need i say more? The leadup to final shape was outstanding, but went completely unnoticed to countless players due to the disaster that lightfall was. Then final shape delivered to a great success...... Temporarily. Mark my words "if it wasn't for the unnecessary, unforgetably terrible layoff that happened within a month of final shape, we wouldn't have had as many people stop playing after finishing the expansion." I could talk on and on about the rest of the game, but I'll get to my point. The dedicated, hardcore, dare i say no life players who would grind this game like nothing else mattered have always been sitting around, waiting for not just a good expansion, but a "consistent understanding of who bungie wants to cater to". When we got trials back, it showed focus on the previously nonexistent endgame of pvp we haven't had since pinnicle weapons. Terrible as it launched, it was a good thing to get trials back. Trials nowadays is just raining teir 5 loot as "participation trophies". Us guardians are so outstandingly powerfull in pve content, that "you don't even need to use guns to solo or 1 phase anything". Long story short, Bungie has a consistent history of success when bungie caters to dedicated players. Simultaneously Bungie has a consistent history of failure when catering to casual players. There is not a peacefull middle ground. Whenever one has possibly existed, hardcore players ruined it occasionally by gatekeeping, while casuals ruined it by cancel culture. So bungie, while I'd rather just say "cater to the hardcore players", I'd rather you just pick a side. Stop chasing this impossible harmony. I can understand trying to make the game more approachable to newer players, but you guys can't even pull that off. You know what would? The red war campaign. Had a decent story. Taught people how to play the game, and introduced the characters really well. Just take all the rewards we have now with the new light experience, and put it into a unvaulted "red war" story. Outside of that, include some in game messages "briefly" describing the endgame. Then the rest is up to the player. If they make it that far, they will use the internet more than any ingame tooltip regardless. Small recap. Bungie thrives when catering to hardcore players. Bungie fails when catering to casuals. Bungie should pick a side, because co-existence is only harmful to everyone. New lights have good rewards, but terrible onboarding. Oh and one last side note- good luck with marathon. I hope it's a success, but if not, it was nice knowing you. (Sorry for any typos i missed) Become legend.