Okay, so I've had a lot of time to gather my thoughts about this. This is not my final post. And I'd like to think there won't be a final post for a while. A big part of me still wants to be around sharing ideas and fun things I discover in and about Destiny 2. Like fun build crafting and such, for example. I've been away from the game for quite a few months. Stuck around until after the last dungeon update we had. I had two reasons for stepping away. One, I wanted to wait for another update or something else interesting to happen. Simple. Not uncommon for players to take a break from a game. And two, my computer started having some bad stuttering issues. They are still unresolved, but they seem to have backed off by themselves a little bit recently. No idea what is causing it, but I'm certain it's hardware related. Sucks, but I hope I can still play Destiny 2 without serious issues when the time comes. But, well, we got the announcement and everything happened. You know, I once thought that the game would implode on itself. Serious thought there. There were so many bugs and issues in the past that I thought the game itself would be where it all ended. I wondered if the servers would just cease to function on their own and never let anyone play the game ever again. Thoughts like that. But you know what? The game isn't dead. It's not dead. This might be the last update this game will ever get, but it will continue to live. It hasn't fallen yet. The fact that after all these years, fighting all sorts of issues, pressing on after many hardships... The fact that this game is still here is quite an achievement. Even when we all move on from Destiny 2, or Destiny as a whole, it will still be remembered. It was certainly an experience, to its players and those who just looked on. This game, however good or bad it may be, will always hold a special place in my heart as a gamer. And on that thought, I wanted to share a little bit of the memories that I often reflect on when I think about Destiny. Memories in the form of my first-time happenings in Destiny... and even some of the issues in Destiny 2 that I remember the most that affected me. If you wish to continue reading the post but skip the memory ramblings of mine, look for the plus sign. On computer browsers, I think using the Find option can help you locate it. ---------- In Destiny 1, my first legendary weapon that I ever got was PLUG ONE.1. I literally just got it because I started playing Destiny during the Dark Below expansion near Christmas and Bungie gave a free legendary weapon to everyone around that time. It originally had Double Down and Who's Next on it. I got a lot of hatemail for using it in PvP back then. Kinda funny that it came back in Destiny 2. I still have my first Adept one I ever got in this game, though my account isn't the same as the one I originally had in Destiny 1. Family things. I think the first legit legendary weapon drop I got in Destiny 1 was the Coiled Hiss 1919. I don't think many people remember that pulse rifle, but it was a rapid-fire one. In Destiny 1, my first exotic that I ever got was "Sunbreakers," or "Sunbracers" as they're called in Destiny 2. I just bought it off of Xur. And yeah, I was a Warlock main since Destiny 1. That hasn't changed at all in Destiny 2. In Destiny 1, the first raid that I ever completed was Vault of Glass during Dark Below, which was also my favorite in that game. I think I also got Vex Mythoclast to drop on that first completion. I also used that with my PLUG ONE.1 with Double Down in PvP. That's when I really got the hatemail. Add on the Fusion Grenades on my Warlock with Self-Res and no one liked to go up against me. My favorite weapon in Destiny 1 was... Well, there were two. My main favorite was Soulstealer's Claw. It was in direct competition with Doctrine of Passing but was much less popular due to how much effort it took to get one. I still remember my roll. Red-Dot ORES, Smallbore, Lightweight and Counterbalance. It was my everything gun. Everything but an explosive. My other favorite gun, though, was the NIFTY_BISCUIT, purely for its name and flavor text. Nothing else. An old favorite weapon in Destiny 2 that I wish got updated was Valakadyn. During the Forsaken era, it was a beautiful gun. For some dumb reason, I dismantled mine. I will never live it down. One of my up-to-date favorite weapons in Destiny 2 is The Forward Path. I have an old one that still uses sights rather than barrels that I really like. I'm Red-Dot Micro biased. And for an older weapon, the stats on mine are quite juiced in the stability, range and handling departments all at once. Cool to see that it's getting revamped for the final update and also buffed, but if you don't have one, you might never get to taste Red-Dot Micro on this thing. My favorite raid in Destiny 2 was Crown of Sorrow. I was one Triumph away from the Shadow title, but it was the flawless Triumph and I ran out of time. Unfortunate. I also miss Menagerie. The Deep Stone Crypt space music did get me when I first experienced it. Beautiful atmosphere. My favorite dungeon in Destiny 2 is... well... I guess Prophecy. I'd say it was the one I felt was the most well-designed. Grasp of Avarice is a close second followed by Duality. The only reason I don't like Duality more than Grasp of Avarice is because the Vault encounter is kinda rough for me, especially when trying to solo it and the fact that it's after the first boss and that is rough for solo flawless runs. On record, I have soloed every dungeon released up through Warlord's Ruin flawlessly. I do not intend to do the two released after that as they drive me insane. I'm proud enough of where I got with that. There were three issues in Destiny 2 that I always go back to think on that a lot of other players may have encountered or remembered. I remembered aggressively troubleshooting the Finisher Crash issue that existed all the way back since Season of Opulence. It was originally caused by performing a finisher on an enemy that had its body fully despawn before the killing blow. Harpies and Taken were especially bad about it since their bodies disappear when they die usually. I even posted some unlisted YouTube videos on the forums about it to help get it fixed. Eventually, it got patched and temporarily changed to a Finisher Suicide issue where if the target's body despawned before the blow, it would just kill you instead, but it prevented the crash. And then later it was shadow patched to just do nothing in that scenario. I remember suggesting they could make players immune to finisher damage since they weren't meant to be used on players in the first place and it's possible that's how that works now, but I have no confirmation. The issue was fixed though, so that's all that mattered. I remember battling CABBAGE error codes forever. And it wasn't just me either. I did my best to figure out workarounds encountering CABBAGE and other errors being problematic with it at the time and spread awareness of the issue to help others having the same issue. In a short summary, the workaround involved moving between load zones rapidly until objects loaded in areas that didn't want to load right. Wasn't perfect and wasn't a complete solution either. At the time I started theorizing that it was server related based on the timing of the issues and other factors. It was affecting a lot of people. And then I remember, like I'm sure a lot of players who played back during Shadowkeep might remember, the character corruption issue back then. So apparently these things called World Servers, which allowed players to connect to the game and match with other people (I guess if I'm remembering that right), also ended up getting updates every time the game received an update but some of the servers would fail to update correctly, corrupting unfortunate players' inventories who happened to get stuck on them. This issue did not affect me directly. At least, not like that. I still have no confirmation on this, but I'm pretty sure the CABBAGE error rampancy from back then may have been a side-effect of these World Server issues. Because once they fixed the World Servers, the CABBAGE errors also died down. It didn't get rid of the errors completely as there are ways to trigger CABBAGE errors if your internet setup is struggling with the game, but the overabundant amount of those errors went away. That's the bigger reason why I think back on the World Server issues, honestly. ---------- + Now, lastly, I offer some words of encouragement to the developers. Don't worry about the future. Even if the layoffs happen, even if your career at Bungie ends, don't worry about it. You've made your mark. You've accomplished the feat of landing a job at Bungie. Everything you accomplished has helped foster a game and community for nearly a decade, and longer when you think about Destiny or even Halo as a whole. Yes, things happen, some things turn sour and some people will spread hate, even when it's out of your control. But it's life. Everyone is different. You can't please everyone. So don't think about "everyone." Think about who and what you care about. And think about what you want to do. You've been taking steps all this time, even if your feet aren't moving. So what if you lose your job tomorrow? You want to get back into business again? You can do it. If you just want to make another game, you can do it. No matter what the future holds, don't worry about it. It's just another step. You can do this. And thank you for the experience.