Edit: [i]So this was posted pre-HoW. I've since played PoE and still believe optional matchmaking should be available for the higher difficulties. I was originally matched random with 2 people who weren't talking. We beat the level 28 and they sent me an invite. They'd been in a private party chat and so we ran the 32 and beat it. Then they had to log off. If we'd been matchmade for the level 32, there'd have been absolutely no difference. Some may argue that the system worked because we beat the 28 and moved on together, but there's a problem with that. While it was great to run another, if people have to leave or can't run more and no one is on your friends list to run, then you're stuck with no way to progress without having to find randoms on LFG sites or spamming players. Also, if you're attempting a run and one person has to leave, you could also be screwed. There's no reason in that situation to not be able to queue for a third person. There is no more chance of success on lfg sites vs in game matchmaking. The rest of my opinion can be read in my original post below.[/i] ------------------------------------------------------------------ I (and many others) have been playing your games since CE. When it was out, friends would come over to play, people would have lan parties and there was always someone to play with. The thing is, [b]almost 15 years later[/b], we're not all care free youth anymore. We have families, jobs, responsibilities and our friends have theirs. The ones who may still get online often have drastically different schedules and so a lot of us play more alone these days. That's a large reason why when the 360 released, it was such a hit. Suddenly as we were getting older and not hanging out with friends as much, there was a way to easily get online and find people to play with and we developed online friendships and relationships. I actually met my wife playing Perfect Dark and I've read threads of others who met their spouses on Live. Pretty much my friends list all came from Perfect Dark, Gears and Halo 3 [b]because they all had really good matchmaking that encouraged communication and being social[/b]. Sure there were annoying bastards here and there, but overall it was a great experience. After Halo 3, I got to where with work, etc I didn't really have time to play much anymore. I even went without gold for a few years at one point. Then you teased Destiny. When it released I had a year subscription card to gold, I went and bought a new headset (hadn't used one in probably 4 years). Only thing was, the few friends who still played were all on XBone. No problem though. A few days of Destiny and everyone will have a ton of new friends, right? Here's a post I made of that day in another thread: [quote]Day one. Got out headset and put it on for the first time since Halo 3. Launched destiny, played the first mission and went to the Tower. Silence. Went to the Cosmodrome and saw other Guardians running around. In silence. Went into the Crucible and played a couple matches. Wtf? More silence even in PvP? In a Bungie game ?? Took off headset for the next 6 months.[/quote] I get that there are sites like destinyLFG and it's great the community have filled that gap for you, but it's a bandaid and an extra step that shouldn't need to exist. By not including matchmaking because you think only pre-made fireteams capable of clearing content, you're stating that you think most of your community are useless assholes. It's actually sad the contempt you come across with to the average gamer these days. Destiny should be a social game, everything in it should build online relationships and encourage people to learn to work together. Instead it's a sterile, utilitarian and unbelievably antisocial world. I know you increased chat functionality in one of the patches, the problem is that 1) it's an opt in/out function and 2) you already conditioned people to playing without chat. I actually got into a match with a communicating team one day that invited me to a fireteam, from there I sent a couple friend requests and have since run my first raids and experienced that content [i]because another part of your game has matchmaking[/i]. That's why it makes it so mind boggling that, if we're willing to take the chance of playing with randoms, that option isn't available to us. We don't need your kid gloves. We don't need to be protected from ourselves. If you feel so strongly that we might run across nasty, stupid or just bad people, why not build in a system to quickly mute and easily vote out of games? Halo 3 had that. How can you not have refined and improved that all these years later? It's time to make Destiny a living breathing world and like any other, there will be good and there will be bad, there will be successes and failures and we'll learn to work together or we'll learn to accept defeat. Through it all, we'll inevitably be better for what we bring to others and they bring to us. If you give us that chance.