Someone asked me what was fun before edge of fate and the portal. To me a person with multiple accounts and over 10k hours there was a lot that was fun. It is different for everyone but for me it was the ability to log on and go anywhere and do anything and get viable rewards. I work a stressful job and when i come home I want to relax and enjoy playing destiny not grinding and small amount of content that is always harder no mater how strong I get. Stuff i have to -blam!- multiple negative modifiers and deal with timers on everything and focusing on getting a good enough score to get good loot. I had fun playing gambit and multiple different pvp modes like mayhem. Playing seasonal content with new story gear and weapons was fun even if it wasn't always the best stuff it was new nd fresh and by the time it got boring it was time for the next season. Sometimes you just want to get on and run some strikes with random guardians without worrying if the modifiers are going to be tortured much to finish because it's ultimate difficulty and punishment is the new end game. Lots of stuff was fun back then because we weren't forced into this little box of punishment they call the portal, where instead of playing hown i really want to play and feel like a god killer im suppose to be im playing pick your punishment, im waiting for pinhead to pop in at any min like im in a hell raiser movie. Don't get me wrong the portal could be okay if we dont have to always run at a negative and always run negative modifiers with timers for everything.
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Edited by longevity: 10/5/2025 6:15:34 PMcomplete freedom to play with whatever builds and loadouts that made you happiest and most comfortable frequent big dopamine hits from both loot and the power fantasy of getting stronger and destroying everything faster and faster the new systems basically strip away dopamine from almost everything, you feel weaker as you level up and get better gear, and you have virtually no freedom to use anything but current season directed gear otherwise your loot will suck and have even less dopamine - got some favorite gear and weapons? Bungie doesn't care at all. They don't seem to care about you whatsoever unless you're a lifer grinding t5. They apparently assume you were gonna quit anyways so who cares. they treat the playerbase like a bunch of mindless drones to be run through their rat maze that was changed to 40x longer and just crumbs until the very end if you ever make it there never seen such a drastic systems change so successful at chasing away the vast majority of the playerbase