Might as well throw this shit in here too now since I originally wrote it for this thread. Been here almost 8 years, even through the huge site downgrades, and now I got booted off for not paying the new $60 entrance fee. This is probably the most heinous money-grubbing sleaziness I've ever seen a company try to pull on its fans. I guess it's not surprising, really. They tried to kill off the older members by executing Bungie.net and replacing it with this ugly, eye-burning design, and when that didn't work they finally realized the only way to exterminate us fully would be to enact a pay-wall for website usership. Indefensible, really. This may be the farthest a company has gone to alienate people in the gaming industry ever. If I didn't buy Destiny before, I sure as shit am not going to now, since I'd prefer not to give a single penny to the corporate overlords at the top of the pyramid wringing their hands with delight over this new final solution for all those users who still haven't paid up on their new piece of trash product. Underhanded, low, shady. There is no excuse. It is not a means of improving the community, and it was never intended to be. The community is only going to worsen if its older, mature members are barred from participating in it, and no-one could possibly be stupid enough to ever believe that hanging up a "No proven devoted site members allowed" sign on Bungie.net would improve it long enough to put something like this into practice. That's a load of garbage they're trying to feed us to simply cover up the fact that they don't want users who haven't bought one of their games in five years to be getting a free ride on their forums anymore. Plain and simple. But, if you've borrowed Destiny from your friend once and popped it into your machine and fired up an account, you're automatically a more valuable community member than someone who's been here 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7+ years because at least you’re meeting the new boss. What a brilliant system. This is surely a means of improving the community and not simply a passive-aggressive way to try to squeeze a few more people for their pocket change. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to make a character at a friend’s in order to openly criticize this absolute avarice, or if I should just have left the website, since I, along with every other member who joined before last year, am clearly not wanted. In the end I just decided I would out of spite more than anything. Truly a marvel of stupidity. And the attempts to "justify" it and damage control their trainwreck of a decision so far have been even more amazing. What an utter failure of community management. The committee that dreamed up this joke should lose their jobs for this kind of mishandling of online presence for a company. This is like Facebook shutting off access to anyone who hasn't played Farmville. If you wanted to limit the Destiny forum with this sort of stipulation, fine, but ranging it to a site-wide ban for anyone not interested in some garbage game shat out on a plate by a company sucked dry of its vivacity by the corporate wonder of Craptivision is utterly villainous business practices. I would love for the MBA failure who dreamed up this company policy to attempt to explain it in any way that does not make him or her sound like a first year business student stuttering through their proposal for web presence concepts as the professor looks on with a grimace of disappointment at the embarrassment. Because that's what this is, embarrassing. For everyone involved. Everyone who thought it up, everyone who worked to implement it, everyone who wants to try to defend it. What a failure. [quote][b]DeeJ[/b] It is our hope that you’ll enjoy a long stay in our online home.[/quote] But not for too long, of course. Some of you have already overstayed your welcome. [quote][b]DeeJ[/b] Throw down some roots.[/quote] But make sure not to let them sink too deep, because around here we’ve got a long saw and a hankering to cut down the tallest trees. [quote][b]DeeJ[/b] Make some friends.[/quote] But don’t get too close. They may not be around for long. [quote][b]DeeJ[/b] Be excellent to each other.[/quote] Because Bungie is not going to be excellent to you. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a gaming company so openly antagonistic to its audience. It’s a marvel, it truly is. Oh and also, #WeAreThe1%