[b]The Sources of Power Creep[/b] I can actually see both sides of the coin here. As new expansions or updates are released, new game mechanics, units, equipment and/or effects are introduced, usually stronger than previously existing content. Game developers use this to push the new content, as it gives an incentive to buy it for competitions against other players or as new challenges for the single player experience. As new content with more power is introduced, the average power-level within the game rises, making it increasingly difficult for older content to remain in balance without changes. This means older content becomes regressively outdated or relatively underpowered, effectively rendering it useless from a competitive or challenge-seeking viewpoint. In extreme cases whole parts of the game will be avoided by the players, as they are overshadowed by newer content. So the question becomes. How will Destiny prevent large portions of the game from becoming outdated or irrelevant due to the power creep that is occurring in the taken king? But to combat Power Creep we must understand its nature. [b]The Origins of Power Creep[/b] Some power creep is inevitable because expansions are meant to be played with the previously released content. In many games, especially video game RPGs, the content of expansions generally raises the level cap and introduces more powerful items to the game. The majority of the expansion is "tall," where your character and items become more powerful. There are also some new things, like extra abilities, new trees, or new areas to explore, but they is there to house the new more powerful items. The upside is that it is easy to direct your players on why they should experience the new content (MORE POWER!), the downside is that many of the items they may have spent days or weeks attempting to get are quickly outmoded by the more powerful equipment. On the other hand, some games tend to expand its content "wide." That is, the focus is on giving you new and different things to do that are of around the same power level of the previous content. Looking at a format like the house of wolves, you can see items from just every expansion seeing play. That load-out you liked a year ago? There is a reasonable chance that some or most of it is still playable competitively, even if it isn't top tier. Some items have, of course, held up against the test of time much better than others (fatebringer) and therein lies the problem with the second type of power creep. Some items game mechanics, units, equipment and/or effects are going to be strictly better than others. Thus regardless of the diverse options, gameplay becomes stale. The strongest set thus far has been the originally released game. You have G-horn, Vex, Ice Breaker, Suros and Fatebringer, just to name a few. In that sense, you could question just how much power creep could exist in the game. It wouldn't be fair to hold the first set ever up to today's rigorous standards in terms of balancing. Considering that before it there was nothing, I'd say the overall power level of the original set was pretty good, albeit a bit over powered. [b]Handling Power Creep[/b] If power creep to some extent is inevitable within Destiny as a whole, the question is not how to stop it totally, but how to best manage it to keep the game going strong, ad infinitum. By far, the most important thing that can be done is the creation of a Standard format. Any further attempt to keep up with the sheer power in regards to those all-powerful items would led us to a game totally unlike what we have today, if it still even existed. Trying to constantly push items in different directions only works if you are creating items of similar power levels to those you have made the year before. It doesn't matter how interesting the newest items are if it can't compete with DPS of a G-horn or the infinite ammo of an Icebreaker. Something had to be done for the overall health of the game. It appears that the concept of a rotating format has been introduced that only uses the most recent items and let rerelease "fixed" versions of many original items that had more appropriate power levels; trying to correct past mistakes. Of course, many of those fixed version are still at a higher power level than they may actually generate items today, but it was a step in the right direction. Creating a balanced Destiny is actually a pretty difficult job, and will likely take a few years for design and development to really hit their stride. Thank you reading my babble. Please comment below if you would like to continue the conversation. -Battlecry