that's the problem. it wasn't "the way of the gaming industry" until the last generation once publishers realized this was a great way to keep mining the wallets of gamers - publishers are greedy, it's a product to them, not an experience for the users - and gamers are partially to blame, as too many are now indoctrinated into thinking this practice is cool, because it happens so often that we just have to accept a clearly greed-driven practice. i don't mind substantial paid DLC content created post-launch to add to the content we already paid $70 for on the initial retail disc, (like Bioshock's "Buried at Sea", Mass Effect's "Omega", Oblivion's "Shivering Isles", etc. ) however taking huge chunks of the core on-disc game away from the paying customer via locks requiring you to pay another $30 post-release for content you should rightfully own on the very same damn disc is absolute bullshit. too many gamers are all "it's just how it is, just deal with it, and shut up" - and that's the problem right there. too many people are cool with being grifted, and now it's become an industry standard to shit on customers day-in, day-out. a timer set to unlock when certain dates arise is fine if it's a community-based title with special events and such on certain dates, but if it was on the disc we all paid good money for, solely for the purpose of selling it to us as paid DLC post-launch - that is just wrong, and the industry damn well knows it.

Regardless of how wrong it may be viewed, it is the same with everything through life. You buy a car you ge the car, but have to pay extra for warrenty or extras, buy a burger from a fast food place you have to pay more to make it a meal, then more on that to get the larger size. Its business. If there is a way for money to be made it will happen. I don't see how people can attack one individual thing saying they were cheated or anything of the sort then all of life is that way. I don't see the price being all that bad considering how much they are putting in the expansions, where most DLC on games are 10-20 bucks and are just a few maps. This expands on every portion and not just new maps alone.

yeah, but all that stuff is extra - added to the main thing you bought. publishers holding back content on a disc you bought at full price - $70 - that's not extra - that's hiding half of what you paid for already behind another paywall. i have no issue with real DLC, downloaded after the intitial purchase (as noted above with a few examples), though i do have an issue with locking content on a product you already paid good money for, ony to be gouged again before you can access everything on that disc you faithfully spent money on. and asking for HALF the cost of the original game for 2 expansions that are on the disc i already paid for is disgusting, to be honest. $45 - that's what they're asking on the Aussie marketplace. i love Destiny, i want it to succeed, but they've really gotta quit treating their customers like fools. if it were merely a delivery service/starter pack base for more content to come, it should have been marketed and sold that way, not sold as a complete retail game with expansions to follow that extend the story, not simply fill the holes they intentionally punched into the experience to hold back as "DLC" for extra nickel-and-diming.

There is no way to tell at this point though if it is truly on the disk or if it is simply the information of the locations that are on the disk. The only way to know is to see the size of the DL when the expansions come out. if it is 108kb or something of the sort as a great many games as of late are, then it is on the disk and is simply the unlock code to access that information on the disk. However if is is 300MB or something then it is simply info on the disk giving the location, and not the actual content already being there.

i agree, it appears to be, Bungie now says it isn't, but i never meant my reaction/feelings on on-disc content to be solely squared at Bungie, i consider the phenomenon across the board, as it's becoming a regular thing now. i agree with all you wrote there, as i too hope it's still new content, and substantial content for the asking price. i love Destiny, i love a couple of past Halo games, and i do want this title to succeed, i just hope they stick to their guns, fix the massive mistakes that plague the game alongside all the great stuff the game currently does, don't grift their fanbase by offering the same stuff but in a different part of the same maps as i'd feared, and show the true potential of the game, rather than the fun and beautifully realized, yet somewhat empty, repetitious game world we currently have. it's wierd, it's a beautiful game, but the cut content is painfully obvious, especially in terms of the holes in the story, that's not how to do expansions, it comes off as a mess, yet i still want it to take off and become something amazing. it really does feel as though they pushed it out to beat the october flood of AAA titles, and the initial base game suffered as a result. i wonder if this would have been the same release on the disc had they waited until post-xmas to launch with a few more months to really nail the complete core package and fine tune the story aspects as well...

I think it was mostly Activision that pushed it to release as it is. I am sure that they have plenty more contend, such as the coming expansions, that could have been in the final release. I am sure that for the most part the extra missions and such we will see in the expansions were already for the most part done, but they were not set completely to launch upon release, thus the expansions so close to launch. Most of the time expansions take 6+ months to be seen, where this game already has 2 planned, one of which is only 3 months from release. Knowing Bungie, they would have held off longer if they were allowed, but they had a deadline and had to go with what they knew was solid and working. I don't mind paying more though, as I feel the game has amazing roots and can soar above almost anything if done right. I will get the first 2 expansions via the pass no doubt, and if I see things progress from them, I will certainly continue buying them until the time comes that there are none left. I think the gameplay is amazing despite the few flaws I see. And those flaws are constantly being addressed and worked on as much as possible from all I have seen thus far. Sure some thing might take longer than we would want, but the speed at which they address the issues and are speaking of making changes, it is a great deal of effort being shown. I will continue to hold faith in the future of the game until shown that there is no future remaining. I refuse to look at the bad so early in to the games life. It's like judging fries from a fast food location before you even get them. They could look stale and undercooked, but you can't know until you taste them. It could very well end up being the best you have ever experienced.

i agree there, you can tell that this is Bungie's new baby, and the way the DLC is planned, the lead writer leaving, the Grimoire writer coming in at the last moment to write the story on the cards (i assume because they weren't allowed to delay to complete a proper story, what with entire characters and locations being scrapped or repurposed) all screams of a publisher swinging their shit around and telling the dev team to deal with it and roll it out as it is. i mean, the art's beautiful, the framework is wonderful, the gameplay and (for me) the online aspect in terms of server connectivity has been almost flawless, it's just the gutted content, the mutilated story, and the littany of small things that can be patched in over time that's holding it back. at the moment if i were to review Destiny i could only give it a 7 out of 10, in harsh terms, but i know it can reach a 9 or 10 if they're allowed to fully realize their vision.

I would have to give it a 9/10 overall as I can continue to play this game without getting bored or anything. Sure there isn't much there for story right now, but games don't always need to have a story to be great, and I am sure the story will come together more as time goes on. I think the story was at one point meant to be different for each character, and the reason I say this is the part where they speak of meeting the awoken, and if you are an awoken it really makes no sense. They talk as though they have never known of them or something.

yeah i heard rumour that there were three initially, before the big rewrite last year, and now we all apparently have the Exo storyline... time will tell i guess. :)