D2: 'You had to be there'

Bungie: Destiny 2, Corridors of Time

Paul Tassi of Forbes has concerns.

On the heels of Bungie's announcement that the Corridors of Time maze puzzle is disappearing early (instead of at the end of Season 9), Tassi wonders if the justification for removal strategy is really working.

According to Tassi, "Players are feeling pressure on multiple levels during these seasons. Pressure to grind out god rolls before the activity to farm them goes away. Pressure to complete 100 ranks of a season pass before it disappears. Pressure to be around in the game for say, an exact two-week window where it's the only time you can experience something unique in the game.

All of this plays into the 'you had to be there' idea, which is used to justify the removal of content or temporary, momentary additions to the game. But in practice, I don't think it's working.

One of the core problems is that Destiny has always had 'you had to be there' moments without the need to remove content after the fact. There are too many to list in full, but you had to be there the first time you stepped into the Vault of Glass. You had to be there when the Black Spindle heroic story secret was discovered. You had to be there when Math Class was using experimental calculus to unlock Outbreak Prime. You had to be there when the Whisper secret mission was found. And sometimes, the 'you had to be there' moments are just accidents, like the loot cave, laser tag crucible weekend or bugged Wish-Ender month."

Tassi doesn't believe the justification for content removal makes sense. You had to be there moments have always been a part of Destiny, and removing content doesn't improve that concept.

Tassi continues, "A quote has stuck with me I read once, that if players see too much to do in too limited of a time, it's not that they might not finish all the content, it's that they might not even bother starting it. I'm seeing that start to happen frequently in the seasonal model, and I'm concerned it may only accelerate if this philosophy continues."

Read Tassi's article on Forbes

Austin Wood of GamesRadar has similar concerns. Read his article, The new Destiny 2 seasonal model is removing the reasons I play the game.

Nicholas Wilder of Gamerant raises same issues. Read his article, Destiny 2 has a FOMO problem in Year 3.