I guess we'll see. I don't know what Disciple's frustrations are, but there is plenty frustrating about it. People aren't evenly leveled or skilled (guilty!). People aren't committed to staying blind. People aren't willing to make it a priority or simply don't have the bandwidth or schedule flexibility to devote the time to it. Getting people to commit to meaningful blocks of time is a significant headache (Words that drive organizers crazy at the beginning of a blind raid session: "I've only got an hour, guys.") People don't like "beating their head against the wall."

100% all of the above, and also very much...

I don't mind some frustration inside a raid, but I'm not as interested in beating my head against the wall to organize it.

...this. So many messages sent along the lines of, "Hey, still trying to figure out our raid schedule. Let me know when you'll be free for follow-up attempts." When what I meant was, "This is the fourth message asking for the same information. We've got a forum thread, an FTB event, an XBL group message, and you've got my email and phone number, but I'll set up Discord or Slack group if somehow none of those work for you. I JUST NEED YOU TO GIVE ME YOUR F***ING AVAILABILITY SO THE FIVE OTHER ADULTS IN THIS TEAM CAN PLAN TO DO SOMETHING BESIDES 'WAIT TO SEE IF xx-GaMeRtAg-Xx WILL SHOW' UP WHEN THE REST OF US ARE FREE!!!"

PREACH!

I totally understand that not everyone has a set schedule, and those that don't, don't always get much advanced notice about their schedule, but if you don't know your schedule when we're trying to coordinate, just say you don't know and give the team an idea of when you might find out. Don't just refuse to respond for a few days because you don't have the info yet.

This isn't my biggest problem, but it's up there. I get that it's just a video game, but when you're raiding, you're sharing that game with five other adults who have real lives just like yours. When you jerk people around when they're trying to coordinate, or worse, you cancel last-minute or just fail to show up, you're stealing free time from people who may have very little to spare, but were willing to spend it to play with you.

My preferred model: Level up on Tues-Thurs, devote significant chunks of time to raid Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, maybe Monday night (but it can be a good night for a break). If level is the issue, spend a few nights the following week leveling, then dive back in with big chunks of time over the next weekend. If I could find five people who could do that, I think we'd have the raid beaten or all but beaten before the third reset, but there's been major schedule obstacles preventing that the last few times.

This is the way I'd rather do it as well, but my poorly timed "vacation" totally hosed that idea for this raid.

I'll miss not doing it. Hope it happens in some form.

I'm hoping that completely not worrying about spoilers this time will soothe some of my blind raid burnout so that next time, I'll be excited about blind raiding again. I'm also hoping that the timing will work out better where I can dedicate the following weekend and Monday evening to finishing the raid.

-Disciple

I made my post before I saw your event. I hope to play, and we'll see what happens.

Just to be clear, Kermit, I also have no problems beating my head against a wall, if we're just trying to figure something out. My problem is the constant requirement to get more powerful for every new encounter.

How long did we fight that ogre in Last Wish, only to knock it out within the first try or two when we came back and everyone had gained 10 power levels?

That's what I'm talking about. The need to drag raids out over weeks with multiple interruptions to power up is the problem. The banging my head against the wall is really in reference to fighting a battle that would be very, very difficult to win due to a power detriment. It just feels pointless, and, unlike whoever it was around here that likes being underpowered--I don't. I think it sucks. It's the least fun thing to do in Destiny, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll be really honest right now, as I've been thinking about this for a lot of the day. It's honestly questionable that I'll be at 700 by the time the new season rolls around. I can just touch 680 right now. It wouldn't really take that much to get there. I intended to get some Powerful Engrams tonight. But . . . well, the last thing I want to do right now is fire up Destiny and run a Nightfall or do three strikes, or do a Flashpoint.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, maybe I'll jump on tomorrow and the rest of the week and knock everything out and have a blast.

Or maybe I won't, I don't know.

That's where I'm at right now--I can't even fully commit to getting ready for the raid, much less sticking it out for multiple weeks through a blind run.

It sucks--I really want to. But the though of grinding out another 20 power levels over the next few weeks is honestly just exhausting to thinking about. At this exact moment, it doesn't sound like any fun at all. And I told myself a long time ago that if playing Destiny wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it.

I don't mean to be a downer, I've just been thinking about this all day, and I wanted to share my feelings. I've made almost this exact post a few times recently--I'll refrain from doing it again and dragging this place down. I'm just a little sad that I don't want to engage with any of this stuff anymore. I desperately hope Bungie figures something out to make it possible to just pick up and play this game after a hiatus, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen at this point.

I desperately want to blind raid.

I just don’t have the time for it this time around. I have a vacation on June 20th, and I need to get the Jeep up to snuff before I put 1500 miles on it and take it rock crawling in Moab.

Also, I just don’t like dedicating weeks to raiding like we did with Last Wish. The current raid design where you have to break after every encounter to go power up some more absolutely sucks, and I just don’t want to do it. Reading your paragraph there about taking a break to power up made me want to throw my Xbox out a fucking window.

That’s really my issue. I love blind raiding, but the days of being able to knock it out in a full weekend or evenings in a week are gone. And for as much fun as I’ve always had blind raiding, it is just no longer worth committing to being available to raid for three weeks or a month straight. I loved doing The Last Wish with you all, but I honestly wanted to quit after a week. I have other shit I want to spend my evenings doing after about a week.

So, with that—I am totally down to spend the week leveling up and give it a good shot on Friday and Saturday evening with a full day on Sunday. I’m also down to jump in immediately and do evenings for the week. My stipulation is that I’m done after Sunday (if we’re close I would do Monday night before reset, I guess). I understand that not having a full commitment for as long as necessary isn’t ideal, and if you have a full team willing to make that commitment, absolutely take it. If you don’t, I’d love to give it a shot, but that’s what it is—giving it a shot for a week.

I'm not going to try to plan it this time. I'm going to join with Disciple.

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