There's quite a few good articles written over the years about how gaming has evolved to mirror the psychology behind casino games.

For me, it was a great disappointment that Bungie chose to not just go down that path, but become practically the new gold standard in repetitive RNG content.

It appears that they're attempting to actually build a game on top of all that now, but for me it feels to be too little too late.

So nyeh.

The problem with quitting a game with social cooperative play at its core is that not everybody quits at the same time. You need people who started before you or advanced faster than you to still be playing when you want to play; those who start after you and advance more slowly than you need you around later to play with them.

From the developer's viewpoint, the episodic nature of the content pipeline doesn't work if it can't keep a high enough percentage of active players interested enough to come back for the next round of DLC. I'd guess that the earlier you finish and quit, the less likely you are to sign back on when new content drops.

Two things. First of all, it's not really the job of the developer to worry about me finding people to play with. That burden is on me. Secondly, you are right about the episodic content. The solution is to not have episodic content. Episodic content only works in very specific situations in my opinion.

... Isn't RNG kind of the point though? If the loot system didn't toss in a lot of stuff that you didn't want, you'd end up getting all the things you want too quickly and would lose your motivation to keep logging in and playing, and the longer you play the more invested you are and the less likely you are to quit.

It's not a cancerous feature from Bungie's perspective, it's a core element of how to keep you playing.

But here's the thing: What exactly is wrong with quitting once you've mastered the game? That's not a failing of the game…

The problem with quitting a game with social cooperative play at its core is that not everybody quits at the same time. You need people who started before you or advanced faster than you to still be playing when you want to play; those who start after you and advance more slowly than you need you around later to play with them.

From the developer's viewpoint, the episodic nature of the content pipeline doesn't work if it can't keep a high enough percentage of active players interested enough to come back for the next round of DLC. I'd guess that the earlier you finish and quit, the less likely you are to sign back on when new content drops.

This is a 100% true story.

I joined an LFG group during the day, and it was for Crota. The description said "Going for Hawkmoon". The guy who started it, and one other all wanted Hawkmoon in addition to me. Guess who got one? Both of them. One dropped form Deathsinger, one from Crota. Guess who didn't?

It's almost as if Bungie removed Hawkmoon from the loot table just for my guardians.

Well, at least that wouldn't be random, right?

... Isn't RNG kind of the point though? If the loot system didn't toss in a lot of stuff that you didn't want, you'd end up getting all the things you want too quickly and would lose your motivation to keep logging in and playing, and the longer you play the more invested you are and the less likely you are to quit.

It's not a cancerous feature from Bungie's perspective, it's a core element of how to keep you playing.

But here's the thing: What exactly is wrong with quitting once you've mastered the game? That's not a failing of the game…

... Isn't RNG kind of the point though? If the loot system didn't toss in a lot of stuff that you didn't want, you'd end up getting all the things you want too quickly and would lose your motivation to keep logging in and playing, and the longer you play the more invested you are and the less likely you are to quit.

It's not a cancerous feature from Bungie's perspective, it's a core element of how to keep you playing.

That's not that far off from saying that the slot machines are a core element to casinos... which they are, just not in a particularly wholesome way ;)

It's not a cancerous feature from Bungie's perspective, it's a core element of how to keep you playing.

Seriously Bungie, fix this mess. Purge your game of this cancerous "feature".

Also, Exclusive content.

I joined an LFG group during the day, and it was for Crota. The description said "Going for Hawkmoon". The guy who started it, and one other all wanted Hawkmoon in addition to me. Guess who got one? Both of them. One dropped form Deathsinger, one from Crota. Guess who didn't?

It's almost as if Bungie removed Hawkmoon from the loot table just for my guardians.

Seriously Bungie, fix this mess. Purge your game of this cancerous "feature".