What keeps them engaged with Destiny 2 despite its apparent lack of a clear path forward?

There is no alternative. The First Descendant is p2w. Once Human has different structure and resets your progress every season. Warframe is pretty different and similar to First Descendant. Overwatch basically cancelled its pve. Darktide is clunky.

And none of these games have the polish and shooting satisfaction that Destiny has. If people want a pve game, with long term progression that has enjoyable shooting, Destiny is all there is. What keeps them playing? Copium.

Slowly but steadily Destiny will die. And thats when Marathon will come out. But Marathon is very different, so i am not even so sure that most Destiny players will migrate to that.

I am not even playing Destiny. Destiny is the game that i want to love so much but always shits on me, so i gave up. It seems to me that the easiest thing in the world, is to keep Destiny going and address its minor issues. But somehow Bungie doesnt think so.

my friends play it.

I have been playing it for 6 years. The gun play is great. It gets regular updates. I still have fun. I wish the pvp player pool was bigger so that match making would work better.

TL:DR-I like the story and gunplay most of all. The social aspects of the game also keep me coming back to help friends and strangers.

Background: I started with vanilla D1, then picked it back up after Taken King and have been playing ever since.

For me, the game has become more about story than actual gameplay, which I still feel is one of the best around. I’m super excited about the 3rd Episode especially, seeing as the Hive still has Xivu to deal, and whatever is going on with Oryx’s body.

I still play every week. Once I’m done with my story stuff for the week, I like to help my group get their raid clears and other tasks completed. If they’re not on, I sometimes boot up LFG and help blueberries as best I can. I genuinely like to play the game, even if it’s helping others.

When story stuff is slow, I actually do like PVP, although, within the past year or so, I’ve noticed that I’ve either gotten worse or the average (remaining) player ha gotten better. No longer can I pick up any random weapon (another boon that Destiny offers, IMO. The ability to take a weapon in PVE/PVP and use it ANYWHERE, with varying degrees of success. But where was I?) and do “OK” with it. Everyone uses “easier” weapons or loadouts, and as much as that irks me (it’s quick play, FFS), that’s their right. Is that contributing to the barren, desolate landscape that is the Crucible? Possibly. I’m not, and never have been, good enough to “carry” in the Crucible, and that goes double for Trials. I tried helping a clan mate recently get the Adept Draw Time mod since it only drops from the Lighthouse. He plays on PC. That session didn’t go well.

I got a bit rambling there at the end, but I guess to answer your question, the story and gunplay of the Destiny series are the reasons I like the game. One made friends playing this game. Already been to one wedding, with another coming later this year. Wouldn’t have happened if I never decided to try the game.

I dropped it like it was hot when they cut out 1/2 the content I paid for. I might come back if they bring it back.

I play games for the gameplay, don’t really care about story.

I haven’t played Destiny in a while but if I did it would be for the same reason a person keeps buying new sudoku books: I like solving the puzzles that the levels represent.

I think Destiny is cool in that it’s co-op and you can encounter other players and temporarily team up with them.

I really wish we had the computing power to make a game that was basically massively coop Halo: one big war against the Covenant that everyone can fight in on the side of Humanity.

There is no competitor, and no other game offers the same raid experience as d2

Because it’s fun and I have friends I play it with.

The thing with destiny is that there are somewhat diminishing returns in terms of time invested vs in-game advancements.

The min-maxing and endless search for God rolls and the best builds can push you that extra 10% or so over the gen-pop player base who doesn’t spend 20hrs a week on the game.

But gen-pop and casual can still approach end game content without feeling like a total noob.

That said, there is still end game content that is geared towards “power users”… master nightfall, master raids, etc.

Also, as a D1 year 1 player who actually kinda gets what’s going on, story-wise, it’s great. But admittedly comprehending the story is very difficult given where they drop you in if you just started the game.

I will also applaud Bungie for making adjustments over the years. For sure it’s a lot less addictive than it used to be, and less of a grind. Or maybe its as much as a grind as you want it to be. The changes over the years have made the core game more approachable while they still held some high-level end game stuff for the die-hards. They tried to do the same with the story and it kinda works a little.

Also, for me, the raids are really great. Haven’t really experienced that sort of game play, teamwork, puzzle solving, and requirement for perseverance and gaming skill anywhere else. they’re just plain fun, especially if you have a good group to play with.

I didn’t know they even made Destiny 1.

You know what a good game is? Super Mario Bros. It’s a game about a New Jersy plummer who’s out of work. Which is surprising because New Jersy is so full of shit.

So this Mario guy, he starts taking drugs in the 80s…and has since descended into full blown hysteria and mental health issues.

And so you have to commit animal abuse by stomping on turtles, and other various animals. Then you get so high, you feel like you’re jumping through the clouds. But it’s ok, because Mario is the hero of the story…(Maybe).

It’s a good and compelling game.

I still play it for the same reason I play og super Mario.

It brings me enjoyment.

As for the rest of you pompous asshats, no one is forcing you to play it. If you don’t like it don’t fucking play it.

I’ve always enjoyed the identity of the three classes, and the abilities they have, plus gunplay has historically been pretty fun. That said, ever since i’ve started playing, the three things i’ve enjoyed were 1. the raids, 2. the story, and 3. my friends.

Unfortunately, Bungie make it overwhelmingly difficult to have fun in this game, by both making moronic decisions at times, and drip-feeding paying customers content, as if it’s a f2p game on life support. The latter alone has practically made me stop playing recently. You have to pay money to each each season, and all you get is a 30 second cutscene for the weekly story, plus a 10 minute adventure in a zone you’ve already been to a thousand times? Come on

I’ve stopped playing since Microsoft copilot was announced and I fully ditched windows, but I held on until the final raid because of the gun play, nostalgia, and the representation present in both the studio and the game. I grew up with the Marathon games, and the early Halo series. The DNA of those games is still there and I can’t help but love it. I’ve been chasing a single player experience that gets even close to Destiny’s feel for so long. The System Shock remake is getting close, but I would love a PvE only game from Bungie. For a long time (read pre-Sony-buyout) Bungie was also a sort of hold out for various minority representations I try to support. The studio’s media showed an employee base that is diverse and they often did a good job pushing back against players saying any sort of agenda was being pushed just for including diversity in the game. This made them a company I was much more willing to throw money at, compared to say, activision/blizzard. That sentiment as largely faded for me as the studio had been turned into a “for the shareholders” cow Sony can milk.

I would still play it… If they allowed Linux gamers

Because the gunplay is really good. I never had a shred of interest in the story.

I don’t still play because the level and enemy design tanked when they went into expansion treadmill mode, but “a path forward” was never something I cared even a little bit about. “The path forward” is what killed my fun.

Something along the lines of hiring an expert on gambling. There’s a lot of game mechanics in games like Destiny 2 which lock you in through little feedback loops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIuAeFu84kY

It’s a good looking game with decent movement and gunplay, but it fully disrespects your time. RIP if you ended up buying the game in 2017 with the first few expansions because that shit gone now.