Perhaps partly inspired by the way gamers came together against EA and Star Wars Battlefront 2’s predatory microtransactions, Destiny 2 fans have rallied to bring a lot of recognition to a growing issue in Bungie’s game. Players flooded Bungie’s forums with posts about removing Eververse, the in game storefront for microtransactions and loot boxes. As of this writing, there are well over 20 pages full of threads about removing Eververse from Destiny 2.
The latest upset that’s got players riled up (but certainly not the first) is The Dawning, an event which brings exclusive cosmetic items for a three week period of time. Unlike other games like Overwatch that hold seasonal events events and allow you to endlessly grind out for the cosmetic items you want, Destiny 2’s The Dawning has a cap on the number of rewards you can earn during the event. There is no way to continue to grind out the seasonal cosmetics once you’ve reached the cap, forcing players that weren’t lucky enough to get what they wanted to have to pay.
The Dawning also points to a major issue with Destiny 2, where some of the most desired items are trapped behind the loot box system, instead of embedded into the game’s rewards. Instead of incentivizing people to play high-level endgame content and earn desirable items as proof of their accomplishments, the nice items are only proof of getting lucky or forking out money. Destiny 2 has an endgame problem, and it’s because the coveted rewards have been shifted to a monetized pool.
It’s not the first time players have been upset by monetization of Destiny 2’s content and systems. When the game launched, fans were unhappy with the consumable shader system (a system of recoloring guns, armor, and other items), putting many of the best looking shaders inside of loot boxes. The Dawning has complicated the issue by including limited time season shaders that are consumable, never to be seen again once the event goes away. It’s a big change from the first game’s permanently unlockable shaders that had nothing to do with the microtransactions.
All hope is not lost though! A recently discovered unlock in Curse of Osiris was found after a lot of dedication and grinding. Managing to obtain all of the Vex Forge weapons will get you the Exotic Sagira Ghost shell, actual proof of hard work, and something worth grinding for that isn’t available through RNG or paying for loot boxes. If Bungie can shift the rewards to more of these kinds of activities, and at the very least pull back on how much influence Tess Everis and her store have on Destiny 2, they can set themselves on a great forward path for the future.
I doubt that this outcry will receive the same level of attention that Battlefront II did. Bungie doesn’t have the Star Wars name to grab the attention of those outside of gaming, after all. Bungie is out for the holiday until 2018, so it’s unlikely that we’ll hear anything from them in the immediate future regarding Eververse, but hopefully their newfound responsiveness that they’ve been implementing will prompt a quick reply to this massive campaign against what many see as a pure focus on the predatory monetization of Destiny 2’s best content.
