Yesterday I got a text from a friend about Destiny 2 ending. No more expansions. No new game on the horizon. One final update and then it joins it's younger sibling on server life support for the foreseeable future. It made me feel weirdly sad.
I played Destiny for the first time in 2014. I was a Sophomore in High School and I was using a character slot on my brother's account because he was the one that actually bought the game. I would go on to play Destiny more or less continuously for the next 12 years (after buying my own copy of the first game). It's still the only mmo I ever got really into. So much of my life is weirdly tied back to this game. Looking back at high school and college, if I wasn't studying or going out I was playing Destiny 2.
I remember the launch of Destiny 2, the mess that followed with curse of Osiris and the lukewarm follow up in Warmind. I remember the laser tag glitch, running endless Escolation Protocol waves to finally get that trench barrel shotgun (the only one in the game at the time). The shadow drop of the whisper of the worm mission and the 24 insane hours as I grouped with strangers to learn our way through what I still think is the coolest mission in the entire game. I remember how insanely annoying I was to anyone who would listen to me about Forsaken, the story and the gigantic updates that literally saved the game at the time.
I remember getting a friend group together to run raids every Wednesday night. Deep Stone Crypt, Vault of Glass, Vow of the Disciple. I remember learning every raid in the game inside and out to the point that I started teaching random people how to do it because I loved raiding that much. It's so corny and maybe embarrassing but I will never forget finally clearing Atraks-1 with my friends and getting to hear the Deep Stone Lullaby for the first time.
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| a snippet of my raid report :) |
I remember when shattered throne released, and learning to solo it. I remember running Grasp of Avarice so much I could solo it with my eyes closed. I remember the countless people I helped get Gjallarhorn and the catalyst. I have 57 clears of that stupid dungeon I love it so much.
It's so corny but I remember that feeling of "correctness" that I had never felt before when, at some point in college, I made a new character (because I mained a Hunter and they were really bad in end game content so I needed a Warlock to get the Conqueror title.. you get it ik), and on a whim made it a woman instead of a man. Weird how that happens.
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| picture taken ~2 days before I started wondering about my gender |
I haven't played Destiny in a long time though. I quit soon after Lightfall and came back for a while for Final Shape. I did the raid, saw the ending, tried the "Episodes" that came after. But I was done. The creep of the paid shop, expensive but lackluster expansions, seasonal grind, and separating the dungeons from the rest of the paid content had made me more than a little bitter about the game and that feeling deepened over the years that I played. For the first time in my life I didn't see any news about a new Destiny expansion until after it had come out.
I heard about the game reaching end of life from a friend. It feels a little bittersweet. I don't play, and I don't have a way to play anymore, but I've been reminiscing about my time on the game this past day or two. The friends I made and the fun nights I had for many many years. It wasn't always the best, in fact a lot of the time the game was kind of bad, but I liked it and I'm a little sad that it's actually over.
Anyways, that's it. I hope you are having a good weekend and a lovely memorial day off. Coming Soon: a website reorganization!! (stay tuned!)
