Kind of a tough (and long) post for me: Yes, I dropped out of the upcoming Contest Day 1 Raid Race last minute. I've apologized to my team; I feel terrible. I truly do. But it's just better that I'm actually not there, instead of forcing myself to be there. Trust me. We are adults. We will handle it. This is my first ever Contest/WF Raid Race that I'm not interested in. It's crazy to say that. WF Races were pretty much the only thing left in the game that truly excited me, and got me on to play D2 again. This isn't just an issue with not swap or something like that. This decision has many layers. First off, my total lack of fucking interest in the game, as a whole. When I think about getting on to practice or competing in the raid, I just feel empty inside. So many other games excite the shit out of me, but D2 just brings my vibe down. The game feels bland af to play, and often feels like even more of a chore now. I didn't wanna bring that energy to my team. They deserve better. Raid races are 6 man events. I didn't wanna be negative, make mistakes cause I didn't care, not be prepared with gear/practice, and carry all that to the other 5 guys. For the normal DP raid, I was all there. I threw in my all. We did well. I was excited. Vibes were good. The power grind is.... boringgggg. The activites and portal system needs mad work still, and the loot system isn't interesting enough to engage someone like me, who wants an interesting grind and chase. I just cannot sit there and chase T5 loot with the current system or increase my level above 500, especially after playing something like Borderlands, where the most interesting loot is thrown at you regularly lol. Much of the interesting loot now is just handed via some quest or bounty. The "certainty" factor is a turn off. There also seems to be no backbone or confident direction with the game. It seems like every week, new changes are being introduced either via the TWID or in-game, but everyting comes with a - "let's see how this goes" or everything comes with a question mark. Every new change seems so confusing, not asked for, and strange. This goes beyond in-game stuff, and reaches out to decision made by the actual company. Back to in-game changes: I also keep seeing things reverted. Ex: WF Raid Race date changes, not swap, armor bonuses being reverted, etc. As for a raid race being held for this "Epic" version: I've made my point very clear here. I think it's dumb. Maybe that's unpopular, maybe not. We just had a race, I never liked the idea of having another race for a raid we just raced for. New raid races >>>. It just always takes away from the prestige of raid races and belts imo. And no meme at all: If we are giving out belts for "hardmode" or "epic" versions of raids now, then where is my Prestige Leviathan raid belt? Call me a whiny bitch, but am I actually wrong? No. I have a solid point. I feel betrayed lol. (Wow Gladd, you elitist cry baby waaaaaa) I feel like I HAVE to address not swap. It's just something... no one asked for? Contest raids are made for high level players. High level players min-max. They optimize. Loadouts are in the game. Changing things within an encounter is all of that. Why create an activity for a player type, then insert something into that activity that those players didn't ask for. It feels like a bandaid fix to power creep. Just put on locked loadouts at this point. Locked loadouts also sucks. There has to be a better solution over time here. Destiny 2 will always be Destiny 2 at this point. The game isn't gonna change. They ARE NOT listening a lot of the time. The devs feel so out of touch. D2 has been a series of unfulfilled promises for 5 or more years now, and a habit of "we are listening" but usually not listening. Back in 2019, the devs (at the studio), asked me if I thought it'd be more interesting to build upon D2 long term, or relaunch a new game and call it Destiny 3 in the future. I 100% said D3 was the play. Many of us knew it. It's still the truth. Destiny started spiraling downward when the seasonal model became stale many, many years ago. Nothing serious has changed, despite multiple promises to do so. Sure, there have been good changes to certain systems with "seasons" or "episodes," but overall, it still dragsssss. They got lazy. And often times, it seems like they don't care and offer things no one asked for. The game is not gonna fix itself. One group of mother fuckers expect that every new content drop or update or news or TWID will be the "saving grace." They get expectations so high, then are constantly disappointed and start bitching about how promises aren't fulfilled. Ya don't say?!? Year after year. Then you have another group of asshats who just glaze the cum from the D2 machine. The weekly reset happens on time, and it's "Oh snapppp! We are back! Bright days ahead!" Fucking stfu. Glaze deez, bro. The. Only. Thing. That. Will. Save. This. Franchise. Is. A. Brand. New. Game. That's final. Fresh start. I'm a broken record at this point. And the fact that D3 COULD have been, but wasn't and won't be... is fucking insane. Biggest throw. Of. All. Time. And all of this is so scary to me, cause I feel like the franchise fatigue is hitting me harder than ever. For 1.5 years, I full time streamed nothing but Destiny. Before I streamed, I uploaded YT videos of challenges. After those 1.5 years, I went full variety, but still logged on to do challenges and for new content. Then the seasonal model hit and killed my hope for the game and killed my confidence in the company. So then I only logged on for WF Raid Races and a few other high end things. And now I don't even wanna play the next Contest Raid cause everything feels so shit. I can still play at a level above normal. I can still compete. I bring it when I need to. I just.... don't want to. No interest. I dunno man. It is what it is. I guess we'll see where things go from here. HOLY FUCKING ESSAY. Cheers to anyone (my dick is small) who actually read every word. Cheers, Gladd