Scarcity =/= quality gameplay experience. I'd argue against scarcity, as it incentivizes developers to use manipulative, time draining algorithms for weapon drops. Every hour you play is increasing the IP's stock value. Scarcity incentivizes this. Additionally, if scarcity=time investment, then logically, those with the most time invested will be the best off. This means that content creators and sweats who no-life the game (former no lifer here, yes I'm shaming them, but also, I get it), are the best positioned for success and competitive performance. This becomes an issue for developers, as these players run out of activities to do and challenges within the game. What inevitably happens is massive power-creep to loot and activities alike. Destiny 2 has been plagued by this across it's entire existence. Think about Shattered Throne. Now think about Vesper's Host. Both Dungeons. Released years and metas apart. The difficulty creep has been tremendous. In turn, this generally does two things- #1. It drives players to content creators for advice/sherpas, who serve as "free" marketing agents and guides for Bungie. #2. It maligns casuals, who don't have infinite time to invest and just want to have fun. The first is moderately healthy, as every content creator who does guides and information on the game is one less staff Bungie has to pay. Not a bad trade. But the issue arises when casuals have NO competitive performance in the game because it has powercrept due to the input of content creators. There are many who feel this way (doesn't make it factual), but it paints a negative sentiment around the franchise and Bungie alike. The second is a net negative for the franchise's success. We should ALL want as many players as possible engaging Destiny 2. A large community is a sign of success and profit, something that must happen for further development and prolonged existence. Casuals need to feel as though they have a place in the game, and that not every activity they queue is a 24/7 sweatfest. Now here's where I'll get pushback- The game has literally never been better. EVERY activity is accessible, with varying degrees of difficulty. The main issues in terms of powercreep lie in newer Raids and Dungeons. That's it. And those are the endgame anyways, so.......what's the big deal? Learn the game. Build/find a community. Improve your gameplay. Clear activities. That's the whole point! The game isn't designed for solo play. There's a single activity section for it, and that's all. You could argue for Lost Sectors as well, giving us 2 areas to solo queue. Otherwise, community building is the key to success. I would've never gotten to where I have if it wasn't for some really awesome friends! Not just for carrying and teaching me, but also encouraging and incentivizing me to become a better player. Constructive criticism. Positive reinforcement. Honest feedback. All necessary for success in Destiny. And most players aren't going to receive those talking points without healthy relationships proceeding them. I realize this seemingly diverged from scarcity =/= quality gameplay experience, but it's really important to understand WHY the scarcity mentality needed to disappear from D2. The loot is the spine to the experience. You need it. You want it. You still farm for it. But the RNG isn't so punishing that casuals are maligned to the point they feel they need to blame CCers, Bungie and sweats, and then walk away. The game has struck that balance in it's current state. NOW the incentive to queue is to have fun and enjoy the experience. Push out new builds for testing. Clear with competitive times.

right now it is a skeleton crew just restoring more content so the game gets more metrics from new players, and maybe some balance patches if we're lucky 'new' content isn't even on the table right now sony is currently using the live service team on other franchises sony got utterly screwed over the purchase price of this pump and dump from parsons, so they just want as much profit coming in as possible and they can't count on marathon for anything

Scarcity is NOT the answer, neither is gobs of useless drops. Gear has to have some intrinsic value no mater the perks or stats. There has been such an expansion of perks, and mainly useless perks that some weapons have more than a 100 possible useless perk combinations. It could get 10000 drops of the same weapon and maybe end up with one drop best roll and a couple OK rolls. It is pointless to chase that metric based on gobs of mostly pointless drops so you end up in the scarcity situation anyways. Frankly the game needs to be FUN, Engaging and rewarding. If all you get for weeks on end is pointless gear, that ends up being cashed out, what is fun about that? If bungie does not fix the broken system, no mater how much they bring back it will not be enough to keep players. Players left, most are not coming back because they did not leave over the DCV. They left because the game got unfun, too much grind for too little reward, no engagement. Add that to the learned helplessness bungie fostered by making the game so difficult, you are where we are at. If bungie wants to hit a home run, fun, engaging gameplay focused on the average player, not the end game raider skill set. The hard stuff needs to be here, but so does the fun stuff for the majority of players.

D1 scarcity isn’t welcomed and you’re viewing it through rose tinted glasses. A lot D1 gear wasn’t scarce. In D1 “scarcity” meant waiting for the appropriate vendor to sell the gear, then everyone would have it.

I agree. There’s been way too much content churn. It’s no surprise that quality dipped as a result. I hope we go back to something more like D1. All signs point to them having to dial back the amount of content they produce. I hope there’ll be more focus on quality and replayability.