The dummies shot themselves in the foot by changing the way Eververse worked from D1 to D2. I was paying cash money for those dances in D1, but once they decided to put everything behind the paywall and people raised a (rightfully) big enough stink over it in D2, they backed themselves into a corner of having to give us better chances to get the good stuff from non-paid engrams. Haven't spent a PENNY in the Eververse this year and have most of the emotes I actually want.
Top shelf work, Bungie.
This is super interesting from a player engagement perspective; you can get all of this stuff for free if you're playing regularly, and by playing regularly you are helping to expand the playerbase of an inherently social game. Either way its good for the health of the game (financial support v engagement support) and probably translates to a net benefit even if you arent spending a couple of bucks on emotes anymore.
The argument for F2P done right has always been cool cosmetic stuff supporting a stream of regular content updates, and while Destiny is moving in the right directions its probably closer to something like Hearthstone right now than it is Overwatch.
I have completed the raid and I call bull on that. It's elitist for the sake of elitist. I'm really tired of going to an exterior LFG site to group up for content, be it the raid, Nightfall or anything else. Enable matchmaking for everything. The people who don't want to use it can simply not use it, I assure you, no random will invade the privacy of your pre-made group.
Its not that anyone disagrees on the "I shouldn't have to go to an LFG site outside of the game" argument. Its pretty much universally accepted that in-game LFG tools - like WoW or XIV have - work and would be a great fit for Destiny. Its just important to stress group
finder and not "hit a button and pray for the best" matchmaking.
Destiny's raids are designed for a group of six players who are all actively participating, communicating, and invested in eachothers success; this includes some measure of similar schedules, commitment, and even group expectations. None of these are assured via a free-for-all vanilla matchmaking mode, and open the doors to an abysmal level of player experience I've seen glimpses of in some of my worst groups and wouldn't wish on anyone.
What happens when someone goes AFK (understandably!) on a 2+ hour raid session?
What happens when your six teammates refuse to communicate?
What do you do if someone in your group understands the mechanics, but can't deliver?
What if players keep leaving as soon as they join your in-progress raid, and you have to start over fresh?
What if you need to leave and start fresh, but get dropped into the same raid?
What if one player only has 20 minutes, another has 40, and
another has all night?
All of these are solved by the player onus created through self-organization, but aren't inherent to matchmaking.
While I'm sure there are some purists who truly do want to gatekeep other people from cool content, I honestly just dont want to see the design ethos of Destiny's raids get watered down because I've seen what happens to content with vanilla matchmaking - in every instance, it gets dumber to aid in player completion because players complain about it. In-game LFG offers up the best case scenario with none of the drawbacks.