In Destiny 2, content recycling is the coolest thing about the game—even if you hate it

With Destiny 2, I saw how a game that was rich in story content but lacked a solid plot evolved into a sci-fi adventure MMO with a compelling story. But due to my late entry, there was a lot that was simply “lost”. That’s why I think content recycling is the coolest thing in Destiny 2, even if you hate it.

To anticipate this: Destiny 2 is not a single player game. It’s not finished at some point. As a so-called live service game, it is constantly being developed. This means I, as a gamer, am aware that at some point the developer may remove old, unused content that I have paid for.

It should be at least in the back of every gamer’s mind that nothing in a live service game is truly digitally owned and entitled to.

Content is recycled or reworked to revamp the game or make room for new content. One thing that I personally totally agree with, because it doesn’t offer me only disadvantages, as many players always assume. I think too often when they talk about the game they automatically equate “more content” with “better”.

Certainly I don’t want to make excuses for Bungie and the Content Vault here, but let’s face it: the only thing worth having is new, fresh content. Everything else is just outdated.

Back when Io, Mercury, Titan and Mars were swallowed up by the content vault anomaly in Destiny 2, I really didn’t shed a tear for any of the planets. Mars was a bit of an exception, but that’s only because I used the escalation log a lot (perhaps too much) for my quests. So it was just a convenience and looking back I never really missed him thanks to the “altars of sorrows” on the moon.

Destiny 2 is better now than it’s ever been

Why would I ever want to go back to old planets with old settings? I want to rediscover the game over and over again. Let Bungie propel me to new surprising places to discover and re-engage. That’s why I pay Bungie to get new locations on a regular basis and also to revitalize, i.e. recycle, older content.

If that means giving up old content that I don’t play anymore anyway, then away with it. Because to put it bluntly:

• The old content is literally a waste of time and money
• Maintaining a lot of old content is time-consuming, even though it was hardly relevant anymore
• Early Destiny was a complete mess with no clear story line
• As each expansion continues to expand, you end up with an overwhelming mess that becomes unmanageable.

That’s also why I’m glad that content is gone, because we now have a far better Destiny 2 than Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 were in Years 1-3. The old maps were all dated and boring compared to what Bungie has now made of the places and will apparently still do, especially with Witch Queen.

So as it stands right now, the content recycling that Bungie is talking about is a pretty damn cool thing. Because it’s dynamic.

Bungie gets it right with dynamic content recycling

Through the Content Vault, Bungie has a tool that, when used properly, can realize an evolving Destiny universe that many Guardians, like me, have long wanted.

We already know that we’ll be returning to Mars in February with the Witch Queen launch. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing the old location again.

But the best thing about it is: It will no longer be the location we know. She has changed and that in the context of the current story. So you take something old and make something new, something better out of it. In short: recycling in its most beautiful form.

Of course that took time. Not everyone immediately had an idea of ​​exactly what Bungie meant by the term “content recycling” and what that would look like. Especially how long it will take for content to come out of the vault again. It is now clear: the return of old Destiny 1 content is not all that is recycled and thus revised. So a good signal.

Thanks to content recycling, everyone can now experience the best raids

Bungie has also announced the return of an old raid from Destiny 1 with Witch Queen. This is also something that I personally think is great about content recycling and also about the intermediate storage location for the old content, the content vault.

I certainly know the story and also the Destiny 1 raids from videos and reports. But I’ve always felt it was a shame that I never got to experience the best of Destiny 1’s activities on PC.

Meanwhile, I look forward to having the opportunity to experience this content. I also think it’s good that they run parallel to the current content and that old content is not exclusively offered. Let’s say this is just a “goodie” within an expansion. Like the “Glass Chamber” raid, it will very likely be playable for everyone for free if Bungie doesn’t change anything. If you don’t like it as a Destiny 1 veteran, you should find enough alternatives.

In the meantime, I would like to state that removing content has improved the gaming experience for me and, in my opinion, added more value to the existing content.

NewLight players need more support

There is only one thing I don’t like and that is the current support for NewLight players. Longtime Destiny 2 players don’t have that much trouble with this. You know the history and its development to this day.

For new players, Destiny 2’s past is a void that is not yet being filled. Due to the omission of content, it is incredibly difficult, especially for beginners, to see through and understand everything.

I personally think it would be nice if anyone who wanted to could have the opportunity to at least experience and understand the basic story of Destiny in-game. There are things that happened that are quite important to the overall experience. Especially when you consider that Savathun, hostess in the new expansion, as well as Krahe/Uldren Sov, have been part of the Destiny story for seven years and are therefore relevant.

Basically, new players have three problems:

• First, they basically know nothing from their introductory mission
• Second, that anything you could tell them about Destiny 2 is also relevant
• Thirdly, that they will never experience the rousing Destiny story effect, because the lack of knowledge means that a lot of things don’t matter to them and mean nothing

This leads to many new players not even realizing that they don’t know the best stories in the game. I find what awaits new players in the Cosmodrome just isn’t enough to get them started in its current form. At least the most relevant parts of Destiny 2’s story should still be understandable for them afterwards. And I hope Bungie will come up with a better solution for that soon. My idea is a simple in-game timeline that summarizes all events in the universe in short form for you.

What do you think about dynamic content recycling of content? Do you think it’s good or bad and above all, why do you think that way? Would you buy a game that regularly adds and removes features over time, or a static game? Write me your opinion in the comments.