Eververse, as it stands, only serves to maximize monetization without regards to respecting the game's player base. The base price of the game, on release, was $60 without any DLC included; the Expansion Pass cost players $34.99 and the a la carte expansions cost $20 each. When you spend anywhere between $60 to $100 on a game, you begin to expect a complete experience. Over time the game will cost somewhere around $200 for people purchasing everything a la carte. I, for one, believe that Eververse has no place in such an expensive game. Eververse locks Destiny 1 "analogous" content -- there is no true analog for some of the content -- behind a paywall, it locks some of the game's best-looking content behind a paywall, and it entices us to spend money on randomized Bright Engrams without the guarantee of that money actually going to the content you want to purchase.
Destiny 2 forces players to use the Eververse system to obtain Destiny 1 analogous items (i.e. ships, sparrows, ghosts, shaders) without the opportunity to earn them like we could in Destiny 1. Let's use The Taken King and King's Fall as an example. In Destiny: The Taken King players were allowed the opportunity to earn a ship, the Agonarch Karve, as a reward for completing a certain challenge on the King's Fall raid's Hard mode. While the ship was tough to earn, it was also a testament to a player's skill and hard work; anyone seeing the ship would know just what it took to earn it and those who didn't would soon come to know after asking how to obtain the ship. Destiny 2's closest analog to the Agonarch Karve is Saint-14's Gray Pigeon, a cool ship that fits in nicely with Saint-14's shotgun Perfect Paradox and the Helm of Saint-14. While it is not completely analogous in the sense that you don't earn it from an in-game achievement like the Agonarch Karve (in fact, there aren't any cool ships that you can earn from achieving something in the game), it could have been if we were given the opportunity to earn it through some sort of quest or challenge. We get to earn Perfect Paradox, why not Gray Pigeon? Let's be honest, Saint-14's Gray Pigeon looks cool and it's locked behind Eververse when it could have been earned through gameplay.
A lot of the best-looking content is locked behind Eververse. One of the biggest issues with Destiny 2 is that much of the armor in the game is lackluster except for the Eververse exclusive content. When I purchased the Curse of Osiris expansion I hoped to earn some nice Vex/Egyptian inspired gear for my Guardian. When I was finally afforded the opportunity to earn engrams from Brother Vance I was sad to see that the Warlock armor didn't look as cool as its Eververse counterpart. In fact, much of the armor in the Eververse store is some of the best looking gear in the game. If it wasn't, people wouldn't want to purchase Bright Engrams for a chance to get a piece of the armor. The best looking armor sets, ships, sparrows, ghost shells, and shaders are all in the Eververse store. Cosmetics in a game like Destiny aren't "just cosmetics" because they are a big part of why people play the game, cosmetics tell a story to our fellow Guardians; a player with Prestige Leviathan gear is someone who likely loves PVE and players who like the way the gear looks will be enticed to play the raid's Prestige mode for a shot at earning the armor themselves. Seeing someone with Eververse armor only entices someone to spend more money.
Bright Engrams tempt players to spend money in order to have an opportunity to get a randomized loot drop without the opportunity to outright purchase the items you see. Yes, you can buy Saint-14's Gray Pigeon if it's on sale in Eververse but that will cost you 2000 bright dust. How do you get bright dust? You deconstruct items you got in your Bright Engrams or you can buy a microtransaction package that contains it. Many people see Bright Engrams as free stuff but, in reality, it isn't. When we made our initial purchase of the game and every subsequent purchase of DLC we bought the things in those Bright Engrams, or at least that's how it should have worked out. Instead, we have to slowly grind for content that we may never have after the season is over or we have to hope we roll a "natural 20" and get the item we were wishing for, but not once are we allowed the opportunity to just buy the stuff Eververse offers. At best you get the Gray Pigeon in a free Bright Engram, at worst you spend some money and it's nothing but mods and shaders. If I spend $20 on something I want to know, ahead of time, what it is I'm purchasing.
Destiny 2 is a fun game with flaws, and one of its biggest flaws is Eververse. Too much of the game's content is locked behind a paywall without the option of outright earning it. If you're part of the #RemoveEvervese movement, thank you for adding your voice to the mix. If you're against it, I hope this made you reconsider or at least see the other side of the argument. I love Destiny 2, if I didn't I wouldn't take the time to write this long of a post on the topic of Eververse. I just hope that this issue, along with the other host of issues, can be fixed before the community dwindles beyond repair. Let Bungie hear your voice on the issue, but make sure we're adding to the conversation and not attacking one another because Destiny 2 is OUR game and we all want what's best for it. Let's help Bungie bring Destiny 2 back to the greatness of Destiny 1's Year of Triumph.
Special thanks to @GenXer for helping me tighten up my argument against Eververse by challenging me on the first edit to my initial post. Another special thanks goes to @Unbroken Stoic for calling me out on my initial post being nothing but "Remove Eververse." Another special thanks goes to @Vu1canB1itz for his better analog to the Perfect Paradox and Gray Pigeon, the mission "Lost to Light" which gave us Black Spindle and Vienna Singer.
EDIT: I posted this on the Destiny reddit so if you're at all interested in upvoting, or even downvoting, that would be appreciated. I just hope you read what I wrote andtry to add to the conversation. https://redd.it/7mqve3
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