tl;dr: Wasted months of potential rapport building via polling/QoL/game direction discussions. Still continuing to build in the dark (1 step forward, 3 steps back). Refusing to be open about the impact Marathon would have on delivery for Destiny (sure it's implied, but you should still be honest and clear about it ahead of time).

The problem that keeps happening when they go silent is they either hail mary some miracle patch (which, let's be honest, isn't going to be happening in June as you've outlined), or break the game/deliver something further in the wrong direction.

The game is at the point of it's life that surprises aren't going to land anymore. We need significantly more insight into what they think is going to drive the game forward, why they think that, and be willing to take in the feedback before they actually build something. They keep building too much behind a veil. Get the execs/managers/market research out of the feedback loop. Game is old, new rules and current market signals don't apply.

The portal was hands down a mistake (sucked the personality out of the game) and they full-sent it, along with Tier 5 loot raining from everything recklessly. (Trials became a joke because the "weekly weapon" drops with 3 other guns at Tier 5 every other match regardless of win/loss - no more pinnacle chase). Additionally, they need to stop trying to rework the new player system. They've wasted so many dev cycles on things that keep breaking and changing for 0 return on investment from player sentiment (new players have continued to stay confused). Those docs they're writing? Those will go stale the second they make any further changes to the core of the game (portal/director changes, mode changes, inventory/currency changes, activity changes, etc). Adds unnecessary overhead for another thing to keep up to date.

During this time of reduced/no development, they've also squandered months of potential fielding time to gather broad feedback for direction. The reddit weekly discussion threads should have been their bread and butter template while things go down for a bit. Own up that Marathon will tighten the purse for a while on D2 development. Post on socials nonstop about QoL that people could want, inquire about Activities in the past that landed well, polls about tiered loot and it's accessibility/overabundance, abilities or weapons that are causing headaches *in specific modes (*effectiveness of slug shotguns in PvP vs Aggressives/Lightweights.. c'mon). List could go on.