Pride and Destiny

Dear Sony, 

As you know 
Destiny 2 is ending.  

Destiny. 
Because of mismanagement on both sides of the line, Destiny 3 is no where to be seen. 
The community wants to rally in one week. 
Reset day. 
Arguably the final reset day. 
I find myself lacking the F.O.M.O. to join.  

I started my journey in Destiny solo.  
Playing catch up to friends.  Only to catch up and find out they were not the people I thought they were.  
So I moved on, went back to work, played other games. 
Destiny 2 came along and I started that journey with people that I thought were my friends. 
But here I am 9 years later and they too were not the people I thought they were. 
So I played solo, checking in with people from time to time trying to build a team to run the hard stuff. To compete in the raid races. 
To explore the universe with. 
And they, too, were not the people I thought they were. 
Then during the Pandemic I was approached by a random person one day.  
Someone that had a Lore based clan.  
That was rare. 
Clans being groups and teams with specific goals and purposes. 
Their goal was to get A title. 
Curse breaker.  

I said.  
"I'll help with that, but if I do. I want to build a team to do that kind of thing on the regular.  A team that helps people where others wouldn't. A non toxic alternative to the gatekeeping so prevalent in LFG culture. Only had 3 real rules for it. 
"Don't be racist, misogynist, or a bigot."
"Leave the toxcicity at the door"
"Don't cheat."
I was ten toes down on those rules.  Everything else would come in time if we built community up right.
Well, then came the bigots and I stood ten toes down defending people I counted as friends. 
And the community let them tear down what we had built, moved on, and left me holding the bag. 
So I started over. 
Tried to build a team, to teach people the hard content, to give them the skills to stand on their own, and to lead their own teams into new raids and dungeons. 

When the time came to do the hard work.  
To lead the way. 
They cheated. 
exploited. 
And copied other teams work instead of solving the puzzles themselves. 
So I just stopped. 
Stopped caring. 
Stopped working for them. 
Stopped supporting them. 
I stopped logging in. 
Stopped playing along. 
Stopped writing the stories about their guardians. 
Stopped sending money to replace their hardware or picking up other games for them to practice their skills in and hone their team work. 
Stopped managing the server. 
And when the toxicos started to show up that they brought thru the door I told them they had to clean their own house. 
And in the end?
I removed the toxicos myself, without explanation. 
Then I removed the cheaters without explanation.
Then, the ones that where left removed themselves and without explination.
And I moved on, to another project because I refuse to poor myself into communities that don't appreciate it anymore.  
Refuse to work for free building up communities for companies and groups that don't appreciate the work that goes into it.
Refuse to pay people that either didn't understand the assignment or did but didn't care enough to do it. 
Especially when I'm working on, literally a shoe string budget. 
Eating Ramen instead of Steak so that I would have the resources to support the community.
Paid out of pocket for everything myself, without the backing of a studio or company.

And with what the larger community is doing now?
They watched as the suits put their knee on the neck of the dev teams and creatives that poured themselves into the game despite the abuse that most of the community flung at them. 
And now that the body is going cold on the street they want to send thoughts and prayers to those very same teams that became jobless because of it. 
They continue to play Call of Duty and support the companies like Activation who created the culture that destroys such unique games. 
The suits behind the bean counters looking at their profit margins, not disappear... just not be unprofitable over the long term.  Their bonuses not be as high as they'd like while they continued to bring in salaries that tripled that of the hardest working coder. Then turn around and pretend that they didn't put the money that should have went into the dev teams and community into their own pockets. While, with full pockets, full bank accounts, and retirement plans that would make Midas blush said that the creatives didn't create enough, the community wasn't engaged enough.  Turned them out on the street when the profits that should have covered the short term slumps became cars, and art, and stock options instead of grocery money and residual payments for the people on who's backs these were built?

So yeah Sony.  

You going to let me put d3 development? 
Are you going to let me hire the team to build it?
Are you going to let me Unionize the teams so that they have a way of pushing back when the suites start to take advantage?  Start to steal from them? 

'cause that's the thing Sony. 
It's pride month. 
And that's the one thing that I and the various communities I built were able to carve out. 
A place where Pride was celebrated. 
A place where people refused to have a knee on their neck. 
A place where young people were safe to be themselves and were taught the critical thinking skills to build their own communities and how to handle the trolls and groomers and bigots that are so prevalent in other gaming communities. 

Don't believe I can do it? 
Look at the success of FFIV, Cyberpunk, No Man's sky, Fallout 76. 
They stuck to their guns despite what the suits had them do at launch. 
Continued to build the games they promised despite community backlash and C-suits pushing things out the door too soon. 
Hell, I think you even backed a couple of those. 
I know for a fact that the spider verse has been holding up their end of the bargain. 

Are you ready to hold up yours?
Because I'm hungry and ready to cook. 
I'm tired but nap when I need to. 
I'm sick, but still have time left.

So yeah Sony. 
Time to put the money where the mouth is. 
Time to build the next chapter. 
And this time.  
With me in the room. 
Instead of playing telephone and watching ya'll fumble what Live Service is supposed to mean and putting the wrong teams on the wrong projects. 
Can't say that last one is in your court. 
After all, you didn't put rocksteady on the Suicide Squad game.
Didn't try to turn simple multiplayer games into "Destiny Killers" 
All I'm asking is for a seat at the table. 
To represent the workers interest. 
And for ya'll to keep doing what you do. 
Make some bad ass hardware and let the creatives create for it. 
Otherwise I take Spidy and walk. 
Don't want to play that card.  
But you know I can.  

Your Move. 

Love
Jack.