When did you decide it was time for you to move on from a game and what helped you through it?

Social games like World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, and any other MMO or MMO-lite you can think of are all about the people you play and the story you are a part of together. Over the weekend, I completed Destiny 2‘s latest expansion, The Final Shape, bringing a close to a remarkable 10-year long adventure that started for me with Destiny in December 2014. Destiny 2 will continue of course but my time as a Guardian in the Sol System is nearing its end because the story I started alongside so many other people, I ended up finishing by myself.

After being present for every expansion and season these past 10 years, The Final Shape was a satisfying close to game I love. I got to be part of incredible stories and had some of the most enjoyable gameplay experiences of my life, but all of these fond memories were because of the people I shared them with. Destiny quickly became one of my favorite games because my brother and I started playing around the same time. We adventured frequently together exploring different planets, battling aliens and monsters, and earning piles of loot. I was also lucky enough to have friends who jumped into the game and I even made enough friends during the course of my solo adventures to have a consistent group to play with.

Unfortunately, Destiny 2’s frustratingly confusing design changes, nonsensical narrative directions, and some questionable world retcons eventually resulted in my brother and friends (including the ones I made along the way) leaving the game behind. Things got better with the Forsaken expansion but the inconsistent expansion quality and decisions for the game since then made it hard for me to recommend it to other people. I even began to explore other games that had rich histories, interesting stories, and places to explore that would satisfy my wanderlust, which is how I ended up getting into World of Warcraft during Battle for Azeroth.

Despite all of this, I always came back to Destiny 2 because I loved the story that began with Destiny and I’m glad I had the chance to finish it because not every game gets a conclusion. It’s hard to move on from a game that had such a large impact on my life, and I know other people have been here before, so I’d like to hear about when you decided it was time for you to step away from a long-time game and how you got through it.