Bungie's Destiny 2 communication has shifted heavily over these last few months, and Bungie has broken their silence and made it known that this choice was made in the best interest of its employees, who have been subjected to extreme threats and harassment. Those who are familiar with Destiny 2 know that developers Bungie have always had open lines of communication when it came to the game's players. Reddit users immediately noticed this shift and decided to make it known that they missed that close contact with the devs.
That sparked an entirely new conversation, which has made their reason for disappearing from the community known. Bungie states that this silence was not meant to punish the players of their game, nor was it an accident on the company's part. This was solely done to protect their employees. They responded to the Reddit thread by stating,
"“Here's the thing, the harassment we've spoken to isn't just rude replies on twitter or vague comments. There have been real threats towards our people and our studio. We're taking them seriously, which is leading to an amount of reduced communications as the team plans future protections / strategies to help avoid these sorts of things."
While the company employees do still tweet and talk about their social lives, they very seldom bring up Destiny 2 itself and we now know that is with good reason. The Destiny 2 community seemed to be very held together and supportive of each other prior to this. Knowing that this harassment and these threats against the personal lives of the company's employees is nerve-wracking, and also has a very negative impact on those who thrived on the company providing answers to their questions. A Bungie employee also stated
"I agree - it's a bummer that we don't have as much interaction here as of late. The team is planning ways in which to communicate with you all - some of these plans I'm really looking forward to when I get back in."
Everyone who invests serious time into a game wants to be heard, and Bungie was very good at listening to the gamer's feedback via Reddit and implementing those changes within their games. It's sad that the bad apples thrust decay over the rest of the bunch, and it is heartbreaking that the employees have to worry about such threats to their livelihood. They do state that even though they don't respond anymore, they do listen and discuss the changes that players bring to light, which does keep the hope alive during this situation.
This also affects the gameplay, as sandbox lead Kevin Yanes was legitimately run off of Twitter by angry gamers that were upset with the decision made by the company. When the dev tweeted about the Titan Exotic armor not returning to the game, the Destiny 2 community responded with hate and outrage. Several devs at Bungie stood by Yanes, and tweeted about how the company needs to do things that have the game's overall health in mind. They say that feedback is one thing, and abuse is another.
All of this unneeded chaos affects the game as a whole, as employees now have to worry about being canceled and having their lives threatened due to choices that they make about a video game. Not to mention that Bungie was known for having phenomenal communication with their Destiny 2 players, it actually set them apart from the rest of the companies out there. That has now been tarnished in its entirety because people couldn't refrain from severe toxicity.
Bungie has stated that this will not be forever and that they are currently rethinking their communication strategy to reach out to those who support them.