Pouty Destiny players go aggro over free legendary weapons

"Would you rather have received nothing?"

This is the question my mother used to ask me when I was a child and complained about gifts that were closer to the "sock" end of the spectrum. It helped to put everything in perspective: I'll take the sweater every time if the second choice is a big zero.

Destiny players, having received their free legendary weapon, may have rather gotten nothing. It's a crappy attitude in general, but what's worse is that they feel the need to send messages to the company that gave them the free item talking about how they're mad they didn't get something else.

The image below is a light example of what I'm talking about. Some of the messages are much worse, and the Internet is filled with bellyaching about the free legendary weapon. People don't just seem disappointed, they seem honestly angry that they didn't receive something better.

Game Informer has more instances of people less than excited about the gift. Again, the level of anger and the sense of injustice at a free legendary weapon doesn't seem to match up with the reality: Bungie wanted to give every player something new to play with. That's it. It's free. But people have their underwear firmly in a bunch, and of course they have to complain loudly to whatever poor individual is stuck handling the Twitter account.

"Apparently there are a few Destiny players, complaining on Twitter. It really blows my mind how ungrateful some people are, especially when it is a FREE gift. Bungie did not have to do this," one of our readers wrote in the comments of the original story today.

"So my advice for anyone who does not like their gift: Dismantle it, and stop stressing yourself over a video game," they continued. Amen.

It's an interesting experiment as well, because I'm looking forward to logging in for the first time in months to see what I was sent. And maybe this will get me back into running missions with friends to get even more loot. The worst case scenario, again, is you dismantle it and have some free materials.

These sort of flare-ups really do make players look whiny and ungrateful

It's not necessary to yell at Bungie like a child because you got socks when you were hoping for a rocket launcher, but this is bigger than Destiny. We see the same sense of entitlement from a certain group of players whenever they're given anything, from the "free" games you get every month from Sony and Microsoft for signing up to their premium services, to giveaways at events.

I once saw a player complain, bitterly and aggressively, about being given a free skin for a League of Legends character "THEY DON'T EVEN PLAY" at PAX. I felt terrible for the poor individual who had to sit there and take it, and I wish I could go back in time to help them a bit more. We don't just demand free things, we demand the RIGHT free things, that fit into our exact playing patterns.

Many people handle these situations with grace, and they just shrug and go about their lives if they're disappointed in a gift. In the scheme of things this isn't a big deal, but it's yet another way we don't seem to grasp that the person on the other end of the Twitter account or Facebook page is an actual human being. One who had absolutely nothing to do with you not receiving the perfect gift.

So maybe ease up a bit and ask yourself if you would have rather have gotten nothing. You could even complain without making it sound like this event wrecked your day. I know I sound like a schoolmarm lecturing people right now, but c'mon. These sort of flare-ups really do make players look whiny and ungrateful.

Now, if you excuse me, I have a present to unwrap. Maybe it will be garbage, but if that's the case I'm going to put it in my inventory, say thank you, and go on with my life.