The Engram system unintentionally reduces the intrinsic value of loot drops.

Disregarding weapon stats and perks, the Engram-based loot system in Destiny has, I believe unintentionally, cheapened the experience of looting items in both releases of the franchise and should be looked at for a rework at some point.

In Destiny 1, I remember exactly how and where I got my first Thunderlord; I had been hoping to find it for some months and it finally appeared in a Raid Chest in the Vault, just before the Gorgons' Maze. Excitement for that particular gun aside, part of the reason I still remember this loot drop is because I can point back at a particular event and place where I know I picked it up, which helps to set the loot in context. I also remember my first Icebreaker, because it dropped after a rough Crucible match on Firebase Delphi where I got my face kicked in repeatedly by one particular player. Context.

One problem inherent in the Engram system is that it almost totally removes context, and thus some intrinsic value, from loot drops. Legendary and Exotic Engrams drop from numerous sources in the game, and are essentially all identical to one another; no matter what gun comes out of it or what loot table an Engram uses, you pick up what appears to be exactly the same Engram at every loot drop. All engrams are essentially of the same value to the player because no matter what they could turn out to be, they all enter the player's inventory in the same way, as the same item. You don't know what you have until some time later when you have the Engrams decrypted, which is a double context-killer:

• 1. you are removed from the loot drop by some minutes or even hours, as well as being in a different location, so that you are less able to associate a given item with an event; and
• 2. all your Engrams are decrypted in the same location and en masse, making the act of decryption repetitive and thus even less memorable.

You may ask, "Why does this matter if every Better Devils is the same anyways?" It matters because it reduces the value of looting items, at least for the first time a given item is looted, by making the loot system experience monotonous and forgettable, which makes the game--which is predicated on this system--less meaningful and enjoyable. If an Engram drops for you, it's not particularly noteworthy. You don't lose it if you forget it, and even if you do grab it, you can't use it until Rahool looks it over. The player has zero incentive to be excited over a particular purple or gold flash, especially when Engrams are common rewards and there isn't much time between valuable drops to begin with. Even if a given item is part of a small loot table, it still is less meaningful to open up its Engram totally removed from the act of looting it.

To improve this issue, I propose that the Engram system be reworked so that loot is at least in some way identifiable on pickup, and ideally fully functional. At the minimum, the player should know what they receive so they can begin associating the item with a particular loot drop even if they have to wait to use it. What would be better, I believe, would be to simply give the player the item. Now that guns and armor don't need to be leveled up (minus Light Infusion) to be useable to their full potential, there is less reason than ever in the franchise for a player to avoid spending time trying out a new gun. Understandably, it could be disruptive if in the middle of an activity, a player were fiddling with menus while their Fireteam went on fighting. On the flip side of that risk, if a gun were useable on pickup, it could create more memorable experiences where a Fireteam member might acquire a new weapon for the first time, which they could then spend the rest of a Strike trying out, possibly to good effect for their team or just a fun change from the norm--and that's a fun and memorable kind of loot, even for teammates who didn't loot the gun but still got to enjoy sharing in their experience. And if it were a repeat or uninteresting gun for a given player, it would go to the bin like virtually every Rare item we currently loot.

That's a pretty basic suggestion--and there's certainly room, I'm sure, for a hybrid system that incorporates both. What do you all think are some perks and drawbacks to this, and how could the idea be improved if worthwhile?

Edit: formatting, cleanup.