The hunt for better and better loot will keep me going for months, but Destiny's emergent massively multiplayer gameplay is what will keep me playing for years. Take on a random public quest, for example, and perhaps you quickly realise you're in over your head. Then, over the hill comes another Guardian, a white knight to save you from certain death. You're saved. You wave. You group up, summon your Sparrow then speed off towards some loot-packed adventure over the next hill, the sun setting on the ruins of the Cosmodrome. Or the Moon. Or Venus. Or maybe Mars. Destiny's greatness will lie in how well it sows the best of World of Warcraft and the best of Halo into a seamless virtual fabric. I'm still waiting to find out if Bungie has successfully threaded the best of Blizzard's MMO, but I'm certain it's successfully threaded the best of Halo.
Destiny is Halo evolved, and it's a natural evolution, given the way gaming has gone in the 13 years since the release of the first game in the series. Playing Destiny now, the underrated Halo 3: ODST all of a sudden makes much more sense. I see Destiny as lots of New Mombasas, each fleshed out and given their own identity, that combine to form a mythic science fiction world in which all roads lead back to The Tower.