Yeah, you no doubt are, lol.

I played solo majority of the way, but once I hit the Moon, story level 2, oh my. I had two defeat 3 princes and I was getting 2-hit by them all the time. I play all stages on hard.

Then I joined up with some old VGC pals, setup a chat party and played a ton of Crucible matches last night. Was a total blast. I then learned from them that some legendary or epic leveled item later on have abilities like "Damage over time". So awesome.

Failure by gamers standards.

Success by monetary standards (and only gamers are to blame).

Is Destiny a critical failure on paper? No
Is Destiny a critical failure compared to what people thought it would get? Yes

Perhaps the Gaming Overlords have seen so many awesome games, they are not so easily amused these days... To me, Destiny wasn't just hype. It felt different than most others I had played, and working with other players was fun to me. I also liked the RPG like aspects to it. To have already been making mad money on it over what they spent developing, it is definitely a success and can't wait to see how many sells it go in the first week.

For me Destiny 75 Meta is actually great for the future of the franchise. The hype for Destiny means it has, and will sell a lot of games and thus make the franchise viable. But a 75 Meta puts Bungie on notice that they cannot rest on their laurels and if they want to hold on to that user base, and turn it into a fanbase they need to up their game and bring something new and deep. Build the world and its mythology much more comprehensively, develop characters with depth, create cohesive and engaging stories and bring new excitement to FPS gameplay.

Buddy I am well aware of what they said.  However considering the luke-warm reception now, it might be best to rethink their strategy.

They have a good plan people are just impatient or don't like to listen.

The game isn't the best, but it wasn't the worst. I think it was a victim due to the hype and the whole 500 millions budget news.

Metacritic = Sales

Those are certainly lower scores than I expected.

I think people are mixing up "critical failure" with "bad game." When you spend a certain amount of money making a game, when you have a lot of confidence in your ideas, when your developer has a track record this outstanding, you expect a certain degree of quality to your game. When this game's critical reception is inconsistent with the team's track record, even failing to outscore their weakest project for more than a decade, you might be disappointed. You might say the game failed to live up to your expectations critically.

It doesn't mean the game is bad, or that players aren't enjoying it. It just means most people probably expected critics to like it more than they liked ODST.

Or it means Microsoft stopped signing the checks.

If Wii U Zelda got a 75 Metascore, I wouldn't hesitate to call it a critical failure, because it is made by a developer with a track record for excellence, and that is what I expect from them. I have no expectations from Bungie because I don't care about Halo, so I'm happy to let their fans decide whether or not this game is a "critical failure."