: I'm thinking that audiences are maturing and expecting more. They don't want
: to spend $60 on a game starring a nameless, speechless, and emotionless
: lead that they themselves can't have explicit agency over with games like Mass Effect.

Again though, the Chief had characteristics to him, he just didn't have all this other stuff until Nylund wrote it. He had a title that was treated as his name, he had a voice, he had some displays of emotion in cutscenes, and he had a unique appearance. I get why that might not be enough for some people but I don't like the idea it shouldn't be enough.

: Destiny soured me completely to the concept of a blank slate and I'm not too
: surprised that this let down came from Bungie. Our Guardians were
: unfulfilled entities in a universe that was supposed to be absolutely rich
: with amazing stories. Not only did we barely get that in the game's
: narrative itself, having to rely on some trading cards to make sense of
: the story, but we were given nothing to imagine how our Guardians felt
: overcoming these tremendous foes.

They're not trading cards, I'm not sure they're really even supposed to be cards, I think that's just how they chose to present them, I think of them like entries in books.
Anyway, there are bits of how various guardians, often unnamed, feel about their situation, their nature, their enemies, their fate, etc. They're in the Grimoire and increasingly in descriptions of in-game items.

: Your guess is honestly as good as mine as to what my very own
: Guardian's personality, emotions, aspirations, fears, etc. are like.

That's the point. They seem to be aiming at a pen-and-paper RPG sort of crowd (probably not those people exactly but similar people, or the area where that overlaps with FPS players). It falls down in some respects of catering to that, for example appearance options range from adequate to way way too limited and voice acting doesn't change in response to who you are or what you've done other than one character, but there's the grimoire and there are text responses-- a lot more since they added quests last month-- and I think that "you decide" thing is the kind of thing they were aiming at.

: That's why I gave up on Destiny almost immediately after it came out.
: I buy games first and foremost to experience a rich new universe or an
: exciting new entry in an established franchise. Touting Destiny as exactly
: that then not even caring to put time or energy into fleshing the Guardians
: out felt like a waste of time.

The story's really not about the guardians, it's about the bigger players. Fleshing out individual guardians wouldn't really help that story unless they're some of the bigger players or influence them.

: It can be done right, don't get me wrong, but sometimes a blank slate avatar
: just seems like a poor cop out for not wanting to fully realize them and
: bring your character to life. Headcanon is great but it doesn't leave you
: with the same since of fulfillment that something imbedded in the game can provide.

Well by the same token a story someone is just telling you doesn't feel the same as something you came up with yourself.

: I don't see how it's cartoonishly evil when the science behind it, however
: monsterous it may be, appears to be quite solid and the kidnapping of
: young children to become soldiers sadly has precedent even today.

As far as I can tell the science is all bullshit though, it's all made up for the book, and it was clearly to support this decision. Writing an excuse for a group to do something ridiculously evil doesn't make it stop being ridiculously evil, it just makes it not be utterly unjustifiable.

: The SPARTAN-II's are a perfect example of how an empire will do whatever it
: can to maintain a grasp on what they believe is only theirs. That means
: using their subjects, often those on the fringes of society such as in the
: Outer Colonies, to carry out violence against their own people. New canon
: has only added to the politics and emotions behind the SPARTAN-II's coming
: to existence such as the brief mentions of the "Carver Findings."

I wouldn't call human-controlled space an empire, and the last I knew there was still not a ton of exploration of who's really in charge.

: SPARTAN-III's being recruited and volunteering for service, instead of
: kidnapped and conscripted, comes out of the circumstances the UNSC found
: itself in with countless millions of orphaned children from the war. They
: had neither the resources nor the will to bother with nighttime
: kidnappings when they could easily scrounge up some blood thirsty kids
: withering away on the streets of the colonies. CINCONI knew what she did
: with the Two's was wrong, at least in hindsight, and I'm sure Colonel
: Ackerson didn't want to get his hands dirty like Dr. Halsey had. The
: Human-Covenant War served as the Three's reason for being and also it's
: saving grace not having to deal with kidnapped six year olds.

That's all in-universe though, and (unless I'm mistaken) not written as reasons for the S-IIIs until the book where they were introduced. Any remotely good story will have justification, and some would say a better story would have the justification before the action. What I'm getting at is why that was written and explained and justified in the first place.

: I don't think fan feedback had anything to do with how the SPARTAN-III's came to be.

I didn't just mean fan feedback. I wouldn't be surprised if Bungie or Microsoft didn't like that he wrote it that way and didn't have time to get him to fix it (or if certain people didn't even know) before publishing.

: Even back then the vast majority of fans supported the Two's mere
: existence. Do we debate endlessly about the morality of these programs?
: Absolutely and we should continue to do so.

Really? I think every argument and counter-argument has been made at this point and few people are going to change their minds.

: It's a good topic to discuss concerning the universe's most controversial elements
: and how we can tie them into the real world. Even the most ardently anti-Halsey fans,
: however, myself included, will admit without hesitation that if Humanity
: not had Spartans they would have gone extinct long before we had the
: chance to screw around on a Halo ring.

Really? What did they do that had a big effect before that, especially outside of the Battle of Reach?
Also, that is again an excuse, and not even one you can use from the get-go, it doesn't make the initial decision by ONI any less ridiculously evil.
(If you consider the data pads from Reach, that was indirectly a reason, in fact if the AI were the initiators it was the reason, and I like that for various reasons, but everyone seems to pretend those don't exist.)