1 example of why PoE is very 'new player' UNfriendly

Meh...

I dunno. I think that the game is tough to digest for new players...but honestly, I don't know how many players just "stroll in" to playing PoE.

One of my co-workers loved diablo, BG and other games like it...and he had never even HEARD of this game.

GGG should work on actually getting new players to try the game in addition to teaching them how to play it.

Also one of the funniest things for me was playing with friends that I introduce to the game and getting questions like: "Are there any cool skills in this game or do i just hit these crabs with sticks forever??"

That shit makes me chuckle still now...every time i level a marauder... "Damn sticks and crabs" LOL.

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Prisus wrote:

every time i level a marauder... "Damn sticks and crabs" LOL.

I hear you, I had the same experience with a friend, trying to "teach" him the game.

I mainly learnt the game by myself, using my first exalt on a crappy thing, " cool a new currency ! Let's try that on my op lvl35 weapon ! "; that was 2 years ago.

What friends ask me at first is : " What the hell do you do with this skill tree !" then " Aaaaaah ! Why do you shot 3 fireballs, I got only ONE ! "

The first "screamer" you see in the game is when you level up and push the "+" for the first time ! =)

The game is hard at first but it worth it, it's a great game, and for a D2 player ( I'm still playing ) it's heaven on computer. You have so much to do ! I'm still getting bored around 80-85 so I make a new character. Got 3 or 4 on Warbands, and I think I'll start Tempest now.

For all the new players, try to continue a bit, ask for help, this game is good ! And if you see people QQing about not getting 80+ maps while you cant even imagine doing 70+ maps with your crappy build and gears, don't pay attention, just play the fucking game, that's how you learn.

PS: Playing HC make you learn faster to... =P

I think it's not so much that PoE is completely unfriendly to new players. For someone who has never played ANY RPG before at all, it might be hard to pick up at first, but those aren't really the target audience for this game anyway. For people who HAVE played Diablo or other similar games before, it's more of a "minute to learn, lifetime to master" type of game. You can figure out enough to at least get started completely on your own, but figuring out ALL of the subtleties of the game will take a long time.

And there is also a certain expectation that players will need to so at least some research on their own. The game itself won't hold your hand and walk you through every little detail. You need to use the forums, wiki, youtube guides, or some other outside source in order to figure out ALL of the details. But I'm not sure how they possibly COULD have everything explained within the game itself anyway(especially not without making it completely unbearable for the people who DO already understand things).

Newish player here too. Frankly with so much to learn I have a hard time thinking of a time when I won't consider myself kinda nooby. But that is the fun. Learning the game. That is what gives it so much replayability. I have only played a few characters and each time find some piece of gear I haven't seen or gem I haven't used my list of builds I want to try grows and grows. I don't find POE new player unfriendly...Daunting, exciting, a bit intimidating, etc... but rewarding as well. I have not yet run into a situation that I couldn't figure out or get the answer to fairly easily. I think Vagan said it best, "A thinking man's exile." It is not enough to hit crabs with sticks (Thanks Prisus).


You have to think about crabs and sticks too.

This game is extremely unfriendly to new players. Here is one example. This is a true story.

A retired old man (a relative) played PoE for the first time. They quit the game before making it to the town.

This is someone who has played 1000's of hours in skyrim, and hundreds of hours in dragon age, the heroes of might and magic series, diablo 1 and 2, titan quest, and dungeon siege 1 and 2.

Why did they quit before making it to town?

1. They ran out of pot charges (did not understand the pot mechanic).
2. They used basic attack only (they picked up the skill gem, but did not know it needed to be placed in a socket).
3. They tried to kill everything on the way to hillock, and kept dying.

I'm not sure if this player even got around to opening the passive tree before quitting. Feedback given included "stupid game", "didn't explain anything", "my hero was too weak"

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Vhlad wrote:

This game is extremely unfriendly to new players. Here is one example. This is a true story.

A retired old man (a relative) played PoE for the first time. They quit the game before making it to the town.

This is someone who has played 1000's of hours in skyrim, and hundreds of hours in dragon age, the heroes of might and magic series, diablo 1 and 2, titan quest, and dungeon siege 1 and 2.

Why did they quit before making it to town?

1. They ran out of pot charges (did not understand the pot mechanic).
2. They used basic attack only (they picked up the skill gem, but did not know it needed to be placed in a socket).
3. They tried to kill everything on the way to hillock, and kept dying.

I'm not sure if this player even got around to opening the passive tree before quitting. Feedback given included "stupid game", "didn't explain anything", "my hero was too weak"

Yeah well not much we can do about that. The game already explains everything he had an issue with. Not the games fault if the dude refuses to read the tooltips on items. How he could have played those other rpgs and yet not understand PoE is a complete mystery to me.

they should hire ziggy d to make tutorials, right in the middle under path of exile awakening could be tutorials section. Not everyone wants to go third party to find tutorials for the game. It's like going to a store and then being told to go to another store for more information.

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Telzen wrote:

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Vhlad wrote:

This game is extremely unfriendly to new players. Here is one example. This is a true story.

A retired old man (a relative) played PoE for the first time. They quit the game before making it to the town.

This is someone who has played 1000's of hours in skyrim, and hundreds of hours in dragon age, the heroes of might and magic series, diablo 1 and 2, titan quest, and dungeon siege 1 and 2.

Why did they quit before making it to town?

1. They ran out of pot charges (did not understand the pot mechanic).
2. They used basic attack only (they picked up the skill gem, but did not know it needed to be placed in a socket).
3. They tried to kill everything on the way to hillock, and kept dying.

I'm not sure if this player even got around to opening the passive tree before quitting. Feedback given included "stupid game", "didn't explain anything", "my hero was too weak"

Yeah well not much we can do about that. The game already explains everything he had an issue with. Not the games fault if the dude refuses to read the tooltips on items. How he could have played those other rpgs and yet not understand PoE is a complete mystery to me.

There is plenty that GGG can do about that. Players expect more out of games these days, i.e.: Automatic center screen popups/prompts that articulate key commands or suggest actions, audio instruction/narration, some encouragement/handholding at the start. Relying on italicized descriptions at the bottom of skill/item popups that only appear when you mouse over something is just not good enough.

It would help a little if those descriptions were more prominent if enable tutorials is checked in the UI (bright orange perhaps, instead of a faded grey), but the best solution would be to add some polish to the area leading to hillock, i.e. a more premium starter experience, with prompts and narration. If GGG doesn't want to alter the hillock starting area (due to races), a full blown tutorial start option could work, with all the bells and whistles.

Dear Bookeater49, this is hardcore game and scarce information on game mechanics is intentional since players are meant to discover how stuff works on their own. You have to do research on your own (google, poe Wikipedia etc.) or learn stuff the hard way which is not recommended since game is punishing enough..... or don't bother playing since game only gets harder.

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momonami5 wrote:

they should hire ziggy d to make tutorials, right in the middle under path of exile awakening could be tutorials section. Not everyone wants to go third party to find tutorials for the game. It's like going to a store and then being told to go to another store for more information.

If that happens i will quit poe.

Everything in this world needs to be understood and for that you need to wrap your head around it and show some interest to learn it , or well you never learn it. Tell me name of one game which is half as detailed as poe and doesnt require its own knowledge base . Even playing teraria ! and the so called vegetable player's Wow has its own wiki's and what nots.

Some old guy with 1k hr in skyrim didnt like poe ? well what about it . This game like everything else out there is made for a group of people with special skillset and liking . ( the jokes on people wanting to add controller support to poe).

You either enjoy it or you dont and if you do you will learn and as far as learning go there are people with double ph's and then there are people who drop out of schools .Playing poe isnt the same as studying but thats just how deep this game is .

That said game does really need a decent in game guidance system like the goodold Press "H" key to open up atleast a basic how to about the game (cant be that hard ). And well nothing is newbie friendly you always start with a lot of background if you want to sail smooth all crawl slowly while learning.