Consumer behaviour, what drew/draws you to poe

Little CB "project" I am doing for marks.

Not formal, just would like to know what aspects draw you to the game as a consumer.

It can be parts of the game or the actions of GGG.

I was originally drawn by the vast amount of builds you could do and by the fact that claws were really neat.

I've been a fan of PC ARPGs since I first tried Diablo 1. I was very disappointed in Diablo 3 and started looking for alternate ARPGs to get a fix as I had been quite hyped for D3. My search lead me to PoE. It was still in closed beta at the time but went into open beta a few months later in Jan 2013.

From the most important to the least:

1) My frieds and my cousin started playing it extensively.
2) It was free to play(still is, but i do not play)
3) The skill tree

The RNG-based item drops, the skill tree, Wraeclast as a whole.

I have to agree with much of what has been said.

I was disinterested in the actions of D3/Blizzard when I saw the Real money auction house. It showed me the company was monetizing what the player base wanted to find/trade. This is coming from a D2 player.

It was taken out, yes, but I have not looked back at it.

I first played march 2013, and have been off and on since. Build changes keep it fresh, and tree balances compound the build changes.

So far it has been: displeased by main competition, massive customization of product, free (pay what you want)

Pretty much the same as everyone else. Did not like D3 as an ARPG, eventually found PoE through a friend. I wasnt able to devote any time to it back then unfortunately and this account is the left-over after the very initial look.

Eventually found it again this Feb and put almost 500 hours into it since then.

was looking for another game after throwing buggy skyrim back to the shelf, saw the templar video they made and was immediately hooked.

dev communication in the forums was amazing and on a relaxed, personal level. free to play without "pay to win" were outstanding features at that time, gameplay looked basic but skillfully made, the skill tree promised fun for several replays and so i applied for a closed beta key. which made the desire to try the game even worse.

the small community at that time in closed beta gave you the feeling of being part of something big and huge, it was always clear that a small indie company can't completely reinvent the arpg genre but ggg never failed to amaze me with their implementation of adaptations of other games' techniques or outright crazy things other companies avoided like the plaque, for example evasion, dodge, block .... which are prone to desync a client/server based game.

i'm still hooked to the game (didn't spend money on other games since) because i take it slow, only trade as a matter of last resort which always leaves the impression that there is something left to achieve.

Sometimes exiles make it off of Wraeclast. One of the more intrepid ones braved the dark terrors of a devourer tunnel and emerged into the ARPG world I was in at the time (D2). He left a mysterious key and a cryptic hint, and I was hooked. I briefly went back to Diablo when III came out, but after seeing the sophistication of the PoE Skildrasil, it was as Wolfe says, "You can't go home again." Wraeclast still has its rough edges and sharp corners, but the dynamics of the game keep me interested in playing it.

What drew me ?

POE was dank and GGG were common folk.