Small vocal minority?

Chris said that the "lab haters" are a small vocal minority and that its fine to have divisive content inside ones game.

Its okay to have content that we can choose not to do, like for example vaal areas.
We can choose to skip them completely and we still have few ways to progress.

We cant skip the lab.
Well, we can, if we are sadists who at the same time hate OP buffs and have a need to miss out on all the cool names and lore tidbits that come with ascendancy.

Gating content is bad, but we can take it.
Gating character progression behind something that you term "divisive" is a sure way to chop your playerbase in smaller pieces.

Chris, to my eyes, came off as arrogant in that podcast.
Yes, GGG has the data, and they can claim that "only a small vocal minority hates the lab".

This "vocal minority" is awesome when it comes to promoting the game. Does he really think that people who praise the game constantly up to the labyrinth, and the people who speak out against the lab are two separate entities?

Vocal minorities tend to stick around, and pissing on them is a bad business policy which he will understand after this "prophecy" nonsense comes to a halt.

This romantic notion about "groups of players profiting on the lab with joined effort" and the similar tropes will be the death of this game. 99% of us are not VOC and his gang.
Most of us play this game as an escape from the tedium of everyday routine.
Chasing levers, dodging traps and losing our mind on random enchants is not the way to go about it.
And now, we will push "payloads" in the lab. What is this? Soul Reaver?

And we have this Navani or whatever her name is acting like Moebius from Reaver games. Prince of persia meets soul reaver. This is going to work out magnificently.

Okay, if i push this lever, and push that box there while dodging these traps i will finally get my ascendany point. that comes so late in the game where MOST of people stop with that character. And if you continue its to push 100 or to do MF. none of that will be done in the lab.


"you think you do, but you dont" - What is it with these devs?

I played parendus with 3+ chars, and all 3 of them were respecced at some point completely. Out of boredom. I did lab only for the 4 points on all of those chars. Never did the trials in merc and i will never do them. IF that stops me from playing, ill stop.

What will come in the next expansion i wonder. Content that 50% of the players hate, but you cant level beyond level 25 if you dont do it. Great times, great.

I would like to spark a discussion that handles the GGG point of view on this, and to debate the merits of "character progression rewards" that come late in the game.

TL DR,
Chris was arrogant in the podcast, imo.
Vocal minority is important everywhere on the planet in every endeavor.
Dismissing criticism by invoking the "vocal minority" clause leads to trouble.
Dont gate crucial progression by self proclaimed "divisive content".
Lab is good if you move AC out. Trials can reward AC, everything else stays the same.
Cheerio

Eh Lab is fine it makes your char RIDICULOUSLY OP and if you can't do it in merc well then that's just a play problem.

Listening to the vocal minority and not the broad customer base almost always results in the (near) failure of a company. Player statistic, retention numbers and revenue stream always speaks louder than any "empathic feedback".

Seriously doing the Lab is pretty easy, you really have to be a bad player to not be able to complete it by lvl75. I agree it's unfair for Hybrid/ES but Chris said they will reduce the damages by 40% so it should be easier.

"

Eh Lab is fine it makes your char RIDICULOUSLY OP and if you can't do it in merc well then that's just a play problem.

Would you say Lab is fine if every Skill Tree Keystone were gated behind the Lab too? Vaal Pact, Chaos Innoculation, RT, IR, US, all of them.

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innervation wrote:

"

Eh Lab is fine it makes your char RIDICULOUSLY OP and if you can't do it in merc well then that's just a play problem.

Would you say Lab is fine if every Skill Tree Keystone were gated behind the Lab too? Vaal Pact, Chaos Innoculation, RT, IR, US, all of them.

Yes.

"

innervation wrote:

"

Eh Lab is fine it makes your char RIDICULOUSLY OP and if you can't do it in merc well then that's just a play problem.

Would you say Lab is fine if every Skill Tree Keystone were gated behind the Lab too? Vaal Pact, Chaos Innoculation, RT, IR, US, all of them.

All game progress is gated behind playing the game. What an irrelevant argument.

Except for serious ping issues, the lab is not that hard. Run it three times to get your points and deal with it, or decide to pass on the prestige that is optional.

Good gear is gated behind trading. I don't like trading, so I pass on it and I don't have good gear. Since it is optional, I am not whining that GGG should put T1s up for sale so I am guaranteed to get what I want without trading for it.

As for vocal minority, go talk to SSF or PVP crowd.

I seriously feel sorry for people who can't do lab because of connectivity. Everyone else is just whining and should just STFU and run the lab if they want their Ascendancy points.

Whether or not one agrees with the lab I do agree that chris came off a little arrogant and dismissive of the player's concerns. If they would just swallow their pride and remove the 6 points from the non-map labs everyone would win - people who hate the lab could then ignore it and people who enjoy running the lab past getting the points don't care.