I question if I'm just growing out of the whole ARPG thing.

Super boring, maybe worst ever, league with bad mechanic plus huge nerf exp.... Hmmm I wonder why you ask such question?

Maybe its GGG not doing their work right?

Boring league is boring. Prophecy feels like standard

"

I'll tell you some of my childhood which involves me just studying all day in conjunction to mf'ing like a very very long time of combination of the two in terms of Diablo II and school shit / family work shit.

Whether it be pindle runs and eventually the whole classic Baal run for hours and hours. Quite basic of some of my child hood now fastfoward to the days of PoE where I'm grown up doing family business shit while servants ask ''Why did you spend so much money at a game where you don't even play it anymore'' I simply ask myself yeah I dunno why either within every single league that I do I get the best gear / finish all challenges then fade away for awhile. Is it because the gameplay is shit? The hunt is shit or mf'ing?

Probably not I don't even MF much and if I do I usually just get a bunch of dick while in conjunction to most of my profit comes from the trading. Is that why I'm bored? Just trading all day to become a god every single league? Or am I growing out of it? I even question myself I'll be making 1-2 more div cards + 2 uniques and say boy am I really going to be playing this much longer?

tldr I'm trying to find out why I don't play as much as I use to in my childhood even when I finished everything in D2 I still continued to play while I fade eventually in PoE every ''season'' league.

/dinosaur.

I'm in a similar situation but I don't have a family business or 'servants'. I'm a poor graduate student at a flagship university. I only play this game to distract myself from my research and writing (perhaps too much).

Also, I generally think this league just sucks, which may be why you're play time is dropping off--I know that's why after I achieved 40 a month ago that my play time was cut 60% or so.

You can't run around doing the exact same thing all day and not burn out unless you are really into that sort of monotony.

Much like Shags, I started out on Rogue and later most of its variants. They held my interest for a long time because they were fucking brutal. There was no easy winning in that game, and when you died, you started over from zero.

I use the same philosophy playing POE. I don't trade. I have no idea what build I am going to play each league. Finding a good rare or unique that I can use is a gift. Finding a rare unique I have never seen before that works for my build is exciting. Dropped a Devoto's last night and it was a pretty decent upgrade.

Honestly, if you just want to have fun, play unoptimized and see how far you can push bad builds. Playing SSF melee won't get you to the top of the ladder, but it can be exciting (or frustrating) when Jack is the highest DPS item you have found.

If you just want to win and be seen as top shark in the ocean, you may want to go to a sandbox game where the economy is a bit more "real".

You did play it a ton and I think its just part of getting older. Your interests may change and RL has things that come up or just simply other stuff you're into is more appealing.

There is no real end game in PoE.

Passive tree hasn't changed in over a year.

Melee is 1 skill.

Ascendancy was added but with no actual content to challenge it.

New skills they add are boring knock offs of older skills. The last quality skill they added was spectral throw.

leveling is painful and tedious.

the questing system in the game is bad and not rewarding, that's why experienced players don't complete a lot of them.

trading is bad.

PoE doesn't encourage to party up with people and play with others. it's an online game mostly played single player.

they gate a lot of content behind RNG which some unlucky people never get to experience it, even though they want to.

bad balance decisions.

I don't think you're getting tired of ARPG's, I think you're getting tired of PoE.

"

TheAshmaker wrote:

They also never folded content from leagues into the game and now the whole game feels underwhelming.

Lol. The old 'what have you done for me lately mentality'. Sad.

--

To address the dinosaur's existential crisis, let's wait and see what 2.4 has to offer before going into sad-sack mode. You've 'beaten' pretty much everything the devs have thrown at us since release including the BiS gear hunt. There is little PvP support, what we have isn't terribly compelling, and there's no 'endless' PvE mode. Also you play SC :|

While that doesn't answer why you kept playing Diablo and you do leave the challenge leagues, it's a start.

Edit: in terms of 'money well spent' or not so well spent, if you buy a new car you don't have to drive it 24/7 to make the purchase worthwhile.

I_NO,

Maybe consider playing self-found. It's no secret that you are quite talented at trading. That being said, however, maybe you get bored now because you are such a good trader?

Consider for next league to plsy SSF and see how you feel. Maybe you will sit back and appreciate some of the mechanics this game has to offer as opposed to buying all of the gear you need.

I've seen Project_PT (not comparing...just giving an example) play this game SSF this league and as boring as he is to watch, seeing what elements of the game now become important (that aren't when he's trading) has been very interesting.

One difference between D2 and POE is that in D2 you DID ultimately feel like even if you never found that super rare rune, you could at least have fun making builds and getting decent gear self found. In this game, you really do have to buy your way to the top unless you are completely blessed by RNG.

I'm not saying that good RNG runs don't happen and you could actually find what you need. I am saying that if that happens, it's a fluke.

Plain and simple in this game you grind currency (little meaningless orbs) that you trade to get good gear. In D2, you actually had to grind and barter. You could play that game self-found as well because the runs themselves "felt" rewarding regardless if they really were or not. After years of that feeling, it makes sense that you would feel the way you do.

I would say try SSF just once to see if it revitalizes that feeling for you. You may be surprised.

From a fellow "dinosaur", old enough to be a part of the entire history of computer gaming, but not old enough to be retired...

"

fastfoward to the days of PoE where I'm grown up doing family business shit while servants ask ''Why did you spend so much money at a game where you don't even play it anymore''

Take this with a grain of salt, not intended as an insult, just the way your post comes across...

1.) "Family" business, meaning you didn't start it
2.) Calling other people "servants", meaning you might of the boss type "jerk".
3.) You have all 40 challenges in Prophecy, meaning you're probably spending more time playing than working.

Sorry, from that alone I'd call you a spoiled kid in adult shoes, and therefore playing ARPGs competitively is perfect for you. Of course, I don't know what sort of person you are in r/l, only can guess from what you post here. However, your name is well known within PoE, just not your personal life. Perhaps you're a nice guy in r/l?

"

Is that why I'm bored? Just trading all day to become a god every single league? Or am I growing out of it?

You're getting bored because you've mastered PoE and there are no more real challenges left for you to achieve. The leagues are rinse-n-repeat, so they're fun once in a while, but if you do them religiously, you're just doing a grind and getting burned out.

Why don't you take that interest and apply it to the family business instead? Gaming is meant to be enjoyable, and all you get out of it is being the richest player, what's the point? Move on in life, you're not playing PoE as a game anymore.

For me gaming is an escape from reality for a while, a chance to enjoy something interactively while relaxing. I don't do the typical couch potato TV/movie watching, so gaming is my way to relax. If you can't find enjoyment in PoE anymore, take a break, or even stop playing, because you're just doing work. Put that work back into your family business.

"

tldr I'm trying to find out why I don't play as much as I use to in my childhood even when I finished everything in D2 I still continued to play while I fade eventually in PoE every ''season'' league.

/dinosaur.

You're not that old. I bet I'm older than you if D2 was your childhood. I still play ARPGs. Gaming has no age limits. It's how you treat the games and how you enjoy them that has age limits. For example, I used to be one of the top 10 players in the little-known game of BZFlag during the 90s. On a Friday, I'd play from when I got home from work non-stop until sun-up next morning. I'd play competitively too. Not anymore, that sort of lifestyle, let alone stamina for twitch-gameplay is long behind me.

I don't think age has much to do with it. Or rather, not in the way one might think.

I think the issue is that PoE does not reward short play sessions. You play for an hour or two and you don't feel like you've done anything. Yeah, you've probably made some progress towards your next level, but you didn't actually get that level so you don't feel satisfied.

Now I know people will bitch and moan about instant gratification, game is too fast, blah, blah, blah...Look. This is a game in which you can make endless characters with endless builds. THAT should be the reason you keep playing, not grinding until the heat death of the universe. If I can get a character to max level and turn up some neat gear in a short period of time, you know what I'll do next? Start a new character, probably using neat gear that I found on my first one. There is nothing wrong with shortening a character's lifespan because making new characters is fun. The problem here is that the mechanics encourage alt-o-holics, but the gameplay does not.

Yeah, that kind of went on a tangent, but I think that's one of the main reasons why I love the idea behind this game and hate the execution.