Does GGG see us as Gamers or Gambling Addicts?
I suspect this sort of mentality works for some players but it never has for me, I suspect i'm a bit too mathematically realistic to get a loot buzz most of the time. I play because I greatly enjoy the flexibility of the character creation mechanics/skills and I generally get put off by the constant RNGesus, primarily I suspect because it rarely favours me.
For example when the essence league mechanics were launched I was immediately put off because statistically the chance of getting a valuable item, even with a guaranteed T1 stat is low, in some cases extremely low (jewelry etc) Some people view this as great excitement about what amazing items they can make, I viewed it as what comedy items could I make to prove this system doesn't work as a legitimate mechanic :p i've got lots of steam screenshots already of pieces with T1 and 3xT10 trash stats and it takes so long to farm a deafening essence let alone one of the top tier funky ones that on average, you won't get anything good. It did work very well as a boosting mechanic for my first character though, guaranteed life rolls on equipment and some appropriate damage on weaponry ensured you didn't become too gimped prior to mapping so at least it worked from that perspective. |
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The problem with the slot machine model is that it is very inefficient in terms of pleasure / time spent. This is a problem I am having. POE is just not worth playing most of the time. I think I've gotten a single EX in like 400 hours of playing (not sure how long I've played before coming back).
Terrible drop rate and quality leads to the necessity of trading to progress. This is even worse because now this is extended to content (high maps). So now I will have to spend my time with very little reward, and it is boring because I can't do good content. I could of course play the trading game and get a bunch of currency, but that really doesn't interest me. I'm probably going to quit soon. I just have better things to do with my time. Also: Standard is completely unplayable to me. Legacy items ruin everything (I'm big on balance). Multiplayer isn't great either (you're either out-geared tremendously, and barely get to contribute / keep up, or your party gets owned easily). |
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" Gambling is a game too. And they focus on getting you addicted, of course. I mean, they're a company, they need clients, why wouldn't they(as a gaming company) try to get their players addicted, so they don't leave their game? It is just the point of view of a business company built around games(in general). Their rng sucks, though. The reward VS challenge is so bad right now, holy... But what keeps me addicted, for example, is the possibility of creating something new. Which the game provides, for sure. Sometimes...
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Interesting post. In my modest opinion, as someone working with big data, I do think the last movements of GGG are good to retain the addiction of a particular fraction of the players, which on the other side is bad for increasing total number of players on the long term.
Just look the casinos, which are all about large numbers. There are two types of gamblers, those who prefer low-volatility slots, while others prefer high. The game designer`s has to make sure that the machine pays out just enough for the gambler to want to continue playing, because of course, the more someone plays, on average, the more he/she will lose. High volatility generates a lot of excitement like machines hitting the jackpot, but any game is about getting the underlying probabilities just right. An important issue with POE is the soft cap design where end content is strongly gated by RNG, which requires time/trade but not difficulty (based on gear/skills). The payback percentage when playing high tier maps (>14) is extremely low, much lower than the 85% which is present in the worsts slot machines, or the 50% present in the UK national lottery. This affects mostly players which are very attached to a particular character and would like to enjoy the endless journey. Players which also do not want to trade/buy content. Atlas created a lot of expectation about end game content, a new quest "the sharper" was introduced. When I log I always read "find and defeat the sharper´s four guardians". But all this excitement vanished when realizing how gated that content is when someone reaches tier 13 maps and finds that >14 are difficult to get (no matter the amount of currency you use). Then, is when I decided to "trade for content" (which I totally regret), I reached 101 atlas hoping to be able to get/sustain better >14 maps, but it did not have any major effect during my time play. I think the game should be less random for people to access end game content, because at the end, after buying all the fanci MTX, getting great gear, people want to face the most challenging content, which means "playing it" not "watching it" on youtube/stream. One can see that people like to trivialize end game content, how popular are ES builds using PF+VP+Vinktar + skills with high crits per second (BV/BL/Icestorm....), and also the posts in reddit/here trying to convince GGG not to nerf it... Anyway, I have to say that I am very happy with the atlas, it was eye opener for me respect their vision about end game content. They are doing a good job selecting this fraction of ARPG players that like strong RNG (which means time or trading) and not skill/gear requirement to access end game content. It is perfect for them because rich/traders get richer as they access content with guaranteed nice drop. This is the reason why I am mostly out of this game. I would like to see what will happen in the long term, as someone that likes numbers, steam charts show that october 2013 is still the month with higher numbers of average players and the second in peak players. The numbers fluctuate but look very stable, which means that there is a stable player base that is addicted to this design. I however believe that changing this vision would increase player base which also means more customers and therefore money return to them. Next year, new high quality ARPGs will come out, I would like to see whether this will affect GGG end game content design. If things continue as it is now, I am affraid, I will leave this "highly RNG gated end game content" ship and embrace new ones heading to new exciting directions. | |
They use the excuse of the Jewller's/Fusing/Chromatic system as a "currency sink", yet they make the currency have uncommon droprate.
Then they make sure you'll dump all of them into one item, not even getting a reliable result in the end. Can't get more gambler addict than that really. Participated in the working of the Dyadus Avatar of Fire Templar:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/896505 |