Could POE have already peaked?

I'm getting an ominous feeling about the game... like last year was awesome for POE... this year it seems to be on a downward trend. I'm just worried that 2017 was GGG's golden year and the best times are behind us. Like a whale that's aged goodly but inevitably it grows large and old and dies and rots on the ocean floor into make nutrients for bottom feeders. I just have a strange feeling that POE might be a similar whale about to wash up onto shore before its time was up... what about you guys?

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IMSilver wrote:

I'm getting an ominous feeling about the game

Are you going to start predicting dates when the world ends? -_-

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IMSilver wrote:

I just have a strange feeling that POE might be a similar whale about to wash up onto shore before its time was up... what about you guys?

If people are still playing and they're still making money, PoE will be here. And from the look of concurrent player stats on just Steam alone, combined with GGG's current number of staff, it's easy to see that it's all growing in size.

There are threads like this in every forum of every game, ever. What "downward trend" anyway?

bestiary was way more succesfull launch than abyss in terms of player, by about 10k more ppl, than abyss, sure the drop off was bigger than byss cuz the league was shit, but that proves that poe is growing

It's going to be difficult to top the time period when PoE moved to 10 Acts. This was such a mind-blowing announcement at the time that it probably represented the peak of GGG's accomplishment here.

It may not have peaked player base wise though. If GGG has another major announcement at some point they could probably swing more players.

Game play wise I find the game to still be improving but a lot of players hated Bestiary so perhaps we've reached a down-hill slide as far as league quality.

even if it did

it's been going for like 4 years

how is that "already" ?

Grudgingly, I have to say yes.

Although the next league could turn it around pretty easy if it is stellar.

But 2 poops and there could be retention trouble.

In my opinion.

I've played every day for years. I am now playing Titan Quest again. Using my learning from PoE to actually invest in some health to be more tanky!

You can't predict a peak, can only tell if its gone up or down, i don't really think beastiary is a sure sign of doom or anytime a league was worse the game would be "doomed". As much as beastiary sucked in terms of mechanics and was very poorly executed i still enjoyed it far more than talisman league.

I do have my concerns though, GGG balance seems to become both more narrow and more cynical every patch with league mechanics being gated by frankly bullshit levels of rng and their skill balance being laughable, it makes me worry about their skill changes when from the outside at least their current efforts look incompetent (whether thats by design or not we'll never know)

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IMSilver wrote:

I'm getting an ominous feeling about the game... like last year was awesome for POE... this year it seems to be on a downward trend.

We will see. From the perspective of this league, it does not look good, because it was really very bad. And pretending that nothing has happened has not improved the case at all. according to me, GGG can afford only 1 or 2 such disasters, so next league will be crucial. If it will be just as bad or just a little better than "pokemon league", then it is time to leave, because in the next league it will not be anyone to play with.

First, let me start with these threads are almost always garbage and have been happening since Day 1 that I started this game. Eventually they are bound to be correct but I don't believe that to be the case yet.

That being said there are some things occurring that at least give pause to think about it.


Increased release cycle. This could be associated with trying to stay aggressive and ahead of the curve of boredom (which is what I Believe is going on), or attributed with actual issues associated with cash flow -- which marries up with the next point.

More cash grab tactics. A primary example would be releasing things that move specialized tabs closer to a necessity than a nice to have. Loot boxes is another potential indicator. Another example might be making fragment tabs separate from the maps tab to increase purchases.

Responsiveness to the hive mind/mob mentality of the forums. If you are a stable company with a strong strategic direction that measures data points appropriately, you are less inclined to change direction based upon the angry hordes of certain forums where group think is rampant -- like general discussion. If a company does this consistently, they are on weak footing and I personally believe creates cause for concern.

No changes, just keep alive releases. This is the real thing to watch out for...if a game isn't being updated except break/fix type patches. Basically the hospice care of gaming.

P2W. Conversion to P2W to keep the servers up. That's when it becomes panic time. A significant change in the business model, the way a game monetizes the product, usually means something is very very wrong.


For POE, I would really be the most worried about the last two points occurring. Those would be the time to pay our final respects.

The game is fine though IMHO. Number of players consistently increasing each league, reactive to changes needed, releasing dramatically transformative content quarterly, and don't seem to be shifting their business model to stay afloat. Loot Boxes are unfortunately a monetization norm in gaming -- it only works because we buy into it.