Streamer priority is as unethical as p2w. Discuss.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

...I feel genuinely sick right now. And like I said, it's a SLIGHT hangover from my first social event since early last year. I'm 99.9% sure my gut-sick feeling isn't from a few glasses of mead last night.

I'm so sorry, friends old and new alike. I really am. A tiny part of me is like, 'this is what you get when you stick with a company that's essentially been bought out by a Chinese megacorp' but let's be honest, it's probably not even that. It's a business and this sort of prioritising of precious customers and free advertising is 'good' business. Getting caught that you do it, or outright admitting it, is not. OTOH I've also been telling you guys that GGG know now just how much they can jerk you around without losing your support and goodwill.

Or do they? Will this be the straw for more of you? Because if you're being level with me, it sure as shit should be. I spent years defending GGG against accusations of preferential treatment of big supporters/streamers, and I believed it. Right now, I don't know if I was right after all. Other than alpha access, which I got as a result of my forum moderation stint, I never received any sort of game-related preferential treatment, and that was EXACTLY as I wanted it. That was why I fucking supported as I did. Plenty of other games would have read my contribution as 'desire for advantage' and provided as such.

And yknow, this isn't even about big supporters, whom we know GGG have thrown under the bus repeatedly anyway. This is about a parasitic relationship between a company enjoying free advertising and incredibly low-tier celebrities happy to make GGG's game look good if it gets them more likes and subscriptions.

...Are you serious? This actually happened? There's absolute proof or is it simply a case of 'the streamers got in, we didn't, ergo there's a separate server?' I'm seeing people I know and trust espousing this so I can only conclude that GGG themselves admitted it. And that's the part that has me astounded. That they'd have the gall to admit it.

Sorry, Exiles. This is a lot to process in one moment. A lot.

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Jerle wrote:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/msboji/ggg_letting_streamers_skip_queue_is_messed_up/gurnv5d?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Video evidence.

Thanks, dude. Without me seeing how terrible the queues were I can't fully and immediately 'get' this, but it seems even the streamers themselves (even ones I deeply respect like Steelmage) were aware of this AND ASKING TO BE REMOVED.

Yeah, y'know what? Back to Tyria and its endless pockets of wonder. Back to Ancient Greece, Egypt, Babylonia, questing against titans. Back to Space and manually landing giant freighters through mail slots. Back to Eterra where the devs aren't gorging themselves on streamer tumescence. Back to The Old World and Dragonblight. Back to anywhere but this fucking abomination.

Again: I'm sorry, fellow Exiles. Fellow whales. Fellow long-time supporters.

:(

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GusTheCrocodile wrote:

I'm not disputing that it's not fair. Of course it's not fair.

But without even getting into randomness, unfairness in progress through a game like POE (whether you call that progress "economic advantage" or just "they got to maps before I started") is the norm.

Yes, in this example, streamers have privilege that other players don't. But players who are sitting there with loads of free time ready to pour into the game should recognise their own privilege over others if they want to talk about level playing fields or whatever.

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Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!

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Siska83 wrote:

People need to stop being mad over streamers' queue prio. It's smart marketing and not the problem here.

The problem IS however, the launch has been terrible and those actually able to make any progress are streamers. If things went smoothly, a few minute head start is nothing. But now over the course of the day, it's become several hours of a head start.

People plan their schedules around league starts, and if it were unplayable it already sucks, but having it appear to be playable and it not actually being is another.

Let's take off the tinfoil hats, and lower the pitchforks. GGG's plan surely wasn't to rope everyone in with all the hype just to let 100 people play. They're clearly working on it, so let's wait to burn the forums down.