Offline SSF. There is no good argument against it.

Here are all the arguments I have heard against it, and why they are all nonsense.

"But it would take players out of the trade league economy"
So does ruthless, HC, private leagues, current SSF. There are more than enough people to satisfy the supply and demand of a healthy trade league economy.

"But offline would enable modding or cheating, which would make you play the game less because you dont have to grind like everyone else"
If you cant come to terms with the thought that people like playing SSF games in a different way than you, by themselves and offline, then thats a personal problem you should address.

"But it would ruin the prestige for other players of having rare items or good gear"
No it wouldnt. You would still be free to play trade league where you cant mod the game. Offline SSF is OFFLINE and SOLO. It has no impact on how other people play and enjoy the game. If you cant enjoy a game because someone else is playing it differently by themselves in an isolated environment then thats a personal problem you should address.

"But PoE is a competitive game, offline would ruin that"
This is the same "but the prestige of it" argument again. When watching football or some other sport do you think "hey this isnt fair because some kids in a park somewhere are playing with different rules"? No? Well thats because people playing by themselves in a completely unrelated environment has absolutely no impact on how you want to enjoy a game.

Online races would still exist. PoE ninja leaderboards would still exist. You can still play trade league and link your mirrors in global and laugh at the people that dont have one, or whatever it is you think is so important about "prestige".

"You are just being selfish and telling GGG how to run their game"
Am i telling GGG that they are dumb for making their solo gamemode require an online connection? Yes. If that is being "selfish" then I can only laugh.

You forgot about money, the only argument that matters. Do SSF offline players spend a lot on MTX?

Here are a couple of great arguments against it:

- DRM. Always online prevents piracy to a much larger extent than offline games.
- GGG's main stream of revenue comes from the sale of MTX. By being offline you're not exposed to other players when logging in, which means you will not see their MTX and be tempted to buy some for yourself.
- Lack of social features means that player retention will rest solely on the game and its mechanics rather than community interaction.

In addition to these I would also say that you will be isolated from game updates that help fix bugs and unintended mechanics.

I'd be happy to hear what you're thinking about these arguments.

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Paradoxoglanis wrote:

"But offline would enable modding or cheating, which would make you play the game less because you dont have to grind like everyone else"

If you cant come to terms with the thought that people like playing SSF games in a different way than you, by themselves and offline, then thats a personal problem you should address.

???

What the fuck is that topic even.

Someone else said it earlier...OP ignores the biggest, and ONLY, reason for it not to happen.

Money
It's a fantastic argument against this, and its really the only argument needed.

It costs money to create a new game mode, and it costs an exorbitant amount to maintain an offline mode. How would they roll out patches? Are they going to maintain hundreds of different versions of the offline game, for every player that chooses not to update the game on their own every time a bug fix or patch rolls out?

Can the game actually even function in an offline setting? I don't have enough knowledge on this to speak specifics, but it is my understanding that PART of the shift to always-on game design was that it allowed for faster and better processing during game play. If the burden were placed entirely on your own rig via offline play, would the design choices of the last 10 years still work?

Additionally, would it REALLY be popular enough? I can understand a rebalanced SSF being popular, but this would have no need to be offline. But specifically an offline version of the SSF mode we already have? Hardly.

All of these things require money. Furthermore, they potentially don't reap nearly as much money from players. Remember that this is a F2P game....no one has paid $60-$100 for a standalone CD/DVD of this game.

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Paradoxoglanis wrote:

There is no good argument against it.

But there is.

Being an online game they can't release it as it is as a standalone as that would give way too much information to hackers and moders.

That means the game NEEDs to be rewrote from the ground up to be significantly different but functionally the same.

That means money, that they won't get back because there is no need for players to buy MTX ( i.e mods that change appearances)
That means they would need to sell the game but that won't go too well considering it's free and piracy being a thing

So yeah, good reason but you'll just stick your head in the sand and ignore that.

Mark my words. The offline mode is what will kill Last Epoch in long run.

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SoulMule wrote:

You forgot about money, the only argument that matters. Do SSF offline players spend a lot on MTX?

If I could mod the game in offline mode to make drops more generous, I'd probably be playing that instead and still buy MTX in order to look good.

I suppose another issue with this proposal is how this might work for leagues and challenges. Would you simply be excluded from challenges and their rewards in this situation, to account for the fact you can mod the game?

Just look at Jonathan old posts. I am amateur on the stock, but I can clearly see this man knows his shit, how to make money. Do you really think he is dumb??

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Dxt44 wrote:

Mark my words. The offline mode is what will kill Last Epoch in long run.

Hardly. That game is buy to play. They already made bank the moment you boot up offline mode.