Why do I play less and less

Why do I play less and less?

I think it's mostly because the progression stalls too much for me. I reach level 80 or so and I don't find higher level maps, grinding all the same low maps is boring. Drops are terrible, gear upgrades from drops impossible. To overcome these problems I would have to

... Roll the maps with a lot of currency.
Yes, I can invest all my wealth into maps and I might get some higher maps and have fun in them. But I don't have enough currency to keep going, I just don't. So in the end I would end up with nothing. If I want enough currency for this I need to

... Make a dedicated MF character.
Yes, I can make a dedicated MF sorc and grind to death until I generate enough wealth to break through the "map wall". But then I should also take this character to those maps unless I want to get kicked back to the square 1. And these MF chars only work with the extremely effective and safe builds like dual spork which bore me. I like to hack and slash, I don't like playing chess (in a video game anyway). Maybe if MF didn't exist the drops wouldn't be so bad for "normal" builds... So if I want to have more fun in higher maps I have to be bored with MF sorc first? No thanks. Another option is to

... Trade.
I hate trading. Trading is boring. To complete a trade you need good amount of time and sometimes shouting WTBs in trade chat just makes me alt-f4. And to generate currency from trading one has to flip items, scam people and invest lot of time to trade. But I like to hack and slash, I don't like trade sim. So if I want to have more fun in higher maps I have to be bored with trade first? No thanks. Another option is to

... Buy the currency with real money.
Which is against ToU and immoral and not available for me anyway. But I totally understand people who go this way, the game makes them. Another option is to

... Reroll.
Yes, but I rerolled many times, tried many things and right now I found a build would like to play longer. I know I will reroll eventually but I'm not ready to, there is no build that I would like to try out at the moment.

So next option is to bring my old character to the higher level maps. But I can't get those until I get a lot of wealth, which I won't get until I bore myself to death with MF sorc or flip items and trade and scam or buy it with RM. So races are left for me, I guess. I like descent, slowly getting better at it (or I like to tell myself that) and have fun in them. But I would love to play my favourite character more beside "racing". The game, however, doesn't let me do that in a way that I would enjoy; killing stuff is not rewarding at certain point anymore and the other options suck.

TL;DR
To have more fun with this game I must have less fun with this game.












Update rant:
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Today I tried to suck it up and do some trades since I really really wanted to progress more and buying a gear upgrade seemed like the easiest way to get this feel of progression. I'll share how it went although I'm probably the silly one in this story so be lenient, please.



The point is I can't afford one decent piece of gear with all my 'orb wealth'. So it seems my assumption that the problem I have was mostly the lack of will to trade was missing a part about being unable to buy anything. The options how to progress I mentioned above need to be combined, which means combined lack of fun for me.

Chopping things is unrewarding at this point. I can do few maps a day but the fact it's not leading anywhere takes away a lot of fun. It might seem like it should be ok to "just" kill things for fun but it's not.

Progression is a great part of the fun. After a session, a day or a week you want to feel like you are getting somewhere, not like you "just" killed some monster, spent some maps and spent some orbs.


... Now I should do the MF thing, I suppose. But, ugh, I don't think I wanna do that one, it would also mean rerolling for me. Reroll to a build I don't like. I did that once in Default some time ago and no, I just can't.
I guess I'll keep playing few maps a day and one day Mirror will drop. I bet it will be the last day of Anarchy league, hehe.

Edit 2:
Just a quick update, a generous friend lent me some currency and I could buy the chest I wanted now. I feel empty inside. Apparently the point wasn't to have the upgrade but to get it myself; find it or craft it. Not that we have reasonable crafting system in PoE. This wasn't rewarding experience at all.

"

wiggin wrote:

And these MF chars only work with the extremely effective and safe builds like dual spork which bore me. I like to hack and slash, I don't like playing chess (in a video game anyway). Maybe if MF didn't exist the drops wouldn't be so bad for "normal" builds... So if I want to have more fun in higher maps I have to be bored with MF sorc first? No thanks. Another option is to

one of the main reasons i stopped playing from every day to maybe 1 hour per week

also mf in this game even if you stack tons is highly uneffective compared to its ancestor diablo 2

"

wiggin wrote:

... Trade.
I hate trading. Trading is boring. To complete a trade you need good amount of time and sometimes shouting WTBs in trade chat just makes me alt-f4. And to generate currency from trading one has to flip items, scam people and invest lot of time to trade. But I like to hack and slash, I don't like trade sim. So if I want to have more fun in higher maps I have to be bored with trade first? No thanks. Another option is to

Check your Pms.

Pretty much, OP.

But you will now join the rank of troll, for saying so.

Sad, but true :(

I'm in the same spot as you, OP.

Sick of rerolling, I want just to go through endgame content in a "reasonable timeframe". But playing solo you really need those cash orbs flowing. I have been a bit lucky with high-end cash drops, so I could just buy one of each map (well, except maybe the last two tiers) and call it a day.

But here's the irony: some people call this game hardcore, ie. "difficult". But the difficulty comes from the absurd amount of RNG you are subjugated to and nothing else. If you want to see endgame you either grind to the point of slavery, for a few months, being constantly thrown back and replaying those low-level maps a thousand times OR... you just buy maps... Which is really hardcore :)

We dont take kindly to instant gratification here, folks. Diablo 3 is that way. :P

Both of this options are not really appealing to me. But because I'm not that of a masochist, I'll chose Path of least resistance. Unless you dont have the cash orbs, then you just quit over inaccessible content. Like many players have done, I'm sure.

Yeah, agree, pretty much this 'Drops are terrible, gear upgrades from drops impossible'.

I managed to get my clyonist with IIR+IIQ in maps, grinded and grinded, didn't get one good rare and best unique I got was Chin Sol. Very frustrating experience.

I also started hoarding my alch/chaos as I don't dare craft something. Never even tried to 5L in 6 months playing.

I don't know, I might drop the game soon, I want to play Walking Dead, as few friends highly recommended it, Mark of Ninja aslo, will try Rome TW 2, and will certainly play Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 2. As it is right now, PoE, although a great game, sometimes feels as such a unrewarding time waster.

This pretty much sums up my exact feelings at the moment.

i can agree on many points.

One reason i left d3 is that only way to get better is auction house.

Sadly now in poe the only way to get rich is also trading.

i bought a shield a few weeks ago for 1 1/2 exalt . turned out i didnt need it .

put it in trading. yadiyadiyada sold it for 12 exalt !!!!!!!!! wtf

10 exalts profit , like 3 to 4 times more then ,my wealth aquired trough months of farming.

i could be happy about that but it also showed me that poe will get very similar to d3 on the eceonomy side.

I do think ppl that play 10+ hours a day should be very wealthy of course but not like that.

ppl linking 2 6 linked shavrones and koams and more..wts

and they will have hundreds of exalts, so i will soon not be able to buy good stuff because every semi decent item will be many exalts.

the idea of the orbs and using them on items is awsome , but ur pretty much an idiot if u use a an exalt now. That is sad.

i hope ggg will find good solutions for these problems.//and for desync which is the by far biggest problem to date

Wow, this thread is really packed full of great constructive criticism, and I agree on all fronts. Great thread, I am surprised some troll hasn't derailed it yet.

Same situation here, i play my main far less than i used to and have no desire to make alts. I dont want to mf for 10 hours so i can map for 1 hour, then potentially drop to lower maps so even mapping is pointless. I also dont really like being forced to trade to improve my gear. Trading being a clunky mess from 1999 doesnt help. I had no trouble crafting the majority of my gear in CB, but thats pretty much impossible now for a number of reasons that have been mentioned in many previous threads.

I mostly just race now, and even that much less than i used to as the point system is a tedious grind, the prizes are poor and most of the races are much shorter than in CB, resulting in them being decided as much by rng as by skill. Descent is a fun concept but plays like it should still be on the alpha realm.

Id pvp but thats in about the same unfinished-alpha state as descent, and has been for over half a year now. Doesnt really bode well for descents future, come to think of it.

Difficult to see the game managing a sustainable player retention rate under these current design models. I think we need to see a great many positive changes in a fairly short timeframe if poe is going to succeed over the long term.