The Socially Awkward Gamer, the Unspoken Problems with PoE.
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In this thread I will address a few unspoken problems of PoE, what I believe is the true source of the preventable mass amount of anger lately.
Free to Play I'm starting off with this before the mindless masses come in and say it's free to play so over it. Free to Play is a business model. GGG is a business and we are its costumers, it has a responsibility of taking care of its customers' interests. The most popular game in the world right now is free to play and we know how "Free to Play" League of Legends is. I will be making a few comparisons between how the 2 games handles changes (patches/balancing). Communication So we all have that friend who is probably a genius but has absolutely no social skills. From what I've been reading on the forums/reddit, GGG is that friend. They might be the masters of coding and/or gaming but so far they have shown ZERO customer/public relation skills. Almost every post from GGG I have read has been a generic answer or short handed answer. The problems with communication between players (trading) won't be addressed here. PATCH NOTES Contradictions of Play Style, Planning Ahead Every time I see a new Patch Notes with a major change I feel GGG is just shooting itself in the foot. This game is all about carefully planning a build around the passive tree, skills, and items. Every time a major change occurs there is no precise details of the change. Everything in the patch notes are generic, the precise details have to be discovered after the patch contradicting the planning part of the game. Take League of Legends' or Starcraft 2's patch notes, every change is recorded with precise detail so people can plan ahead. I don't mind the mystery of new vendor recipes or uniques so it keeps the surprise factor alive in the game, but if its a major change that effects current builds I need to know the exact details. Planning ahead is a key part of the game and unless scourings/regrets become way more common, these generic patch notes are a direct contradiction of the planning part of the game. If it effects our build we don't want to be surprised we want details so we can plan ahead and adapt. Cast when Damage Taken This gem is still perfectly viable and it's effectiveness maybe got nerf'd 50-60% defensively at level 1. The problem is GGG came up with a patch video and a long list of patch notes but made ONE SENTENCE about the most important change in the patch and most people misread it because of how it was worded. Now if GGG would of taken 5 minutes to explain this change and how its still a viable gem I bet there wouldn't be as near as much QQ'ing and rage over this change. Every time I watch a League of Legends patch video they easily explain the reasoning behind the major changes but this is credited to the transparent relationship that Riot already has with its players. Balancing, Lack of Diversity Balancing needs to happen in every game. League of Legends balance changes happens frequently and there's is not nearly as much complaining about those changes because of the viability of other champions/builds. Right now this game has become stale, the viable end game builds haven't changed much. Most skill gems are still under-powered. The fact that every class shares the same skill tree might be a factor in this problem as well but its also a fundamental part of this game. Cast when Damage Taken bought excitement and made almost any build viable because it added huge defensive stats to people's builds. The gem was clearly OP but the other cast gems are really under-powered, other than Cast on Crit. So far the balancing changes have been Nerfs and the other under-powered/useless skills remains untouched. This provides ZERO incentive to try new builds. Added in the fact, certain builds also require very expensive gear (Soultaker, Koams, Shavs, 6L's, etc..), adds to the lack of diversity. Right now, I rather see GGG focus on Quality of Life (i.e. FPS or Disconnect/Server) changes rather than balancing changes which they can focus down the road with more testing. The release of Cast when Damage Taken was a clear indication of lack of testing. TLDR: Most of the anger towards the nerfs could of been avoided if GGG actually learns how to communicate with its players. An one sentence description of the most important change in the patch was bound to get an abundance of overreactions. |
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Still waiting for the 'unspoken' part.
Nothing you adress here wasn't already talked about in various threads. 50% (yeah, i got that number out of my ass) is false/subjective. I find GGG has good communication with the players. Good read though. “Demons run when a good man goes to war" Last edited by Sneakypaw#3052 on Nov 14, 2013, 11:36:03 AM
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GGG has the best communication of any game developer I've ever seen. I've been around quite a while and to get DAILY updates from a company is unheard of.
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OP: Please never again equate GGG with "masters of coding"...
" ROFL... Seriously man, I get it, you donated some money, you got a pretty forum title, you love them, I get it, I truly do... But seriously, come on... Last edited by StinkFinger#4623 on Nov 14, 2013, 11:35:44 AM
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" You make no point in your post. How can I even respond? |
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" So I averaging from level 18 gems. Enduring Cry at 18 gives 34 charges at level 5 it gives 17. That's a 50% loss. Molten Shell gives 943 armour at 18 and 294 at level 7. That's 68% loss. Immortal Call gives 0.57 seconds at 18 and 0.42 seconds at level 3. ~26% loss. It varies depending on skill. I still use Enduring Cry and Molten Shell but I trigger Immortal Call manually now since I find the Endurance Charges more useful. |
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" If you can't find the point in that post... Then you truly are blinded by fanboyism. |
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" Oh. So you have nothing to say about the topic. Just running fanboy patrol. Good to know. Keep up the good work mate :-) |
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Good read. No one cares, but im burning out on this game. I had a lot of hope for GGG but unfortunately like D3 was, I dont think its ready for any type of Crown, its got its own problems in its own ways. And damn near the same problem with resist and defensive stat stacking and lack of affixes.
Closed Beta|Open Beta|Release|League Only
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They do communicate well compared to other devs of other games, but the problem with them is that they tend to dismiss the reasons of nerfs or game balance changes, they are more like "it will be nerfed" and reasons aren't given.
but its good to not look opinionated in front of people, even if they did contradict few things they said before. My Craft Logs-thread/359202
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