Afterthoughts on completing the 8 challenges

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johnKeys wrote:

EDIT: @Redblade, GG. well played man. one righteous man found in the city of Sodom. 49 to go.

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johnKeys wrote:

just to clarify my previous posts here: I'm blaming the game, not the players.

here's a set of questions. tell me how many of you 8/8 challenge holders:

1) didn't RMT?
2) didn't map-hack/zoom-hack?
3) didn't multibox or use various borderline-bannable macros and automations?
4) never scammed the fuck out of anyone in trade.
5) played the actual game more than playing "the economy"?
6) used an interesting (preferably custom) build, rather than the usual ST or RF snap-shotting bullshit (so much for build diversity)? or at least didn't fucking snapshot the damn Passive Tree itself per Atziri run?

and just to prove my point, I'd say that if I put in
7) did it self-found?

the amount of answers would be .
heck, even if we extend the leagues to a whole year, it would still likely be zero.

that says something.
but not about the players.
those of you 8/8 guys who answered "yes" to at least the first 3 (or preferably 4) questions - kudos to you. GG.
it says something about the way the game is designed, and the way the challenges design progressively pushed the boundaries of "disgusting" from temp league to temp league, until reaching a peak in this one.

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johnKeys wrote:

just to clarify my previous posts here: I'm blaming the game, not the players.

here's a set of questions. tell me how many of you 8/8 challenge holders:

1) didn't RMT?
2) didn't map-hack/zoom-hack?
3) didn't multibox or use various borderline-bannable macros and automations?
4) never scammed the fuck out of anyone in trade.
5) played the actual game more than playing "the economy"?
6) used an interesting (preferably custom) build, rather than the usual ST or RF snap-shotting bullshit (so much for build diversity)? or at least didn't fucking snapshot the damn Passive Tree itself per Atziri run?

and just to prove my point, I'd say that if I put in
7) did it self-found?

the amount of answers would be .
heck, even if we extend the leagues to a whole year, it would still likely be zero.

that says something.
but not about the players.
those of you 8/8 guys who answered "yes" to at least the first 3 (or preferably 4) questions - kudos to you. GG.
it says something about the way the game is designed, and the way the challenges design progressively pushed the boundaries of "disgusting" from temp league to temp league, until reaching a peak in this one.

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JakeAlmighty wrote:

I'm on vacation for a few weeks, but I'll either message you to discuss it when I'm back or you can pm me on here to discuss it.

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Fireknight wrote:

I did not RMT and I never have. I did not use any hacks/mods and I never have. I did not multibox, though I have tried it in a previous 4-month league (without automation of any sort). I do not use any macros whatsoever and I never have. I have never scammed. I spent 90% of my time playing rather than trading; which is more than I can say for previous leagues. I made my own build, even if it happened to converge in the same direction that other successful uber killers did. I did not snapshot passives.

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You are absolutely wrong in your assumptions, if they're even assumptions. A cursory glance at your post history suggests you're either a rampant troll, have some misdirected vendetta against GGG, gain some sort of sadistic pleasure by complaining in online forums, or some combination thereof.

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Oh, and self-found. The pinnacle of the endgame is not intended to be played self-found. Being antisocial and secluding yourself from the economy is a valid playstyle, but it's not one that should be viable for completing 8/8 challenges. It's an alternative playstyle that the game should not be balanced around. If the hardest content in the game is balanced to be completed self-found in a challenge league, everything becomes 100% trivial to someone that trades (ie. the 95%+ of players that don't engage in self-imposed isolationism.)

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johnKeys wrote:

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Fireknight wrote:

I did not RMT and I never have. I did not use any hacks/mods and I never have. I did not multibox, though I have tried it in a previous 4-month league (without automation of any sort). I do not use any macros whatsoever and I never have. I have never scammed. I spent 90% of my time playing rather than trading; which is more than I can say for previous leagues. I made my own build, even if it happened to converge in the same direction that other successful uber killers did. I did not snapshot passives.

glad to read this.

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You are absolutely wrong in your assumptions, if they're even assumptions. A cursory glance at your post history suggests you're either a rampant troll, have some misdirected vendetta against GGG, gain some sort of sadistic pleasure by complaining in online forums, or some combination thereof.

you mean a fast, lazy, completely biased glance at my post history.
you probably didn't even get past the 2nd page of the most recent ones.
including the posts in this thread.

vendetta against GGG? not personally. never. as a colleague in the same line of coding work (though sadly not in Gaming), I respect their effort.
but yes against their year-long habit of making infuriatingly wrong decisions and prioritization, in rapid succession.
and against constantly putting that effort where it is lesser needed at that moment in time, while not putting it where it's needed urgently.
reason being, I - believe it or not - care a lot about this game, and still want to see it live up to its potential.
still do, after it keeps endlessly frustrating me since early Open Beta, coupled with above GGG decision-making.
that's not sadism. if anything, that's masochism.

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Oh, and self-found. The pinnacle of the endgame is not intended to be played self-found. Being antisocial and secluding yourself from the economy is a valid playstyle, but it's not one that should be viable for completing 8/8 challenges. It's an alternative playstyle that the game should not be balanced around. If the hardest content in the game is balanced to be completed self-found in a challenge league, everything becomes 100% trivial to someone that trades (ie. the 95%+ of players that don't engage in self-imposed isolationism.)

here are the one-million-dollar questions:

assuming a well-balanced game with a natural advantage to trading and "economy-play", can get you 8 challenges in 4 months with trade- should that same game allow you to get 8 challenges self-found in 5 months? 6 months? a year?
should that period (4 months to 1 year or more), be an inverse function of mostly - if not solely - player skill, knowledge, and ability to take upon and overcome challenge?

the answer - assuming a well-balanced game with above-defined risk/reward - is a huge YES.

the answer - in Path Of Exile - is a huge NO.

that's what I'm raging about. in a very neat nutshell.
that, and the game not even being close to release-quality from a technical polish standpoint, long after the actual release.

does it make me a "hater" of the game and GGG? no, it does not.
the continent of Wraeclast isn't divided strictly into "haters" and "fanboys", or "white knights" and "trolls".
the only category I belong in, is "John Keys". a Singleton. and I couldn't care less about what you think of me.
I do care what you think of my feedback though. you - and everyone else - can agree or disagree. just be sure to do so in a civilized manner, if that's not too much to ask.

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Fireknight wrote:

You seem to take a default stance that successful players are successful due to RMT, hacks, mods, scamming, predatory trading, or some other less-than-genuine method.