Trendspotting: POE Playerbase almost halved on Steam alone since the release of Awakening

According to Steam Charts there is a mass exodus in the pipes, which is quiet unusual at the beginning or during a fresh start of a major patch.

Thoughts?

I am not an expert, but I would think that is completely normal for a free to play online game expansion or release?

Many players would just of signed up to "check it out" due to the marketing campaign and quit after 30 minutes, finding that the game is just not for them :)

Thoughts? Well I for one, think that the Awakening was great overall but in some respects they did a pretty terrible job.

Most of my friends and guildmates came back for the Awakening, hyped about its features.

-The majority got disappointed and quit with the balance changes (on the verge of quitting as well).
-Many of them got disappointed by divination cards, calling it "nothing new" and "more of the same stuff to grind for".

Tbh in my opinion, the only good thing in the Awakening besides the not-so-large new act, was the loot filter. Already missing many 1.3 builds and it's the first time this happens to me after a patch.

Well it would take about this long for your average casual player to reach level 80+ on a warbands character and hit their first major progression wall, maybe start a new toon and possibly hit that wall again.

A huge amount of people who play games will beat the "campaign" do all the extras, and once they've 100%ed they move on to the next game. You can't exactly 100% PoE so once they realize that they move on. Seems like enough time has passed for that imo.

Thoughts ?

Less server load for ME!

Fuck yeah.

Peace,

-Boem-

First of all thats an ARPG say what you want it has never been popular as FPS or MMORPG ( or recently MOBA ) are.

Even in diablo 2 old times it was already the case it was not that popular.

Second thing this is a holidays period in lot of countries ( no need to mention players are also human for most of them and need some sun / beer etc ... ).

Third thing i would say is the game is still PoE. No polish. No new player friendly. Decisions for content are for lot of them arn't priority vs the common players demand. Don't forget that players most common comment when testing a game is " These graphics are good / these graphics sux - This HUD is good / This HUD is bad - Sensation of speed evolution trought game / sensation of slow boring evolution trought game ).

And to end it: Challenge you added are BAD.

I don't have any other word they are just BAD.
Based on trading wich is already a pain for lot of players ( I pay a supporter pack the day you improve that and not the cheapest one.) but well i'm pretty sure that's your next plan after balance and bug fix for new content.

Same than in many Free to play games for hunt challenges .. play 500 hours to give me money you might be able to finish this challenge.

Vendor recipe one is a good challenge going in the sense of new player but that should be called a tutorial and not a challenge.

Leveling progression is a bit better now with the removal of some areas i totaly agree.

Do not release an expansion for marketing purpose ( in this case the d3 new season ).
Release it when you fixed ( for real ) the hard technical issues and balancing problems. That's a player killer. I would have waited three more weeks at least for map bug / malachai balance / items balance / jewels balance ( hello Flame totem builds ).

On positive point PoE still better than is has never been. The only two thing he lack to make more players coming in is more user-friendly early game and ofc the legendary trade system ( wich is not a trade system. system would consider there are some rules. ).


A bit rude comment maybe but based on what i talk with others around and aswell new one i tried to bring on PoE ( they left ). I love this game. I wouldn't even comment that if it wasn't the case.

Last note: Steam chart doesn't count the PoE players who still play without steam of course. And they are a lot :

3 free skill points, loot filter, div cards and a new end boss I can't (yet) farm.

Otherwise, I don't see any difference.

Had a couple of old timer friends return to check it out, all left after their first RIP in the new league.

Said it before and will say it again, the trends are alarming for the game.

To all the idiots thinking this is a good thing and wants ppl to leave, they will find themselves in the "wastelands of the games that came before". Those that have been around long enough have seen them and know what slow strangled end they meet.(esp since this isnt really a pure ARPG but most of the game is done through trading)

Imo it's alarming that the playerbase behaves exactly as any other temp.league / expansion, despite 2.0 bringing so much more in content and improvements than any other update so far.

You don't even need to look at steam charts, just check trade chat and the mechanism that puts you autmatically into a chat number: in first two weeks it was 100+, after a month it's 1 - 20.

Steam charts rectistics. If I had a Wisdom Scroll for every time someone claimed that Steam charts portended doom for PoE, I could by enough Exalts to but a 6L Shav's. =^[.]^=