GGG is lying to you.

Been around since the beginning and still coming back from time to time. Play in a short droves as OP said though.

"

Juggernaut420 wrote:

Been around since the beginning and still coming back from time to time. Play in a short droves as OP said though.

In other words, players rotate in and out of PoE. It would be unrealistic to expect them to stay and play... every... single... league... (or race season) when there are competing entertainments. I quite playing leagues (and also opted out of the Medallion race season) because of issues I have with how remove-only tabs randomly sprawl through my otherwise well-organized stash tabs. It's a pain in the okole to have to manually slide dozens of race rewards and remove-only league leftovers to where they belong, and it can be discouraging enough (along with meh race rewards last season) to send me back to Skyrim for a coupla months.

However, I'm not gonna just quit playing. I LOVE PoE, and I enjoy watching the game evolve over time. Hell, we're getting a new ACT in 2017! New physics engine, improved graphics, elimination of one difficulty, with all the quest reward smoothing that implies (mebbe a li'l some'n-some'n for killing Dominus besides a pat on the head from Dialla and access to Highgate?), and all the stuff GGG hasn't told us about, yet.

I'm in and out, but I'm mostly in for the long term.

Ded gem is doin' FINE. =^[.]^=

"

Xavderion wrote:

"

Arrowneous wrote:

"

eXecut1on wrote:

People seem to forget ALL the russians came over and PoE has still less players than last league :/
These russia/garena etc. merges are just attempts to keep the game alive

Even with Russian players this league this can't beat Perandus League (March 2016) player stats.

PoE Steam Charts

I wonder why GGG ignores the obvious fact that most players are tired of gear starvation. Many have quit this year for lack of endgame gear to do red maps. It's not that we want rain of uniques or anything close to it. It's just that gear starvation is not pushing us into trading more. Either we just muddle along and suffer with few endgame gear for the red maps (forget Guardians or The Shaper) and are not very happy or we quit. I mean where is the financial logic in starving us out of playing. I'm a loyalist (me and my Kiwi) so I'm here until act 5 but my PoE happiness quotient has hit rock bottom with GGG not fixing trading in over 3 years and not making solo playing more rewarding. (I'll stop the trolls by saying: I know, I know... GGG has coded PoE around trading for better gear.) Come on GGG if you want us to engage in trading give us asynchronous trade function so we don't need to hunt down the god damn seller to buy anything. That is so last century arpg programming. Computers are supposed to make things easier yet lack of QoL features is killing many player's desires to continue grinding.

This post is funny because it shows that this league has higher retention than Perandus.

Exactly, Perandus dropped 36% after the first month, while Essence has dropped only 27%.

These people are reading the numbers, and not the percentages.

"

eXecut1on wrote:

People seem to forget ALL the russians came over and PoE has still less players than last league :/
These russia/garena etc. merges are just attempts to keep the game alive

Yeah that recent D3 realm merge is also just another attempt to pad numbers too. haha

Whether you like it or not, things are trending great for 3.0 to break records all around (peak, #players, retention, money spent). They just need to execute. The bar for 2.5 is probably "just don't fuck things up while we get the hype started for 3.0."

"

XigTek wrote:

"

Xavderion wrote:

This post is funny because it shows that this league has higher retention than Perandus.

Exactly, Perandus dropped 36% after the first month, while Essence has dropped only 27%.

These people are reading the numbers, and not the percentages.

Perandus also launched alongside Labyrinth, possibly the most reviled content ever released. Essence launched alongside Atlas, which frankly didn't change a whole fuck of a lot for most people.

This shit doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Of course it is dying!

That's why you hire more employees when your business model doesn't guarantee earnings and your customers are all jumping boat.

Makes perfect sense. (lol)

I dunno if the game is dying, but outside of geographical expansions (garena, etc) I don't know if they are growing much in their existing markets.

People always try to over-analyze and criticize GGG for no real good reason. The game is still a whole lot of fun and still has the most replayablity in the current ARPG genre.

I have a few things about this game that bug me. I suspect that I am not 100% alone in feeling the way I do either:

1) Map Drop RNG - There simply needs to be a clear progression towards end game. If a character is surviving T13 crazy map mods, there should be some sort of baked-in, guaranteed progression to the next stage of difficulty. Having low level map drops and having desired-level map pools dry up is (imo) the #1 deterrence for players to "stick with this game". Trading is not something players enjoy for progression. People don't mind trading for gear, but feel that progression should be a NATURAL REWARD from playing the game. "So wait I have to use these orb thingies to buy gear AND the next level of difficulty? WTF?" <-- I HAVE GOTTEN THIS COMMENT MULTIPLE TIMES FROM PLAYERS I INTRODUCE TO THIS GAME.

2) Non-tangible end game rewards - The one big thing I believe POE fails at is proper loot progression. If you are going to put a carrot on a stick, it has to "feel" tangible. The average player needs to believe they will find something in a T14 map with crazy map mods. Right now, the game has a very grindy feeling end game if you do not desire to chase XP farming. Loot farming in end game feels pointless. I personally never get the feeling that I am farming "for loot". In my head I am always farming for currency. ALWAYS. The only time I don't is when i focus on boss farming: Uber anything, Shaper, etc. The game should have more rewarding areas in the game other than uber lab and shaper. It fails HARD in this area.

3) Better end game gear progression - I know this is very subjective. My really big problem with grinding end game is that at a certain point I feel like my character has every gear slot filled out and the only thing I have left is to get good vaals. I guess this is okay for most, but to me if I could progress my gear without destroying I would like that option as well. Maybe adding something like enchantments for ALL gear that are not specifically tied to power: i.e. +40% inc blade vortex AOE...but stuff that changes the way you play your char. Simple stuff... (bad example incoming)..."movement skills now trigger ice nova at the end of their animation" or "skills that are linked by at least 4 supports now have a chance to freeze".... I don't know (i'm not very creative). But things that aren't directly related to power that just do cool things....

4) Better tutorials, cut scenes, polish - This game needs to connect the lore to the game better. I have over 2500 hours in this game and still have not clue as to the plot. I don't like reading my lore. It makes me feel disconnected from the characters. Sorry but when I play games I want to watch a movie...not read a book. I don't think I'm alone in that.

5) Game is boring until you get your first 4 link - A lot of my friends quit this game because character builds and skills don't feel like they are even coming together until the SECOND playthrough. The number one complaint I get is "Why would I do that again on cruel? How will my experience be different?"...and honestly that is hard to explain to a newer player. Characters need to feel cooler at an early power level...granted I have no idea how to do this...just stating what friends have told me.


....any way i went way off tangent...

The last thing I'd like to point out is that a LOT of GGG's success is because of Blizzard's failures. There are a ton players here that begrudgingly play this game because it is better than D3, but still not what they are looking for. I think the gear starvation in this game is still too much for MOST players. When games don't feel rewarding players stop playing. Veteran players see the value when an orb drops...new players are really only interested in the uniques. If uniques don't drop, they stop playing...it's really that simple.

I came back just a week and a couple days ago after a brief stint in 2012, which also followed a not very long time during open beta ( I knew I'd regret not getting my own Kiwi).
I've gotten far more deeply into it and am enjoying it a lot more this time round though, it's exactly what I'm looking for at the moment.
I can just hop on, make some progress towards finishing cruel and merciless, hop out to sell something and be back to it in a minute or two, and try out those insane amount of builds/spells there are which I know everyone has probably done to death, but for me it's all new content and it'll last me a long time.

Then there's there's the Lab. I did the one in normal, and frankly just wanted it to be over.
I don't like the traps, not because they're difficult, but because they're a bloody annoyance.
I have to wait for floors to stop being on fire, get stopped while a blade moves, stop every second on a spike floor. That's not fun, it's a constant interruption to my fun.
Then there's the fact I have to do the whole thing at once, After running through about 3 or 4 rooms covered in traps I really can't be bothered anymore and just leave.
Why on earth is such a hugely build effecting game element locked behind something that nobody seems to enjoy but grits their teeth to get past so they can never go back again?

Well, I believe that you are a (Removed by Support) and that (Removed by Support) can have you. Ultimately (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support).

Edit: All of you will be (Removed by Support).

"

Bjarmfark wrote:

Well, I believe that you are a (Removed by Support) and that (Removed by Support) can have you. Ultimately (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support) (Removed by Support).

Edit: All of you will be (Removed by Support).

Good one, I'll (Removed by Support) the (Removed by Support) your entire (Removed by Support).

Unless Support foils me by changing this to make no sense.