Storm Call is the most visually satisfying build in all of POE

This might seem a bit personal but go with it: are you married? I've been married once, and am with a defacto partner now with whom I've lived for, shit, almost 8 years now. Suffice to say, I've had two significant phases in my life where I lived with someone else about as intensely as one can.

Some days, my relationship with GGG and PoE is like the first marriage as I see it now -- I don't really want to think about it; I won't even load the game. I tell myself it was someone else who experienced all that crazy intense stuff, the closeness, the warm fuzzy awesomeness, and so on. I know it happened, but I can't *feel* it. Specifically about GGG, these days are usually associated with weird nerf decisions, announcements of mtxes I consider terrible, changes to the game that cater to the no-lifers and inadvertently screw over the more casual (dare I say 'normal') players...and that stuff happens a lot. Now, as far as GGG go, I don't take this personally -- I hold no ill-will towards my ex-wife; we just went in different directions. For the best. Almost paradoxically, I am *more* at peace with this first scenario because it is essentially past-tense. That's when I can just go, well, what is, is. Maybe I'll jump on and kill some stuff quietly. Or maybe I'll go play Warframe. Or watch TV. These are all equal possibilities not in the slightest affected by any past dealings with GGG. I threw some money at them. I'll never see it again. The game is a success, though, which is ultimately why I threw money at them. All good.

The other days, my relationship with GGG and PoE is my current situation -- it's present tense, it's overwhelmingly positive, I feel like I actually belong here and I am like FUCK YEAH I AM THE RULER OF WRAECLAST!...what triggers those days? That's less easy to pinpoint. Could be something as simple as a nice post or message from someone. Or noticing something awesome but relatively subtle in-game. More directly, it happens when I have to deal with GGG and things go well. Oni-Goroshi's design process was far, far more enjoyable than TGU's or TGS's. I really got a sense that the item was going to work on many if not all levels. Before it released, Oni-Goroshi was all about the communication between myself and one particular dev, who messaged me first more often than not. That means a lot, especially now. Because I get accused of being pushy or demanding on GGG, abusing my position and so on. Just as with my current relationship with the GFiancee, *that is an easy way to ruin a good thing*. When it works, it works. Nothing forced, no friction. It's wonderful.

BUT it is a microcosm. I want GGG to succeed no matter what, *even if* the game goes in ways I don't personally like. I see no real contradiction between having a civil, enjoyable chat with a dev (even Chris) and at the same time saying, I really don't like where the game is now. You have never and will never see me say outright 'this game is shit and the devs need to die in a fire' or anything like that because even when I FUCKING LOATHE POE, I'm aware plenty of other people don't so it's probably just me. I might make a huge post ranting about it but that's just to give my angle. Most of my posts that do that benefit from very good responses providing other angles. If I'm proud of anything regarding PoE, it's not my item designs or my monster contribution...it's my history of occasionally spawning very positive and yet very critical discussion. When that happens, I am really, truly in love with PoE for being there, for attracting the sorts of players who can engage in that without name-calling or making it personal...those are the best of days.

Which is all to say I'm actually *not* disillusioned with GGG because I always tried to keep it fairly realistic. Good days and bad days. Moments of awe, moments of despair. I have rage-quit the game just as I rage-quit the idea of love with that first marriage (...albeit far less explosively), and I have returned, tail between legs, just as I did when I met the current partner. I think PoE and GGG are far too complex and, well, 'dynamic' to be relegated to something you can be 'disillusioned' about. To me, to be disillusioned you need to have been 'illusioned' in the first place. Which can be written, or rather corrected, as 'delusional'. There is no genuine opposite to 'disillusioned'. just as there really isn't one for 'disenfranchised'. Or 'jaded'. At least, no sane opposite: you can say fanboyism, enamoured, enraptured, deluded, etc...but I believe I was never any of those with GGG. They're just the other end of a spectrum upon which I try very hard to avoid any extremity. Growing up is all about finding the happy medium, after all. :)

EXTRA CREDIT RESPONSE: Ignoring pie-in-the-sky stuff like my permanent Descent mode proposal, I think the biggest change that would excite me is a paid offline mode. God, I sat and stared at the screen for far too long before daring to type that. But I always said that PoE was too good for the f2p model, that so many of us play and support it DESPITE it being f2p. I don't play poE because it's good value. I play because it's a damn good game that stands up to and stares down at a bunch of games I happily paid for these past two decades. So a paid offline version that is less encumbered by the demands of a meta game would be glorious. It's never going to happen, but you asked. :)