If GGG believes in POE as an ARPG, then why the out-of-genre mini-games?

Here is a (partial?) list of mini-games that are not usually associated with an ARPG in POE:

1. Labyrinth and Trials* - 2D sidescroller platform genre gameplay where trap gaunlets are not merely an environmental hazard, as is usual in ARPGs, but a core part of the experience. Think Frogger, Mario, Prince of Persia, and adventure games.

2. Masters and their daily missions - MMO-style daily quests are not usual for an ARPG, rewards frequent engagement.

3. Bestiary - An obvious Pokemon-style "collection" mini-game. Crafting could have been organized any number of ways within the ARPG genre. Instead, GGG picked an out-of-genre mini-game which involves developing a new kind of skill (timing at throwing nets, to keep things alive).

Among these three choices, Bestiary is probably the easiest to ignore. It's pretty tough to ignore Labyrinth (Ascendancy) and ignoring Masters is an odd choice if you'd like to progress as far as possible in the game (who ignores Zana, for example?).

These additions have all been divisive -- Labyrinth especially, Masters somewhat, Bestiary definitely, with the caveat that it's pretty easy to ignore Bestiary and so emotions aren't running as high as they did for Labyrinth.

Which leads to the question in the subject line -- If GGG has faith in POE as an ARPG, then why do they keep going out-of-genre for key parts of players' in-game experience?

As a follow-up question, does the out-of-genre stuff make the game better for many, or worse?

* I probably should have explicitly listed trials together with Lab when making the OP, as of course some (like Snorkle & SisterBlister) may have very different reactions to trials than to Lab itself.

I like the lab, running uber lab is super fun for me.


absolutely hate the trails that are all just pure trap gauntlets, absolutely despise them if it was my game Id have you run them once and when theyre all done theyre replaced with mini dungeons and a boss fight at the end for your offerings, making people run the pure guantlets over and over infinitely... aids, why is this in the game? horrible.


Hate most master missions, the ones that are kill the beasts in the area, kill the exile in the area, fine. all the others are horrible and I would remove them if it was my game. Escorting spiders, keep the guy on low life, stand and kill the waves, duel the duelist... plz. Just busy body work, horrible, do this bothersome thing you hate for a reward. Plz, enough, terrible terrible terrible. Imo they make the game worse, absolutely hate them. Feels like the design team trying to find something different for us to do for the sake of it and just throwing in the best they came up with. Just make us kill monsters and bosses, thats what the game is, escorting and all this stuff, its just busy work baggage. Its stuff born of devs feeling a need to put something in, its not stuff born of an idea for great stuff that they then found a place for, and it feels like it. Horrible.



Thats my take, everyones gonna have their own take im sure. Somewhere out there someones gonna love escorting spiders half way across a map or backtracking to a lvl30something zone to clear dried lake for a prophecy with a 1 million dps lvl95 character right? Tell me theres at least 1 person who actually enjoys this timewasting bullshit and its not every single player suffering for the sake of devs trying to justify what theyre adding to themselves?

I don't have a problem with the mini games
They were just executed poorly

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

I like the lab, running uber lab is super fun for me.
absolutely hate the trails that are all just pure trap gauntlets, absolutely despise them...

Man, I could have written that. Really hate those trials, but the price of offerings make them hard to ignore. Lousy choice to have to make, as both options feel like they have more downsides than upsides. Guess it's more like work than a game in this respect.

As to ARPG: Nope, POE has turned into an isometric shooter. Tactics are not necessary, spamming a single OP skill is the best strategy to deal with high level content. I always thought that getting swarmed by dozens of monsters is the typical way to die in a fantasy game. Instead it's the way to keep up your flask charges for their buffs and only totally OP damage multiplier combinations or cheesy boss mechanics kill you, unless your DPS is high enough to prevent said mechanics from ever manifesting.

(Wow, gotta go to sleep and take a break from POE for a while, my posts are getting ever more negative. Sorry)

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As to ARPG: Nope, POE has turned into an isometric shooter. Tactics are not necessary, spamming a single OP skill is the best strategy to deal with high level content. I always thought that getting swarmed by dozens of monsters is the typical way to die in a fantasy game. Instead it's the way to keep up your flask charges for their buffs and only totally OP damage multiplier combinations or cheesy boss mechanics kill you, unless your DPS is high enough to prevent said mechanics from ever manifesting.

This.