GGG losing its touch ? Golden ERA of POE over ?

As above

Yes. Run for the hills!

Oh come on, I'm not happy with this league either, and I have serious issues with some of GGGs other decisions, but POE is still a fine game, and it's no where remotely close to dying. They'd need to string several leagues like this in a row together to start with something like this.

For Innovation, maybe.

but to keep players happy, we are always one Mindless, loot pinata league away from giving players what they want.

The game is better than it's ever been. They just needed to polish this league more before release.

Eh. Not everybody has a perfect streak of hits. People are just more then happy on occasion to forget a lot of the missed swings if you make a big enough spectacle of the hits, and nothing does that better then a crowd.

It's a missed swing, but it's also a nice learning experience. I imagine it was also a bit risky, but if you never make an attempt at something because it might not work out...

I mean look at Nintendo. They innovate all the time, some of them pretty big misses with their core audience (Virtual Boy, the N64*), but some of their hits have frankly been absolutely amazing (SNES, Switch, 3Ds, Wii U**). As long as the hits outweigh the misses in severity, I'm sure GGG will be fine.

They can even still make something useful out of this league.

(*The N64 didn't do too terribly well commercially - not enough to sink the company, but a huge miss. It's gotten a nostalgia resurgence lately, but at the time, it was pretty well a flop.)

(**The common consensus is that the Wii U is what the Wii should have been, and it still managed to do pretty well. Certainly better then it's immediate two predecessors in the Gamecube and Wii. Your mileage may vary of course.)

That depends - do you read the forums at the start of every league?

Do you think that games should be shut down if they add something to the game that not everybody likes?

Do you think that most video game players visit forums to express their opinions?

Do you think streamers are the only players whose opinions really matter?

Do you think that temporary leagues in a game are the sole indicator of how the game will do in the future?

Do you enjoy playing the game at all?

Does other people's enjoyment of the game affect your enjoyment of the game?

Do you understand 'denial'?

Do you believe that playing the same game over and over again, even with small additions, will keep someone (including yourself) entertained forever?

Do you hate change?

Do you hate innovation?

Do you think of the people behind PoE as humans (who love video games) or only as a business who wants your money?

Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

Do small changes in the world make you think the world is ending?

Your answer to these questions are important to answering your initial question.

The game is steadily getting better actually. They removed reflect. They toned down many of the enemies and end game bosses to be predictive in their damage spikes (as most are big hits and avoidable thru play). They also have phasing which many players hate because it curbs clear speeds, but it does flesh out boss fights. A much better solution to making them harder without giving them one-shot power all over.

Tons of little QOL improvements that flesh out the play and user interaction.

They've been working hard on expanding end game to be more than just mapping the same map because it has the best layout or mob density. It's all still all hinged on chase items but there is far more variety than when I first started playing.

Ascendancies and power creep brought a lot of skills to the foreground. Gone are the days on basically one skill trampling the game and everything else doing nothing.

They've actually calmed down on nerfing. They are still hammering down nails but far less so. Anyone remember EQ? Jesus.

This game had a bad league. Yeah. But it's one league. Calm down.

One bad league isn't the end. This league is actually encouraging to me, it shows that they're willing to try new things, I think the problem is they feel the need to keep this 3 month development cycle, and it's probably not enough time to fully vet anything interesting.

"

_Tiem wrote:

The game is steadily getting better actually. Jesus.

This game had a bad league. Yeah. But it's one league. Calm down.

Torment Warbands Talisman all objectively shit leagues that Poe was lucky to have survived, Perandus was awesome, then back to Essence which was average, then a good league in Breach, then 4 shit leagues Legacy Garbinger Abyss and Worstiary.

It's obvious that Chris and Woodful and Rory are in over their heads. If the core game wasn't as awesome as it is, it would have folded 1/2 way thru Talisman.