Bex's Four-Year Community Manager Anniversary

Gratz Bex and thanks a lot for all your work!

Cheers!

Gratz!


PS:I want more build of the week bloopers!

BEXTEST!

Congratulations! Here's to much more exciting and cool things for you moving forward.

First, congratulations to your anniversary!

"

Bex_GGG wrote:

I suspect that many don't understand that even when they have an enraged user base, they have a community full of passion and dedication to what they're doing and they don't really see that for the gift that it is, despite those situations being difficult to navigate.

Couldn't agree more!
Players investing the time to post constructive criticism means they care, they consider the game worthy of improvement and not yet flawed beyond repair. On the contrary, a game is really in trouble when players stop wasting their time on unread feedback and silently move on.

"

Bex_GGG wrote:

I think one of the toughest parts is the misunderstanding that us not addressing something publicly means we didn't notice or don't care about the issue. There's many reasons why we might not be able to comment about something yet but we're always paying attention. I am actually lucky in my position that I work alongside such an engaged development team. Of their own volition, most developers keep a frequent eye on community feedback.

GGG's more or less complete ignorance of forum discussions absolutely fuels this impression. If you want to convince us that you actually care for feedback, you could occasionally participate in discussions. For example the developer who made a certain element could clarify his position if it gets critisised or post something short like "we know this is an issue, we'll improve it in the next expansion". Or explain your thoughts behind controversial decisions like why you think layers of RNG lottery are a good thing or why we have to use consumeable maps and can't have unlimited waypoint access to all levels like in Diablo 2.
At the very least, please take a few seconds to falsify bug reports. Copy/paste standard answers like "Problem solved" or "This is not a bug, this is intended game behaviour." and save us all from wondering and discussing when it's not necessary. (Example: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2227674)

"

Bex_GGG wrote:

Also with pay to play games, most of their marketing is focused on getting you to make the single purchase to buy the game rather than ensuring that you have an ongoing positive experience with their game that then encourages you to invite your friends and be more likely to buy future games they put out.

I strongly disagree with that and, quite the opposite, tend to blame GGG's business modell for many design flaws of POE. A CD-selling game like Diablo 2 wants happy customers who come back to buy the next expansion; they don't have any particular economic interest in how you play the game after they sold the CD. Player satisfaction instead of player retention as primary goal!
POE on the other hand needs to constantly make small amounts of money and that constantly influences game design, and not for the better. You sell stash tabs, so you have to pollute our inventory. Thats why many leagues seem to be designed around inventory pollution (essences, nets, fossils, resonators, scarabs). Maps? Stash tab! Fragments? Stash tab! No auction house? See other player's MTX, buying it yourself. Meta enforcement? Skill MTX! Currency investment on everything (maps, alchs, vaal, zana mods, sextants, "crafting" aka gambling...)? Need to trade, need to sell items for currency generation (premium stash tab required!)! Mandatory online acess? See other player's MTX! and so on...
And: Diablo 2 allows modding. If someone invests the time to produce freeware like Median XL or BTH, it is just an added marketing value for D2's CD sales. POE on the contrary must make sure no one can come up with a mod, because that would be a competition for it's business modell.
An add-on CD can afford to take time for finishing and polishing, it will earn it's costs back anyways. You have to pump out content every 3 months, finished or not, to sell the corresponding supporter pack. The game doesn't get more and more complete, it gets more and more chaotic and inflationary. Every 3 months new skills and items must lead to power creep and broken balance, because you need a new sensation every 3 months...

"

I strongly disagree with that and, quite the opposite, tend to blame GGG's business modell for many design flaws of POE. A CD-selling game like Diablo 2 wants happy customers who come back to buy the next expansion; they don't have any particular economic interest in how you play the game after they sold the CD. Player satisfaction instead of player retention as primary goal!
POE on the other hand needs to constantly make small amounts of money and that constantly influences game design, and not for the better. You sell stash tabs, so you have to pollute our inventory. Thats why many leagues seem to be designed around inventory pollution (essences, nets, fossils, resonators, scarabs). Maps? Stash tab! Fragments? Stash tab! No auction house? See other player's MTX, buying it yourself. Meta enforcement? Skill MTX! Currency investment on everything (maps, alchs, vaal, zana mods, sextants, "crafting" aka gambling...)? Need to trade, need to sell items for currency generation (premium stash tab required!)! Mandatory online acess? See other player's MTX! and so on...
And: Diablo 2 allows modding. If someone invests the time to produce freeware like Median XL or BTH, it is just an added marketing value for D2's CD sales. POE on the contrary must make sure no one can come up with a mod, because that would be a competition for it's business modell.
An add-on CD can afford to take time for finishing and polishing, it will earn it's costs back anyways. You have to pump out content every 3 months, finished or not, to sell the corresponding supporter pack. The game doesn't get more and more complete, it gets more and more chaotic and inflationary. Every 3 months new skills and items must lead to power creep and broken balance, because you need a new sensation every 3 months...

You dont have a single supporter transaction yet you complain about a game for which you have to pay for having different mods available for it....would you pay 60$ annually to get updates but have those mods available?

It's also a joke you're shook no one responded to your added chaos damage not being available...seriously that's an issue for you?

if you don't like the game as much as you imply stop playing no one is forcing you

Edit: Bex thanks for all that you do some people appreciate the work even though we dont let you know as much as we should

she has a lovely voice, anyway...she picks builds of the week that are too expensive or with legacy items, she wants to trick us?

I don't really know what to say, i've been here as long as you do as a PoE player.

I don't know how you forum name was chosen cause every time something is posted by you it is a reminder of my real last name.

Well, happy anniversary, Wraeclast still needs you Exile.

PS : As a lore fan of the game, i'm still asking me why those masters have betrayed us... Or maybe they think we betrated them in some way...

"

starcv1907 wrote:

You dont have a single supporter transaction yet you complain about a game for which you have to pay for having different mods available for it....would you pay 60$ annually to get updates but have those mods available?

It's also a joke you're shook no one responded to your added chaos damage not being available...seriously that's an issue for you?

if you don't like the game as much as you imply stop playing no one is forcing you

Edit: Bex thanks for all that you do some people appreciate the work even though we dont let you know as much as we should

I complain about that business modell enforcing design decisions that damage the game.

And yes, I payed full price for Diablo 1, Hellfire, and two CD Sets of Diablo 2 and LOD (for LAN-muling). I did not support POE for reasons explained at length here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2086273
I am talking about freedom for independent modmakers up to total conversions.

And there are many, many other bug reports or game mechanics questions on the forum that were very simple to clarify but remain uncommented.

And about your tip to stop playing - do you see a challenge counter besides my name? I'm just checking back occasionally to see if things improve or not...