Is it just me or is the game just not fun...

OK before all the fan boys jump on me I’m just simply asking. Last league I’ve never had so much fun and I worked up to 39 challenges. I’ve never played the game so much and before you suggest that I am burnt out I can switch over to standard and still really enjoy playing.

But there’s something about this league and I can’t put my finger on it but I’m not having any fun at all, in fact the game feels like going to work. I’m about to close my client and probably not sign on for a while again. But I wanted to ask is anybody else feeling this or is it just me.

I can’t put my finger on it really, I just know that I get excited to play, and I sit down to play and after 10 minutes I just feel like doing something else. It’s disappointing because I have a lot more free time than normal and I was really looking forward to doing as many challenges in achievements I can but I am just not enjoying playing league at all.

Progress is slow and my build doesn’t seem to be accomplishing as much as I’d hoped. Many things that I had planned out ended up getting nerfed but I’ve had all that before and managed to adapt.

I do know that one of the frustrations I’m having is not being able to use any of the pricing tools which seem to be off-line 90% of the time but I have enough stash space I can just toss them in there and wait till later so it’s not just that.

I am not trying to complain about the game which I love and I’ve been playing since beta. But I’ve never actually had this little enjoyment in playing even when I was new and really sucked at the game. So I’m honestly trying to find out if anybody else is feeling a lack of enjoyment and what they might be able to see is the cause.

Thank you in advance for keeping the discussion civil.

I will try to be objective.

This league works less with the games content, and pushes the zoom zoom meta harder than any other league from my perspective. In other leagues, the ability to clear fast is rewarded sometimes (in a breach, in an incursion, in a synth map). In this league, you must run the whole map that way. Not some of the time, all of the time.

It punishes you for pausing to consider what temple room to run, what to do with your betrayal content, for considering how to play or take on the next pack.

The only way to play is throw yourself relentlessly from pack to pack never pausing or thinking or making decisions.

It punishes decision making. Which is fundamentally why many people play the game. They dont want to be a headhunter cyclone self-curse player blasting through maps without even seeing whats around them. They want to make choices.

This league is all about builds that clear super fast regardless of whats around you. No choice, just zoom.

Some people have more fun that way, some less. Just sounds like you are in the less group.

You are not alone.

Yep, feeling kinda same.

Wanted to go to 36, now I doubt I even get to 24.
Boring? to much restrictions and too much freedom I feel like I lost in Poe already.

Wow, that was a quite insightful. I think you hit the nail exactly on the head. I’ve always gotten to play the game the way I wanted to play and work my way through the content. This is making me feel like I have to be a certain way that doesn’t fit my playstyle.

Yeah, every time I go in to the map I keep feeling kind of stressed, instead of excited and anticipating destroying mobs. I feel like I am just having to rush through and survive and it’s taking all of the joy out of the game for me.

Thank you so much for pointing that out. And while I really enjoyed the last two leagues I do you think the mechanics keep pushing having to run faster and faster and do more of the entire map instead of just the parts I like to do.

The other reply also was spot on accurate and that I am really not able to make any decisions or if I do I’m punished I can’t even decide what I’m going to pick up or leave on the ground. As a result I’ve had to double or triple back my tracks just to go and sort through the loot I ran past. I spend more time at a map and less time playing the game than ever.

This was really the only game I play so I guess I need to find something to do to decompress. A new game maybe. I don’t watch television. And not really working due to the coronavirus. So while not appropriate to the forum if anybody has any game ideas that I might like feel free to PM me.

There's always standard?

Seriously, it can be a cool place to test new skills and go at your own pace, with (if you have played past leagues) no map drop pressures.

I was saying exactly this to a friend the other night. This League feels like I'm at work constantly under time pressure to get the job done as fast as possible. My RL job is like that so I don't want in PoE too.

After a few hours of playing I leave the game feeling stressed and having not enjoyed the time spent. This may be the earliest I've left a league for quite a while.

Please GGG, next league can you move away from the zoom zoom? After playing some other games in the genre recently and coming back to PoE it feels like I'm playing in constant super speed.

The problem with timed fog at all is that it's not even needed. Just have fog permanently fill the entire map and have concentric zones of difficulty starting with the mirror (easy) and radiating outwards to the edges by regular intervals, so that the points on the map farthest from the mirror have +6 or +7 monster level, additional buffs and higher stages/levels of rewards.

The fast forward button is also a kill switch.

You can still zoom through maps until everything's dead. You could push until you died, or until you hit a wave of mobs far enough from the mirror that you want to end the delirium before you actually die.

Or you could proceed cautiously, making detours to do alvas, vaal areas, abysses, breaches, syndicate, etc. in whatever order you like without worrying.

Delirium orbs would then have to find something else to contribute so they wouldn't be totally useless. How about delirium specific mods or events?

--Stealing charges was once a possible mod roll in delve. It seems to have been removed from delve and repurposed for the Simulacrum waves. A light version might be an interesting twist for a delirium orb.

--Likewise with "monsters drop items X levels higher". This is a great way for Delirium to be rewarding - ilvl 85+ items that can roll the top teir of important mods and get a rare set of vaal corrupts.

--Players are X% delirious seems like it should impose global debuffs on players instead of a hidden buff to monsters. I don't like the idea of debuffs that can't be worked around or removed by careful preparation and gearing. But something like reduced light radius, small size, etc. would be interesting and challenging debuffs that do not disable entire builds.

Honestly so many players have pointed out the total phony "logic" behind on-death effects in the fog as a slowdown on speed runners that the entire league manifesto has become a meme. Even breach and legion, clearspeed standbys, have an economy of space that makes them viable to a rather wide range of builds. This, not so much.

I was feeling the stress from the timer as well. I play games to wind down after work, this league doesn't do it for me at all mainly due to the timer. I've already moved on to other games now and check back in every few days in the hopes that they finally axe the timer itself, but it really looks like they are doubling down on the timer instead.

same here

i play 2-3 maps, and then stop playing.

i tried to have fun with other skills, but everything feels like tedious

Go play witcher, dark souls, rdr 2, Ori... There are alot of other great games out there. I jump alot between different games and cycle through them. Found out I enjoy them more this way.

As for this league specifically, it definitly doesnt bring the same enjoyment as last league.