[Suggestion] To GGG, make a decision and be firm with your direction

Dear GGG,

I supported and loved your game since open beta. back then things were different, the game was much slower, bosses didnt have a gazillion HP, there was no ascendencies.

it was accepted that this game was hard. it was accepted that crafting was hard too. the entire premise of the game is this game is harsh and unforgiving.

however, GGG also enticed us with diversity, a freedom to explore. the game started off "classless". people built yolo melee witches, caster marauders for kicks and giggles.

back then players were still complaining about things such as build diversity and how ascendancies kill diversity. no one cares anymore. this game is harsh and unforgiving, you need to adapt or die.

players found ways to multiply their damage. they grew stronger. GGG, instead of taking away their power with nerfs, rewarded them by balancing the end game around them. super efficient builds. metas. one can argue ANY SKILL can work and be used to kill anything in this game. TRUE, but some skills simply outperform others. it's no coincidence a huge number of players are play carrion golem now.

one thing i hate with disdain is that i love the concept of experimentation and making shit work. character building is a puzzle of sorts. the gap between an inefficient build and an efficient one is too huge. to which i realized, i am not your (ggg's) target audience.

what about this whole harvest fiasco? it's quite ironic. i've always been staunchly defending GGG's stance on making crafting difficult. there was a guy on reddit who made a very detailed post with pictures, one of the things he proposed was targeted crafting currency. i voiced my disagreement in his post. the irony is that, after some time passed GGG unveiled Essence. the beginning of targeted crafting and a new era of crafting.

we got essences, a crafting bench, syndicate benches, beast crafting. so many tools that made crafting EASIER.

it was still not enough for me to want to craft.

then came harvest. chris even said something along the lines on it would be probably OP in one vid. and it was. in the many years of my life ignoring crafted items. i actually actively LEARNED how to craft. and I enjoyed it.

it was the first time in a long time that i felt that there was some progression in my character that i can achieve myself.

then, harvest league ended. it was an enjoyable ride. a little sad it was gone but oh well. it was a good taste.

later harvest was announced going back into core. did GGG want players access to crafting again? seemed that way. players were thrilled. but less thrilled to find out that we could only store 10 crafts. it changed the playstyle of normies in an insignificant way. the top 1% were the ones still using crafting as they could buy crafts from players.

GGG then made the harvest manifest and suffered a huge backlash.

IMHO, i can agree with GGG's decision. they made a mistake and they want to revert it. BUT, they should be aware that they're taking power away from players. power that THEY gave the players in the first place.
some players already can't imagine playing without harvest.

this is where i want GGG to contemplate and make the difficult choices.

WHO do you want to cater to? WHAT is this game about? HOW harsh, is harsh?

Personally, i would prefer if GGG made this game more accessible and lowered down the bar so that inefficient builds can clear content and efficient builds are rewarded by clearing the content faster/easier. but i dont think you guys are going to do that, and thats fine. there's a huge player base who follow builds to the letter. there are tons of players using starter builds, farming headhunters/currency so they can enjoy their end game build later. this game is not for casual players, this game is not for me.

similarly, this relates to crafting. do you want to cater to casual players so that they can craft their own stuff, or only allow the super rich the ability to craft?

there are many questions that you guys need to consider. pick your direction. stick with it. your target audience will remain while the excess fat will slide off.

i honestly hope that you guys are not depressed or in any bad mental stress. the amount of backlash is staggering and i hope the very best for everyone at GGG.

that said, i end this post with a heavy handed biased screenshot highlighting some things that were promised a long time ago. i wish to return to poe but knowing i will hit the same roadblocks and difficulties i m not even looking forward to poe2.

Freedom to use every skill and item with any class.*

*. If you can afford it.

Making wonky ass niche builds may sound like a fun idea, but when you get right down into the nitty gritty of it, you'll find that it's going to cost you a lot of currency to make it viable to complete the endgame. Most people can't afford that, so they're left with the meta which is narrowed build diversity since they can be more cheaply built.