Streamer priority confirmed. PoE is free to play, so play it for free, but Boycott GGG.

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Turtledove wrote:

To those arguing that the boycott is doomed to failure. I would hope that this thread and this discussion is making GGG "sit-up-and-listen" at the very least. Therefore, I will declare this thread a probable success already.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

My beliefs:

1) Someone had to code it to make it possible for people to skip the queue... it wasn't just a "bad choice". Working ways to cheat into your game is asking for trouble.

2) The servers are virtual, and thus can be "pumped" with simply more money. I believe that sometimes people are allowed to play on pumped servers to make the game look better and play better for the camera. This is likely where the "pile of money" was spent... not just handed to a few basement dwellers.

3) The idea that PoE should be viewed in anyway as a competition has been ruined, and will likely never regain its previous status unless GGG comes out with a clear set of rules that they promise to abide by. It's not a level playing field at all. Giving some people a clear advantage at the start was a huge blunder.

4) A boycott isn't going to help. The people bothered by this are a minority. Most of the money GGG is seeing as revenue is coming from people who aren't even aware of the problem.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

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DoubleU wrote:

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ChanBalam wrote:

If the Streamers had the same RNG as I have, watching would be pretty boring.

+1 right there.

This is an interesting point. I absolutely do not believe in 'streamer RNG' or manipulated content -- I just think the cream rises to the top and in PoE terms, that means streamers who are a good mix of charismatic, astute and efficient. They make the game look good because they play it well, and they play it a lot. Just as few people watched all 24 hours a day of Big Brother, we mostly get the highlights, which can then make it look like they're doing better than others.

On the other hand, I do think my old train of thought that 'GGG are morally upstanding and would never overtly give streamers any sort of advantage over non-streamers' has been sort of derailed, thanks pretty much to GGG themselves. So I am now a little more susceptible to the notion that if they can do this openly because of 'money, piles of it', perhaps they're not so above doing that on the sly. It would be good business, IF it's somehow deemed necessary to make the game look good. If.

Just as I will not praise GGG for 'banning' cheaters (as convenient as the timing was), I won't praise the streamers who asked to be removed from the instant access list. In both cases, I think we're looking at the bare minimum, and once you start praising that, standards of 'good' go through the floor.

And despite everything, I think PoE has some very good streamers who do the game a massive service by playing it as well as they do, as entertainingly as they do. Hopefully no one's obtuse enough to still think that PoE would have been the success it was without streamers...so I'm all for GGG spoiling them with aesthetics or merch or anything else that doesn't affect the gameplay. That doesn't directly contradict the fairness-for-all foundation upon which the GGG of yesteryear made so much of its most important money -- back when it really needed it.

I think highly enough of the most well-known PoE streamers that were they offered something like 'favoured' RNG for drops, they'd mostly say no.

Outsiders who are here only for a pile of money, or entire posses of elitist Exiles supporting a particularly noxious streamer? I'm not so sure there.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

My beliefs:

1) Someone had to code it to make it possible for people to skip the queue... it wasn't just a "bad choice". Working ways to cheat into your game is asking for trouble.

2) The servers are virtual, and thus can be "pumped" with simply more money. I believe that sometimes people are allowed to play on pumped servers to make the game look better and play better for the camera. This is likely where the "pile of money" was spent... not just handed to a few basement dwellers.

3) The idea that PoE should be viewed in anyway as a competition has been ruined, and will likely never regain its previous status unless GGG comes out with a clear set of rules that they promise to abide by. It's not a level playing field at all. Giving some people a clear advantage at the start was a huge blunder.

4) A boycott isn't going to help. The people bothered by this are a minority. Most of the money GGG is seeing as revenue is coming from people who aren't even aware of the problem.

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Marthuk wrote:

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Shagsbeard wrote:

My beliefs:

1) Someone had to code it to make it possible for people to skip the queue... it wasn't just a "bad choice". Working ways to cheat into your game is asking for trouble.

2) The servers are virtual, and thus can be "pumped" with simply more money. I believe that sometimes people are allowed to play on pumped servers to make the game look better and play better for the camera. This is likely where the "pile of money" was spent... not just handed to a few basement dwellers.

3) The idea that PoE should be viewed in anyway as a competition has been ruined, and will likely never regain its previous status unless GGG comes out with a clear set of rules that they promise to abide by. It's not a level playing field at all. Giving some people a clear advantage at the start was a huge blunder.

4) A boycott isn't going to help. The people bothered by this are a minority. Most of the money GGG is seeing as revenue is coming from people who aren't even aware of the problem.

1) I would suppose this was already there for a long time to let developers and staff enter the gameservers whenever for obvious reasons. Shouldnt be much work to let a streamer that they paid enter in the same way. Again, you assume malicious intent where most likely there wasnt. Developer-Tools exist, thats got nothing to do with cheating.

2) Thats just a wild assumption without proof. So yeah, nothing much to discuss.

3) PoE outside of Race events was never a competition. The fact that some people have supporters in their viewers and entire guilds manipulating the market invalidates the whole concept of a "level playing field". The VAST majority of players is in no way affected by that whole scenario, nor do they care about it. Its blown out of proportion.

4) Indeed. Thats your own counter-argument.

They couldve handled the whole situation way better and messed it up, thats 100% true. But forums are just overreacting.