Idea to help with retaining casual players

I'm a POE vet that has been playing for a long time, and after adopting a different approach to the game I've found I experience much less burnout. In short, I create multiple characters very early into the league that are different archetypes. If we can get casual players (let's define that as under 100 hours a league) more variety in gameplay without a ton of time investment it could greatly improve how much they enjoy early mapping and introduce them to more of the endgame systems they'd otherwise never see.

Too often I think people get caught up in making it to the very end of the game where the rewards are the best, so they completely lose sight of having fun along the way. Typically this is done by choosing a meta build that can grind out content on a low level of gear until you start completing the full atlas and creating the 2nd character you actually want to play. This is completely a trap for a casual player since the reality is they likely won't reach true endgame on their own. So how can we maximize the fun that player has when they aren't getting the juiciest drops? Provide them more variety in gameplay, a wider range of usable items, and allow specialization so they don't need a single character that does everything well. Unfortunately a playthrough of the campaign can take between 15-20 hours for many players. So it isn't unlikely a player would play for a week and not even get to maps. Imagine this player chose a build that they no longer enjoy, do you honestly think they are going to have the patience to reroll from scratch?

So if we speed up the time it takes to get a second character into maps it is more likely a player will get hooked onto a character they enjoy playing leading to better retention. For expert players that have a set of leveling items the 2nd run through the campaign is a trivial process. They basically skip everything since they have overpowered gear and get to maps in under 5 hours. The 2nd playthrough for a casual player is quite a painstaking task, and the reality is there isn't a lot of value gained in the early levels. An argument can be made that you need to experiment with your build when the challenges aren't great so you aren't overwhelmed when you get to maps. But perhaps we can offer a 1 time boost per league that shortens this process.

What if there was a system in place where once you complete Act 10 on your 1st character you are rewarded with a character boost that lets you create a 2nd character at the beginning of Act 6 opposed to Act 1? You would still get to playthrough and test your build through 5 acts, but greatly reduce the time required to have multiple options for grinding through the Atlas. This concept is similar to in WoW how you can get an exp boost, so it isn't a completely novel idea.

How would this be implemented? The 2nd character would have an option to use the boost on creation that grants access to all waypoints for Act 1-5 and all quests completed. They would still need to talk to the NPCs in each Act to choose rewards for each quest, but it saves the time of actually running these trivial quests. It would also be cool if there was a recipe that allows you to buy lvl 45 skill gems so you don't have to mule them. After that you'd have everything you need to just go through Act 6-10 (bandits and lab are the only things that don't fit nicely into this).

This functionality would also allow for racing events to not only start at Act 1. How interesting would it be to see the strategies used for optimizing only Act 6-10 runs?

TLDR: Speeding up the process of getting a 2nd character to maps allows new players a huge time savings and gives a struggling player a clear reward for just getting through Act 10. I believe having multiple characters available when progressing the Atlas promotes a more diverse experience that reduces burnout and makes the endgame more accessible to more people.

What do people think of something like this? Is there anything you'd love to skip on your 2nd character? Let's keep this within reason and say you can't skip the entire campaign, haha.
Last bumped on Jul 22, 2021, 4:24:27 AM
This thread has been automatically archived. Replies are disabled.
+100000
especially considering that the first 3 acts are old & extremely dated and the age is really showing - they look bad visually, the boss designs are clunky and animations are bad, they also have some of the worse layouts in the entire game. Not to mention the lack of movement speed, which makes everything feel 10x worse. Combine all of these together and the game creates a very bad first impression on new players and most of them don't make it till act 4-5 when things get smoother.

I built around 6-7 characters this league, I feel like I lose a few brain cells every time I have to go through those first acts even with full twink gear.
Last edited by stalkingjackal on May 31, 2021, 12:53:09 AM
There are already arpgs that cater to, retain, and reward casuals, why homogenize this one?
Standard does exist.

Casuals could simply respec the entire tree of whichever highlvl char they have, use all the gems/gear they have accumulated and jump right into endgame.
It doesnt get faster than that.

The only difference is that they wont get to experience the league hype, which is the real trap for casuals.


If you have less than 100hrs available for whatever reason, you shouldnt spend 15+hrs on leveling your starter and then try to grind out the entire Atlas in whatever time is left to do so.
They will fail inevitably.

Leagues are called "Challenge leagues" for a reason. If you arent up to the challenge dont participate. If you choose to do so, thats perfectly fine but please dont complain if your choice doesnt pay off.
"
Orbaal wrote:
Leagues are called "Challenge leagues" for a reason. If you arent up to the challenge dont participate. If you choose to do so, thats perfectly fine but please dont complain if your choice doesnt pay off.


Umm, and what "reason" is that exactly? I thought it was because of these "challenges" with numbers that say "kill boss X in map Y while standing on your left toe, bonus points if you have your little finger in your butt at the same time". Otherwise, the "challenge" is basically being able to sit on one's butt long enough while mashing these 5-6-7 buttons. Umm, and doing the acts on a 2nd/3rd/Nth character in the same league is plain boring, isn't it?
"Path of Exile's engine is currently modern, lean and fast." - Chris Wilson, September 19th, 2019
"
dW2005 wrote:
"
Orbaal wrote:
Leagues are called "Challenge leagues" for a reason. If you arent up to the challenge dont participate. If you choose to do so, thats perfectly fine but please dont complain if your choice doesnt pay off.


Umm, and what "reason" is that exactly? I thought it was because of these "challenges" with numbers that say "kill boss X in map Y while standing on your left toe, bonus points if you have your little finger in your butt at the same time". Otherwise, the "challenge" is basically being able to sit on one's butt long enough while mashing these 5-6-7 buttons. Umm, and doing the acts on a 2nd/3rd/Nth character in the same league is plain boring, isn't it?


It challenges your sanity.
The one challenge all of us have to overcome in a challenge league, is the journey from rags to riches.

Each of us gets to define what exactly riches means and where the journey ends, means you did what you wanted to do this league and quit.

The challenge numbers are mostly meaningless to me but very meaningful to others. Again, you define your challenge yourself.


However I noticed more and more threads popping up basically saying the same thing: Casuals are entitled to endgame content and cant do it, because the grind to get there takes too long - lets change stuff so everybody gets a cruch, a trainingwheel and a shortcut to endgame content.

All Im saying is: Those cruches already exist in standard and there is no reason to change challenge leagues at all.
Im also saying: Spending 5-6hrs on getting a fully twinked char to maps might be boring to you but its also neglectable because you will overall spend some 150+ hrs on the league anyways, if you intend to fully awaken the atlas and do some boss farming, maven invitation and what have you.

My math says, those 5-6hrs are about 3% of the total time spent on the league and therefore a non-argument. If you arent willing to spend those hrs on getting the build to maps, you arent that interested in the build to begin with, if this tiny amount of time and grind is whats stopping you from doing it.

The main reason I dont like this, is because its a slippery slope.
Next guy will show up and be like: Hey great now that we got this, can we do away with mechanic X and Y while you are at it? And maybe this and that too?
In the end you´d end up with nothing. You´d get to endgame and beat endgame in less than one weekend and be bored to death. Only to realise its not even worth playing the game anymore.

This is why GGG shouldnt listen. Players dont know whats good for them nor the game. They are simply spoiled brats wanting it all and wanting it now.
"
innervation wrote:
There are already arpgs that cater to, retain, and reward casuals, why homogenize this one?


I don't see how making it easy to get secondary characters to maps will 'homogenize' this game? There will still be the steep learning curve of atlas progression, crafting, league mechanics, etc. All endgame stuff would be same as now - just a lot less time wasted getting a new character to maps. There is nothing challenging in the campaign anyway, its a chore you have to do every time.
Really enjoyed the endless delve little side league.
Different enough to not get boring and way faster than story leveling.

I would like that kind of system for second + characters.
Or endless ledge
or endless anything for that matter.
But that would mean less playtime -> less opportunity to milk their new playerbase for MTX -> less profit.

GGG doesn't care about retention or QoL for people who have been here for years as long as they get people to spend money. To be honest I'm not sure if it's GGG pulling the strings here anymore.
Sitting in HO spamming alts for 4 hours straight is peak PoE gameplay. Thanks, Chris.
Last edited by Ydoum on May 31, 2021, 12:58:10 PM

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info