What makes POE unique?

For me it's:
- the tree
- the struggle of the Karui against opression (extended to the lore, if you want, but I'm a big fan of the Karui)
- headhunter
- fast (zoomy clear builds) & slow (hard-hitter builds) playstyles
- mtx!
- i REALLY wish i could say melee, but it's not the case
- trading
- experimenting

Now I have 2 serious questions:
1) What makes PoE unique to you?
2) Are the pillars (of PoE game design) described at GDC still the same pillars, going forward to PoE2?

It's always been the amount of choices available in building your character and that most characters are never safe. There is always an unexpected intersection of mods, rares and other things that can make any single situation dangerous.

Although people pretend that there are only a few viable™ builds, they've always been wrong.

I also look forward to the shakeup every few months, making me rethink my choices and find a way to adapt and be successful.

As for the second question, I didn't listen to GDC so I have no idea.

1) To me, it will always be the depth of character customization. While other games are being brought down to a level of "offense and defense", PoE has so many layers of both that you can choose from and build upon each other. The fact that you can play a certain skill in 10+ different ways and be utilizing totally different defensive and offensive setups from other people, is just beautiful. You know, pretty much the last pillar :)

(Look at New world. Amazon has, in my opinion, manage to create one of the best and most beautiful open worlds ever created. But what do you do in this world? You walk around, chasing ONE number on your gear. Sure, there are 2-3 other numbers that can be somewhat important to you, but the itemization is so awful it really hurts the game.)

2) I still think the five pillars presented at GDC are an important foundation. We could always discuss the first pillar, and be critical about the visuals when it comes to flashy, colorful skill effects. We could also talk about pillar number four, and more and more people choosing to play game modes that restricts trading. No matter what your cup of tea is, I firmly believe that they both are very important for the game as a whole, even though the focus on the economy can drive me crazy - personally. Still, I'm able to "see further than my own nose", as we say up here.

Same trigger that rogue.exe had for me in the early days of computer gaming... knowing that I'll likely never complete it. The ever lasting struggle against an unbeatable game. That's why I've never even considered trading or MP. They ruin that.

aurabots 😊👌

It's not really unique, OK, being set in a world with some influences from Maori culture it the only unique thing about PoE.

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AbilityPoints wrote:

It's not really unique, OK, being set in a world with some influences from Maori culture it the only unique thing about PoE.

Really hard to prove an "only". That burden is on you for asserting it.

Passive tree and freedom of bases/attributes/skill for sure- even tho less and less last years.
The mechanics for epic battles of hundreds of mobs vs 1 badass godslayer exile /in juiced maps, tho explosions make things too automatic/.
Graphics - even not best, its somehow damn cool looking game imo.
IDK what else, its just everything - PoE is PoE. And its Free to dive into its world - wont pay much to just try another game or be limited to x hours/level of gameplay. Well done, sneaky GGG. :)

RNG.

Somehow as human being we like gambling. This game has many sort of gambles, such as crafting, drops etc.

Gamble creates excitement on us, which makes us addicted to sources of excitement.