I am free, I figured it out

I figured why I like easy games.
I like short'n'sweet runs.
No, I don't ignore hard targets, but if you break a task in enough steps, each of those becomes easy.

Nowadays everything in PoE takes forever (read: too long).
Unless you do 1 mechanic in 1 map, you can easily take 10 min in it, with a build you might enjoy that isn't meta.
Why avoid meta?
Well it's boring, for one.
You may be a hipster, for another.
You may have a fantasy of your own (that obv. the game doesn't cater to, to make it efficient as well).

You want to get to maps?
Oh you can solo lvl to maps in 6-10hours or maybe even a week if you dare to have a life.
Or oh you gotta get a 1-3h rush, then maybe level in specific zones (depending on what kind of rush you took) with some twink gear and pay someone, or have a friend that doesn't value his time.
Oh you can't do that? Tough luck.
Oh you're in SSF and don't have One with everything? Tough luck.
Oh you don't like spending endless(read:60-100) regrets for each and every new build you want to try out? tough luck.
Oh you don't like playing the same few efficient leveling builds? Tough luck.
Oh you don't like trading? tough luck.
Oh you are asocial and just wanna do your own mojo without being bothered by others, petty talk or small chat? tough luck go whisper 20 afk bots that don't trade.

I also look at some games like mindless brain exercises, as I like to also listen to an audiobook or some TV series at the same time.
That's why they even invented idle games. The whole idea behind idle games is to keep you hooked (if you look at it evil) or keep you on track (if you mix it with other good activities) while you seemingly do kinda nothing. Starting with your teddy bear (if you ever had one), continuing with portable Tetris games, Snake/insert monochrome screen game (if you ever had Nokia), Gameboy, mini consoles, consoles, PCs, smartphones etc.

If you look at motivational videos and ones that teach you discipline (in case your life is derailing and you want to move on past covid etc.) and how to learn things etc...they all mention small steps, baby steps, start with doing your bed at 6 AM etc. Atomic habits! Do the tiniest thing that you can think of that helps you get closer to your goal. And that's what idle games can be used to incorporate into. When you want to build a new habit, you start a few habits and gradually replace old ones. One such habit could be an idle game. Even if it doesn't help you complete your goal, a simple sense of accomplishment "Oh, I did that!" gets you through to try bigger things, real things that matter beside the game.

It's like riding a bike.
Would you ride a bike through spring sun (idle games) or storm, rain, mud, puddles, potholes on streets, earthquakes, quick sand and lasers one-shotting you? (poe)

I'm not an advocate for everything is easy. But PoE is meant to entertain, to be fun (or at least I hope that's what they intended in the first place).
Today to feel I achieve something in this game, I have to spend just too much time.

And now let's polarize that.
There's people that consider the game their whole life. After all, they might as well spend it all ingame.
Or they like the hardship and are nimble (although let's be honest, this is path of one-shots unless you play all-in triple defenses meta flavor...or you're Neo or you're a bot).
Some people even get a cardio session out of a boss battle. Or have a heart attack. Or you know, get old and action really isn't what they'd be best at any more, but they still wanna beat the boss.

One thing I can't do with POB is test it out. D2 at least had single player and you could plug any character and test it out before you went on spending hard-earned currency in official online servers. (and I hate it now btw, but at the time it was the best)

One thing I can't do with the MTX shop is check out how it would look on me, with my other current MTX. I don't want to lease it, I want to try it out before I buy it. Because, you know, those advertising MTX videos don't really reflect what it really looks like ingame, on my graphics settings, from my character view etc. etc.

I guess I divagated a bit. What I want to say is that almost any goal you pick, it gets tedious or the game ****** on you from high afar (one-shots, execution fire squads, off-screen paid hitmen, intentional lag spikes by support watching you play alone and trying to force you to cry, to have them play with you, "help" you and then motivate you to buy packs, economy that should have items cheaper but instead prices go up for items....or the economy doesn't even have your item and you don't have mirrors to spend crafting it yourself if you even knew how, afk traders, currency sellers which you know who they are but let them because...you know very well why you let them).

So I quit. And don't tell me I didn't support the game. I supported around 20 years of WoW subscription equivalent.
I played it, but I just can't when time is precious and you only want more of it for same goals.
I wish all my MTX would be donated to random people. Yes, all.
I may come back for PoE2 but I doubt it. I hope I'll be married with kids by then and have better things to do.
Farewell!

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

Spoiler

everything which is wrong with the world in one picture, that's quite an achievement.

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@topic: generally yes. but you can also play less and be ok with getting less progress/rewards.

regarding support, i also treated poe over the years like i played a subscription based game.

I wish you the best, but 3.17 was a strange time to leave because PoE takes too long. I had a 45+ hour job, graduate school class, and I had a nearly complete atlas in a week.

It sucks when your favorite build is nuked from orbit (incinerate, died for no benefit) but avoiding "meta" isn't some noble cause. Choose a build that looks solid and fun.

You hit 40 challenges, I will soon have my first 40/40. Do you think 60-100 regrets is a lot? I'm sure 100's have dropped for you, how many builds are you trying?

I like challenging games, and I like mindless games. I played Clicker Heroes for quite awhile, talk about mindless grind. Do what you enjoy.

But yeah, a trial/demo for microtransactions to see how it looks would be nice. Sometimes they show 1-2 classes running for a few seconds, and you aren't playing either. A test run for 60 seconds in a map with no loot would be a big quality of life, no joke.

If you decide you are done with PoE, again good luck. But, I'm not real solid on your complaints.

I like how i answered most of the questions presented at the start of the post simply by "standard" XP

Standard lets me get straight to maps and not have to do the chore of the camp, im super lazy and even play 3hours in a underleveled toon that cant play the way i like is too much of a chore

I dont have to spend 100 regrets because i get a free full respec on every league on all of my toons and i have enough of them at level 90+ that i can try out a good number of builds without spending a single regret or having to do that chore of camp again

I dont have to play efficient leveling builds because i start on level 95-ish

I dont have to trade too much because i start with a stash full of clutter that are remnants of previous leagues rather than an empity stash(granted, i still need to suffer the trading system if i want to polish the toon, but i often can get to "good enough" levels with the stuff liyng around my stash pages)-good coice i dont need to trade too much btw because standard prices are inflated as f*, another reason to push as much of what i have wich i think its part of the fun

Dunno, maybe the OP should give standard a try? LUL