PoE will not die. here's why

I've been here since Open Beta. others here tested Closed Beta and Alpha.

The entire time, there have been "PoE is dead" threads. heck, I've probably created some myself.

"rival" games have come and gone. good ones. bad ones. money grab shitfest ones.

PoE is still here.

It's a bit bloated and a bit power-crept for my taste at the moment, which is why I play a lot less than I used to a couple years ago, but it has a dedicated team, a loyal player base, and financial backing from China's biggest "all your data are belong to us" corporation.

PoE 2 however, would be a test.
GGG are no longer the tiny idealist bunch they used to be. they aren't 2022 Blizzard for sure, but they aren't 1996 Blizzard either.
PoE 2 would be a AAA game, and it will be measured as a fresh project against other AAA games.
right now, based on trailers and teasers, it looks good. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Well I suppose "dead" can be a bit subjective in these discussions.

Will PoE shut down the servers and cease to exist? Likely not. Likely not even close.

Is it possible they downsize, and fade into market irrelevance, while still enjoyed by a couple of thousand players? Sure that very possible, and maybe that's considered "death".

I tend to think its more the latter. PoE had it's time in the limelight, and will probably dwindle in the coming years. Not gone, but mostly forgotten.

Still wont take anything away from the folks that love PoE, for many of whom, the actual numbers of current players dont mean a whole hell of a lot to them anyways. (Especially if you SSF)

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DarthSki44 wrote:

Well I suppose "dead" can be a bit subjective in these discussions.

Will PoE shut down the servers and cease to exist? Likely not. Likely not even close.

Is it possible they downsize, and fade into market irrelevance, while still enjoyed by a couple of thousand players? Sure that very possible, and maybe that's considered "death".

I tend to think its more the latter. PoE had it's time in the limelight, and will probably dwindle in the coming years. Not gone, but mostly forgotten.

Still wont take anything away from the folks that love PoE, for many of whom, the actual numbers of current players dont mean a whole hell of a lot to them anyways. (Especially if you SSF)

Why do you think it will dwindle in the coming years? It's only grown and grown. In 2013 avg peak player numbers were 30k, it's now 130-160k.(steam numbers only) They will continue to release expansions and leagues, PoE2 is on the way. I don't see why it would'nt only continue to grow.

Another "we want Poe2 insight" thread...Were are all you people coming from ?

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DarthSki44 wrote:

PoE had it's time in the limelight

When was this?

Anyhow, I agree: PoE will, some day, dwindle into a "maintenance game". I think that is inevitable in the long run. And I think the only reason for that, will be "time" (and maybe "GGG"). I don't think there will come a game that will be a direct cause of PoE dwindling.

I'm sure there will come games, be that Elden Ring, Lost Ark, Diablo Immortal, Diablo 4 or whatever that will affect PoE numbers in the short run. But in the long run? Doubtful. Time will show.

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Vendetta wrote:

Another "we want Poe2 insight" thread...Were are all you people coming from ?

I don't think the PoE forums are suitable for the "birds and the bees" talk, but if you need some pointers, just PM me.

^

Probably post Harvest if I had to specifically pick a time, but really it wasnt an exact moment.

I think more a general shift in development and marketing. When they really started pushing money into content creators. This resulted in far greater raw numbers, but also record retention drops percentage wise, and I would argue, more toxic behaviors amongst the playerbase. The divide between the casual and elite has never been wider.

Again its my personal opinion, so who knows what will actually happen. I tend to think that PoE enjoyed quite the lull in arpg games, and was really the best option. That won't be true, or as true, here very shortly. I just dont see how a decades old game will compete in the next-gen. We will see in 2023, when the first REALLY big test happens.

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DarthSki44 wrote:

^

Probably post Harvest if I had to specifically pick a time, but really it wasnt an exact moment.

I think more a general shift in development and marketing. When they really started pushing money into content creators. This resulted in far greater raw numbers, but also record retention drops percentage wise, and I would argue, more toxic behaviors amongst the playerbase. The divide between the casual and elite has never been wider.

Again its my personal opinion, so who knows what will actually happen. I tend to think that PoE enjoyed quite the lull in arpg games, and was really the best option. That won't be true, or as true, here very shortly. I just dont see how a decades old game will compete in the next-gen. We will see in 2023, when the first REALLY big test happens.

So, what you're actually saying is that you think D4 will become the ARPG to play? Or is there another ARPG on the way that I haven't heard of?

I personally think D4 will be much the same as D3. It will be fun for a little while, but I don't think Blizzard will keep churning out content for the game like GGG does for PoE. I'd love to be wrong though, I wouldn't mind having 2 good ARPG's to alternate between, I usually just play PoE for a bout a month every league any way.

I also don't have faith in Blizzard when they said you can't buy power in D4. I don't trust Blizzard with a two-foot pole. We will see what happens when it happens.

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CrazylikE wrote:

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DarthSki44 wrote:

^

Probably post Harvest if I had to specifically pick a time, but really it wasnt an exact moment.

I think more a general shift in development and marketing. When they really started pushing money into content creators. This resulted in far greater raw numbers, but also record retention drops percentage wise, and I would argue, more toxic behaviors amongst the playerbase. The divide between the casual and elite has never been wider.

Again its my personal opinion, so who knows what will actually happen. I tend to think that PoE enjoyed quite the lull in arpg games, and was really the best option. That won't be true, or as true, here very shortly. I just dont see how a decades old game will compete in the next-gen. We will see in 2023, when the first REALLY big test happens.

So, what you're actually saying is that you think D4 will become the ARPG to play? Or is there another ARPG on the way that I haven't heard of?

I personally think D4 will be much the same as D3. It will be fun for a little while, but I don't think Blizzard will keep churning out content for the game like GGG does for PoE. I'd love to be wrong though, I wouldn't mind having 2 good ARPG's to alternate between, I usually just play PoE for a bout a month every league any way.

I also don't have faith in Blizzard when they said you can't buy power in D4. I don't trust Blizzard with a two-foot pole. We will see what happens when it happens.

Yes I think D4 will be very good. We will have to see on how long very good will last though. We dont have much insight on what endgame loops will be, or what live service they have planned.

Tbh I'd feel better about PoE if PoE2 didnt have a shared endgame. I just cant imagine juiced mapping for many more years. Something new is needed. That's one big advantage D4 has. It will all be new, but in a familiar universe.

Poe will not die, but he will evolve.
His path shows that the road taken towards a "hard" game, also due to its complexity, will ensure that by now it has a following given in particular by streamers.
The challenges are more and more bread for their teeth, with a consolidated public following, which by now has produced the "hard core" of this community, also in terms of support.
I believe that Poe will also represent for the future, "the challenge" that every player seeks, it will never be a game where any mass casual player can play, for that, there will be diablo .... in whatever sauce it arrives.

well, Dying for a game as a service is complicated to define, I consider dead a game that is unable to add new players keeping only the nostalgics and addicts, but if you consider the server shutdown as death then I really don't see such a death early, see ragnarok online and tibia has millions of active players to this day, even clearly weak game like New world now has a bigger playbase than PoE. That said for me PoE went into a clear decline since havest and had the turn of the key in ultimatum, game is not even a shadow of what it was 99% of items and skill are useless from ultimatum changes to game bosses and the end game was drastically redesigned and honestly there for me was the death of poe, and i say this because of all my friends list i was the only one left after the ultimatum league