A message to GGG

I started playing PoE after starting with Diablo 4 last year and watched Exilecon 2023. My first league was Ancestor league and I wanted to learn everything about PoE as it was all new. I finished the league by getting my voidstones and was exited for the next league. Affliction was fun. I loved the new vendor, boss with a chance to get a valuable jewel and while I couldnt get into juicing maps I was able to build 3 characters and try Sanctum with a strong character thanks to farming. With Necropolis all the new permanent changes and the league crafting sounded interesting and it started ok.

Within a short time I started seeing all the nerfs because the 1%ers figured out crazy loot explosions and ways to get currency. I saw the removal of loot from normal tier bosses and items moved to uber bosses. T17 maps that were supposed to be a ramp up to ubers be something I avoided because they were too hard and not worth my time so i jumped to D4 S4.

D4 S4 was a blast. I didnt feel punished for trying builds. Uber bosses were easy to get a build to beat and the pit was a good ramp up for gearing that bridged to end game. If i didnt like a character I could drop it and get to end game within hours on a new character.


So who is PoE supposed to be for?

PoE currently doesnt feel like a game made for the masses to enjoy. it feels like a game catering towards the 1%ers.


There was a few interviews before the launch of this league that lead me to this belief.

1. Zizaran where Ziz asked Johnathan about why doesnt PoE give some sort of free respec for players before the end of the campaign and there was a long winded explanation why that isnt good but what is the harm? Punishment for bad builds leads to build guides and eyes off the game rather than being focused on the game.

2. The other I think was with Ziz asking about smart loot where Chris told Ziz that they are looking to implement loot drops that have better stats that make sense and while I forgot who Ziz was talking to (I think it was Mark) the response was that its not a good idea because we dont want to force players to make a specific choice but rather allow players to build how they want.

If that’s the case then why not give players a chance to respec? My conclusion is game engagment.
I feel that GGG wants to keep player engagement and this is the way they feel works but does it have to? Honestly no.

Did GGG nerf exploits because it was worried about the trade economy? Well does that matter when trade died quickly this league?

Before the start of this league Jeremy brought up the fact that he didnt like players to play PoE mindlessly with videos on the second monitor and wanted players to earn that. Why? I play PoE as a comfort game for the thrill of the loot hunt. If i am playing the game then who cares? nerfing loot, moving drops away from the normal player feels like a punishment and not a reward. It got me to barely play this league.

Im sure people at GGG have played D4 s4 and they should be taking a look at their new 1.0 because all D4 needs at this point is content and they have the feel good dopamine hit to keep players playing without punishment unlike this season. Stop worrying about the twitch streamers and 1%ers and focus on the larger chunk of the player base that play PoE for fun and not as a job and stop punishing the casual players if you want them to play the game.

"Before the start of this league Jeremy brought up the fact that he didnt like players to play PoE mindlessly with videos on the second monitor and wanted players to earn that."

At some point the success went to their head. Players merely playing the game and being happy became second priority. Now they demand players respect and undivided attention at all times. This will backfire because players are burning out before they can get comfortable and also when players are hyper focused on the game they start to notice all of its glaring flaws that the devs cannot be fucked to ever fix.

If they suddenly want poe to be dork souls of arpg they must make the game crisp and bullshit free, but they don't. It used to be player bullshit vs game bullshit and it was fine. Now they went on nerf crusade against the players but kept or added more bullshit to game. I don't see how this would ever be sustainable. With the introduction of t17 the meta despite poe.ninja percentages is more rigid and boring than ever.

"

Bosscannon wrote:

...when players are hyper focused on the game they start to notice all of its glaring flaws that the devs cannot be fucked to ever fix.

If they suddenly want poe to be dork souls of arpg they must make the game crisp and bullshit free, but they don't...

Very much this. Also, they refuse to let up on constantly implementing ever more complex systems. It's impossible to play this game to any degree of success without having a second monitor with anywhere from 2-10 different third party programs or websites in order to calculate and plan everything you want to do:

Path of Building
PoE Trade
Craft of Exile
poe.ninja
poe wiki
an atlas tree planner
a timeless jewel calculator
a cluster jewel calculator

Who knows how many things people feel like they need to use that isn't inside of the game itself in order to get anything done.

"

hotTopicEdgelord wrote:

So who is PoE supposed to be for?

PoE currently doesn't feel like a game made for the masses to enjoy. it feels like a game catering towards the 1%ers.

This game has been designed the way the devs want it to be, they wanted something that they would want to play, if you liked it great, if you didn't well that's just too bad.

They should not chase mass market appeal because that WILL kill the game.

I have a suspicion that GGG knows their target demographic better than you do.