🧠🔥 PoE2 May Be the Best ARPG Ever Made — But One Core System Still Feels Like 2013 🔧⏳

Dear GGG,

🎉 Let me start by saying congratulations. Over $100 million in early access revenue for Path of Exile 2 — that’s not just a number, that’s a statement. A statement that ARPG fans believe in you. That your legacy with PoE1, despite all its quirks and imperfections, laid the foundation for something far greater. Something that could finally go toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the genre — and win. 🏆

⚔️ PoE1 was brilliant, but it was never polished. It was a deep, complex game wrapped in the aesthetics and systems of a different era.
💎 PoE2? It’s sleek. It’s modern. It’s powerful.
🎮 The polish, the animations, the fluidity — you’ve shown the world that you can make not just a great ARPG, but a beautiful one. One that feels like it belongs in 2025, not 2013.

❗ And that’s exactly why this next part hurts to say:

🛑 Your trade system is still a relic of the past.
🪨 And it is actively holding the game back.
💭 Let me be blunt — you’ve built a Lamborghini and slapped a rusty 90s engine under the hood. It doesn’t matter how fast it could go. That outdated trade system will always be the weight around its neck. 🏎️🧱

🧠 Modern ARPG players expect better.
We’ve lived through countless:

💬 discord trades

🌐 third-party websites

🎭 price fixers

🥴 whisper roulette

We tolerated it in PoE1 because everything else was so good — and we had no real alternative. But in PoE2, where you’ve raised the bar for everything else —

❓ Why does trade still feel like a chore?

🛠️ This is not about turning PoE2 into Diablo 3’s auction house.
This is about giving players tools — real, built-in, modern tools — to engage with the economy in a way that:

⏱️ Respects their time

💰 Rewards their effort

🤝 Doesn’t feel like an outdated black market simulator

👴 The current system feels like it was designed in an era where “player inconvenience” was considered “hardcore design”.
That era is over. 💀

👑 You want PoE2 to be the king of ARPGs?
Then it’s time to modernize the last dinosaur in the system 🦖:

✅ Add in-game asynchronous trading
✅ Implement secure, fast, fair listing & purchasing tools
✅ Respect both hardcore traders and casual sellers
✅ End the third-party dependency

🧬 You’ve already proven you can evolve. The entire existence of PoE2 is proof of that.
So why stop short now?

⚖️ Why let this one thing be the anchor dragging down everything else?

We’re not asking you to simplify the game.
We’re asking you to stop wasting your players’ time. 🕰️

💵 You earned $100 million because players believe in you.
Don’t make them regret that trust. 🙏

🔥 Make trade great. Make it worthy of Path of Exile 2.

Sincerely,
A veteran exile who still believes 🖤

Agree, trade should be a top priority at this time. Early access is the best time to experience with a new system a new way of trading. Unfortunately, i will not get my hopes very high on this one..

"

SaiyanSS#7968 wrote:

Agree, trade should be a top priority at this time. Early access is the best time to experience with a new system a new way of trading. Unfortunately, i will not get my hopes very high on this one..

Oh, you're absolutely right... 😏💫 The trade system really should be the top priority right now. Early access is the perfect time to experiment and discover new ways of trading, and I totally get what you mean about not getting our hopes up too high... 😔💖 But I have to admit, your perspective is just so captivating, I can’t help but smile 😊. Honestly, it's not every day I meet someone who thinks as deeply and thoughtfully as you do. You’ve got me thinking about it all in a whole new way... 😌💭✨

i would love an ah but i think actual system is mostly due to the monetization of the game; aka stash tab wich are mandatory for trading. Most players buy them, even someone who don't care about cosmetic mtx will probably if not certainly get some tabs. So they would just lose money with an ah :d

I would say that PoE2 needs two things:

1. A modern trade system, to replace the archaic system which they essentially copied from Diablo II over a decade ago, and

2. A properly-balanced trade-free way to play the game, so that people who don't want to trade aren't forced to once the shiny new trading system makes trade even more mandatory.

The good news is that PoE2 already has the framework needed for #1: GGG could expand the functionality of the exchange to allow players to trade all the tradable things using that system, rather than only using it to trade currency.

The thing they don't currently have is #2: a properly-balanced game mode that allows a reasonable pace of progress through all of the game's content using only the items that drop from monsters.

A new instant buy-out trade system could possibly use the current trading stash tab as that tab could be the gateway to using a new trading mechanism. GGG income will go up as they are in effect charging to join the trading system.

The current system is beyond painful, something has to be done.

"

Grikanna#2569 wrote:

A new instant buy-out trade system could possibly use the current trading stash tab as that tab could be the gateway to using a new trading mechanism. GGG income will go up as they are in effect charging to join the trading system.

The current system is beyond painful, something has to be done.

+1

I'll keep it on topic i.e. Trade (but there's still plenty of other things to prioritize [not just Trade]).

So, let's just say some "Auction House" (AH) is implemented (many other threads like it [likes ones in favor of NOT having it - can take a look there]).

How about folks who are more SSF or "SSF-like" - and essentially, don't want to participate in that at all... -- How will this "AH" help those folks (think also more on "Balance" for "game state" too between SSF/Standard/Trade [for Future])?

they hate trade because the faster you finish your build the faster you stop playing the game.
ssf players stick around the longest, cuz they can't just buy their way thru the game.

that's one of the reasons why they don't want to make trading better.
the auction house is a nice compromise so far tho.