Are we really in a beta?

When people are complaining about stuff, I often read that we are in open beta, so we cant really expect things to work well. But are we?

I lived through the PoE1 Open Beta, and it was hell of a ride. We often got patches multiple times a week

Sure, I understand you want to pack content updates and balance changes into a league starts, for various reasons, which is fine, but how about other things?

There are so many bugs with skill interactions, and lots of technical issues. Performance has been questionable even on top machines. We get drops to 1fps and have to reenter the instance to fix it. We have constant instance crashes, and without the instance recovery system the game would have been unplayable, etc

so what is going on? where are the patches? I would guess fixing bugs and technical issues should be the beta priority. And the core system functionality is crucial when you plan on adding other layers of systems with additional content. And keeping the fixes for the main patch does not seem to be a good idea as every new content logically creates many new issues

I agree. GGG is relatively small-sized studio, they simply can't run both games at the same time. If things were kept at proper pace we would have at least gotten multiple performance fixes since the league start.

Yup. Not fixing existing issues and then layering on more complexity.

Not good.

They could also do some minor content updates, add a skill, support gem, some uniques to keep people interested mid-league

But I guess they now work on PoE1 league launch and want players to go there instead?

Nut sure if this is sustainable

Agree.

I'm impressed by the slow rate of updates. I left it installed because I thought it'd be exciting to see all the patches they'd add and test the changes. But lately 2/3 updates are to add new mtx.

Not even Rockstar Games would be able to maintain two live services at the same time. PoE2 will always pale in comparison to PoE1 unless they completely focus on it.

Imagine shapeshifting with your druid at 15 frames per second.

PoE1 should be on a backburner, 1league per year. They cannot expect such infrequent updates for their new game, this is sad.

also, more frequent mid league balance would be good. who cares if some people cry, just look at the state of the ladder. deadeye 24/7.

It's at best Alpha.

Beta is when you have majority of designs and your foundation in place and just need to bug test. There's the joke about live service games being in perpetual beta of course due to their nature.

Still.. You don't launch a beta missing half your classes and weapons with a handful of obviously imbalanced skills. Nor do you leave it in that state for months.

As example the Infusion mechanic that every elemental caster now has to use. That's not something you do in beta phase. That's Alpha or well after release when you want to revamp an old system.

Since you've been around long as I have. You probably remember how many times they revamped Life Leech. 3 times if I recall? This was all done after release of PoE1 though. The design was there and functioning how they originally intended but it wasn't healthy for the game.