Why Casual Gamers Don't Play POE2

After playing for a while based on my own experience and watching other content creators, why this game doesn’t really grab the casual gamer is quite simple.

Your Equipment Finds During the Campaign Won’t Carry You Into the Endgame.

A lot of people expect that the loot they find during the campaign will carry them through the entire game. This is rarely true. Most players may end up with one or two Divine Orbs, or possibly a unique item worth a similar amount, but they don’t know what to do with them after completing the campaign. Some players simply quit and don’t bother engaging with trade mechanics or learning crafting systems to make effective use of the currency they’ve obtained.

The Rarity Stat Gatekeeps How You Build Your Character and Your Overall Enjoyment of the Game.

If you struggle to find currency and wonder why other players are more successful, it’s often because you don’t have at least 150% item rarity from your gear and Waystone modifiers. Without this, you are effectively handicapping yourself and will perform significantly worse compared to players who can run builds stacked with item rarity.

Personally, item rarity is a horribly toxic stat that should never have existed in the first place. The game should be about making your character as strong as possible—not forcing you to care about a stat that directly dictates how much loot you’re allowed to have.

The Crafting System Is Overly Complicated, and New Content Continually Bloats It Further.

A game design that requires players to read spreadsheets and external guides because its core mechanics aren’t properly explained in-game is a serious issue. Due to the two problems above, many players are afraid to spend their currency. Failed crafting attempts have major consequences and, given how the economy currently works, can lead players to quit altogether.

Ironically, players with large amounts of currency are more willing to take crafting risks, while those with very little cannot afford to experiment at all. This backwards design only pushes players away from engaging with crafting.

People Turn to RMT Because the Game Doesn’t Respect Their Time.

Because the crafting system has such a steep learning curve and effectively amounts to gambling when it comes to min-maxing, some players simply avoid the hassle. Instead, they spend real money to buy currency so they can skip the process entirely and purchase items from the market—or at least feel they have a safety net that allows them to learn crafting without the fear of falling behind or hitting a progression wall.

Ive been playing POE1 since 2013.
I MYSELF am not playing poe2.
POE2 is the cancer on the flesh of RPGs

Points are valid. On the other hand I quit at lvl 78, because by there I farmed multiple divs(abyss, breach, chancing bases, ritual tablets...), spent it in t15 viable gear that was in my stash until I had the level to equip it. I only played one t9 waystone or so with that gear because it trivialized the gameplay so much that I didn't even feel like going the way to t15.

Choose one side. Either explain everything and do an awesome casual player game or force the player to learn the hard way. Now it's neither.

Your Equipment Finds During the Campaign Won’t Carry You Into the Endgame.
welcome to ARPGs

The Rarity Stat Gatekeeps How You Build Your Character and Your Overall Enjoyment of the Game.
except it doesn't because you could say the same about resistances.

also it only impacts power for those builds that are not combo based (they are sacrificing kill speed for rarity by choice because the damage isnt needed). combo based builds have nowhere to go as they are limited by cooldowns/combo duration - having rarity here gives a chase stat should they wish to increase their tinks.

The Crafting System Is Overly Complicated, and New Content Continually Bloats It Further.
you say bloat, others say more things to do/options to craft things. while it should be less complex and things like well of souls should show you affix tiers, it's not that complicated.

People Turn to RMT Because the Game Doesn’t Respect Their Time.
playing games is a waste of time anyway, what do you mean respect time? grinding is fun - if it's not for you, then you have the wrong game and should probably stick with d4

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tdonov5#2743 wrote:

Your Equipment Finds During the Campaign Won’t Carry You Into the Endgame.
welcome to ARPGs

The Rarity Stat Gatekeeps How You Build Your Character and Your Overall Enjoyment of the Game.
except it doesn't because you could say the same about resistances.

also it only impacts power for those builds that are not combo based (they are sacrificing kill speed for rarity by choice because the damage isnt needed). combo based builds have nowhere to go as they are limited by cooldowns/combo duration - having rarity here gives a chase stat should they wish to increase their tinks.

When a single stat influences loot flow, crafting access, and overall progression pace, it shapes how players feel forced to build, not just how they choose to optimize.

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katsukai#1184 wrote:

this game doesn’t really grab the casual gamer

That sounds like a strength, not a weakness.

On top of that, the dynamics will change once the game becomes free to play. At the rate things are going, GGG might be the only free-to-play live service studio in five years.

wait what?

poe2 is currently TOO easy

casual gamer has no chance?
then this is a "you" problem.

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tdonov5#2743 wrote:

Your Equipment Finds During the Campaign Won’t Carry You Into the Endgame.

The Crafting System Is Overly Complicated, and New Content Continually Bloats It Further.
you say bloat, others say more things to do/options to craft things. while it should be less complex and things like well of souls should show you affix tiers, it's not that complicated.


People Turn to RMT Because the Game Doesn’t Respect Their Time.
playing games is a waste of time anyway, what do you mean respect time? grinding is fun - if it's not for you, then you have the wrong game and should probably stick with d4

“More options” only works if players understand them. The issue isn’t depth, it’s opacity. The real problem is that crafting complexity is paired with high stakes, most opt selling them than using it.

Grinding can be fun, but when advancement is heavily gated by opaque systems, economic RNG, or mandatory efficiency stacking, players don’t feel rewarded for time spent. Dismissing that as “wrong game” avoids the actual issue: whether the grind feels meaningful or arbitrary.

RMT isn’t about disliking grind, it’s about players feeling the grind isn’t worth engaging with as designed. We honestly want to kill RMT altogether.

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Darosius#3984 wrote:

wait what?

poe2 is currently TOO easy

casual gamer has no chance?
then this is a "you" problem.

I completely agree with you. But man it must be rough to be GGG. Most of the posts here are about how the game is too hard. My "favorite" right now is the one claiming minion builds are no good, when they are some of the strongest builds in the game.

I think GGG had no choice but to cave this league, because they didn't deliver the endgame and players were already upset. But once the endgame is in place, I hope they make things harder.

I'm glad if you guys are enjoying the game and find it easy, just these are some of my thoughts playing the game. I can see the game being too easy when played by some content creator builds. I also think that endgame should be more challenging since T1 to T15 mapping feels mostly skippable. To be honest I don't even like the atlas system, lol.