Do People Enjoy the Poe1 Campaign?

I don't think many people like running campaigns, over and over and over again. It's not a specific campaign either, it's the fact we have to do it to enjoy any game or content we are interested in. It's just an aspect of gaming we have to endure so the devs are happy with what ever metric they are trying to boost, outside of the first experience no one should be forced to do it again.

Considering:
1. it feels POE1 is more in maintenance than development effort (GGG resources focus on POE2),
2. most POE1 players are returning, reasonably low number of new players,
3. campaign takes very small percentile of time for most active players before they can actually start playing,
4. it is repetitive for returning players, especially those training multiple chars per league, with reactions varying between 'time waaste I got used to' -> 'I don't mind' but pretty few 'I like',
any GGG investment in campaign tweaks (especially those making it harder, seepening learning curve for the few new players) are waste of effort that could have been spend much better elsewhere in POE1.
I would like to see the campaign gone altogether, but in light of the above I am OK with it staying unchanged... and getting frustrated every time I see changes in patch notes og game itself. Wasteful.

GGG worked hard on it so they will not change it as a prerequisite to everything else. Even though I don't enjoy the campaign myself (I've been playing for 13 years) I understand why they do it and it is only a day or so at the start of the league. It is what it is.

I've played at a casual level since OB, lss each league as the years have gone on, and actually to this day I still enjoy the campaign - especially acts 1-3 which I've played by far the most. A6-10 are not as fun, IMO, especially the grey/blood-red palette which gets rather inescapable. Maybe it's a memory trick, I recall how excitin and difficult these zones used to be, or the hours farming Solaris for maps and mini-bosses.

I don't get in the time investment to get to true end-game (obviously no trading), never have since the final maps were Shipyard and Temple plus occasional Atziri: it's as much as I manage to ~complete the Atlas tree. Yet my favourite maps are still Strand, Tropical Island, Jungle Valley and Canyon (plus the old Waterways and Gorge). Again, old maps with familiar bosses.

More quirks and twists in the campaign would be amusing, but I suspect I'm as much in a minority here as i the rest of the above.

It wouldn't be hard to give us an option, let us choose between campaign or atlas/map prog from the start, maybe make 1 full completion a requisite (tutorial phase).


I would play the game more if i didn't have to always do campaign for any build idea etc, same with poe2, i would do more testing if i was allowed to.

I quite enjoy the campaign, but an alternative method for alt characters would be nice. It wouldn't have to be anything special; I'd settle for a quest-less jaunt through a chain of zones, free of side-areas and town turn-ins.

Something like this:



No quests, no unlocking of gates, no story narrative. Act rewards (skill points, etc) would be baked into the zones, dropping from various bosses. Perhaps a merchant shows up every couple of zones to sell gems and whatnot, alongside a Stash chest. Just non-stop momentum.

Obv i rush to maps asap but the campaign has to stay as is. No exceptions, imo. It would water the game down to much to casual sandbox mode and would hurt the game in the long run. Every comparable example is bad, first and foremost Diablo 3. The game has no spirit, nothing, just a plain empty shell, while poe is superior in every aspect, which also comes from non optional campaign.

The campaign is a minor nuisance compared to all the time you're going to spend in the end game but, at the same time, it's a pity that the most enjoyable period of your character development (when you level up a lot) is spent in such a chore.

Personally, I think they should let people level up in an alternative way once they've unlocked the scion.
Something similar to delve, or random maps, etc. Anything that lets you just play the game without having to interact with the same NPCs for the 100th time.

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WaywornExile#0835 wrote:

No quests, no unlocking of gates, no story narrative. Act rewards (skill points, etc) would be baked into the zones, dropping from various bosses. Perhaps a merchant shows up every couple of zones to sell gems and whatnot, alongside a Stash chest. Just non-stop momentum.

Something like this, yes.

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Strickl3r#3809 wrote:

the campaign has to stay as is. No exceptions, imo. It would water the game down to much to casual sandbox mode and would hurt the game in the long run. Every comparable example is bad, first and foremost Diablo 3. The game has no spirit, nothing, just a plain empty shell

I agree with the campaign not turning into the Diablo 3's adventure mode. A revamp where GGG adds more zones, quests and choices as alternative paths in the campaign would give a reason to return to PoE1. Just have the added quests grant passive skill points, but not over the original limit, and Players would probably want it if the new zones have better shortcuts to endgame.

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scottslayer#6428 wrote:

Which acts do people enjoy playing through on a new character? I know that a section of the community generally hate the campaign and rush to get to maps ASAP. Is GGG going to revamp the campaign or are they only focused on endgame / league gimmicks?

I do not mind doing them once. I always enjoy seeing how well I do against the top runners.

I, however, rarely create a second char as I do not want to go through the acts again. If there was a way to start a second char without having to do the acts again, I would try other builds instead of moving to other games after I hit 40 challenges.