Why Standard League is irrelevant, and why that's not good for PoE.

NB: Skip the wall of text and go straight to the tl;dr if you hate reading.

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I enjoy playing in both Hardcore and Standard Leagues. Why both? Because they cater to different play styles, and sometimes I am in the mood for one but not the other.

The relative safety of Anarchy League allows me to play more aggressively, to take on areas perhaps I am not yet ready for in terms of gear or levels, but which I can perhaps negotiate via actual skill. It also allows me to focus more on IIQ and IIR in my stats and try to compensate for my weaker characters, again, by actual skill. The cost of death is so much lower, I can feel comfortable taking these risks.

Hardcore and Onslaught Leagues allow me to enjoy the danger that comes with a higher death penalty. It encourages more defensive and cautious gameplay. Onslaught is even more dangerous with a (slightly) higher reward for negotiating that danger. Vanilla Hardcore is still dangerous enough to have its own character, especially since the added rewards of Onslaught are arguably not proportionate to the increase in difficulty. Essentially, Onslaught is "Hardercore," and there's an argument that there is a place in PoE for both to exist at the same time, and for players to play in Hardcore even though they could be spending their time in Onslaught.

Standard League gives us... nothing of note. It is where all items end up when players die / Anarchy ends, but as long as Anarchy exists, why spend time here? You'll find better items in Anarchy, and have the same relatively risk-free gameplay.

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I thought the interaction between HC and Normal was brilliant when I first heard of it. So long as you spend time in both leagues, the cost of death in HC is less absolute. If you have two more-or-less identical builds, one geared for HC play and one for normal, the only thing you've lost when your HC character dies is the levels on the character itself, and perhaps the more defensive gear that is not as necessary in a non-HC league. The gear that has moved from HC to Normal is still potentially useful to your Normal character. Or, if the character/build doesn't exist yet in Normal for you, you can continue to play it. It softens the blow of HC death just enough to make HC more attractive to players outside of the traditional "hardcore" crowd (such as me). This is especially relevant in a real-time online game, where network flaws (client-side or server-side) can be the cause of death. The GGG website also states that the purpose of this dynamic was to "encourage non-hardcore players to try the hardcore game mode."

Yet, at the moment there is no benefit to playing in Standard League that is not already provided by Anarchy. It is nothing more than a receptacle for characters that died in various hardcore modes and for characters at Anarchy's end. (Is it a coincidence that "receptacle" is also a word we use to refer to a trashcan?) It has no character, no redeeming feature, that gives value to spending time playing in it.

Why is this relevant to other leagues? Because this RAISES the cost of death in every HC League there is. (For the average player, that is. It doesn't raise the cost of death for the hardest of the hardcore, as they just restart an HC character upon death regardless.) If the items you are carrying are dumped into a useless League upon death, the cost of death becomes more absolute, and GGG's goal of getting non-hardcore players into hardcore has been shut down. Once Anarchy ends, this will no longer be the case. You could therefore argue that those items might someday be useful again, and I would be forced to agree. But I have the feeling that, unless the GGG devs agree with me on this point, then not long after Anarchy ends there will be another similar limited-time non-HC League, once again making Standard League irrelevant.

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Now I'm going to say something even more controversial. I think Anarchy shouldn't exist, or at the very least that all characters in Hardcore and Onslaught should be dumped into Anarchy when they die. It is the existence of Anarchy that makes Standard irrelevant, disrupting the relationship between Hardcore and Standard that I thought was so brilliant when I first heard of it. Take the benefits of Anarchy and put them into Standard League, or kill Standard League entirely, because right now it is worthless. GGG, please give players a reason to spend time playing in the "Receptacle."

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tl;dr
Standard League contributes nothing to your gameplay time that isn't already covered by Anarchy, so there is no reason for it to exist at all. Its benefit as a receptacle for dead characters' items is thereby negated, sadly.

It's a game... you're putting way to much thought into it.

It's just like Non-Ladder in D2. Don't understand why so many people get so hung up on it. Play the new leagues every time they start or play standard if you don't care.

You gonna have to give me an Exalt if you want me to read all that.

Joking aside, my view is Standard should be modified to allow for unlimited respecs or one per month or so just so you try new builds and have easy access (or easier) to uniques. Once you are happy with a build, use it in Anarchy/Onslaught (or equivalent).

Also, have those failed overpowered uniques like Shavronne Soul Taker and Kaoms stay in Standard.

There is no reason to delete Standard. Just rename it Purgatory, remove an ability to make a character there right away with only way to get there being dying in Hardcore.

I see many people say that they want a more casual league. In my eyes that is exactly what standard is. You can play for a few months then leave, come back and still have everything the way you left it. Some people want it that way. While other leagues like Anarchy will eventually come to an end.

I used to think like you do. That is was a pointless league and that no one would ever play there once Anarchy and Onslaught came out. But then I logged into Standard to check something on one of my characters and I was pleasantly surprised to find soooo many people in there.

Some people prefer to play Standard. /Thread

Original post is incorrect.

Standard was created long before Anarchy.

Standard's value is temporarily lowered, it is not non-existent. People who originally created characters in standard still have them in standard. They get to play. There are only two items in Anarchy league that you can't get in standard.

New leagues are vital to the health of PoE. They provide new experiences and entice players to return to the game.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

So this is my question to you: will Standard be irrelevant when Anarchy ends?

As a qualification to that: do you realise that when someone makes a new character, the game automatically sets itself to put them into anarchy? You have to manually change the league to 'standard' if you want to enter what is widely known as the 'dump league'.

Here's the answer to your question:

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gibbousmoon wrote:

Once Anarchy ends, this will no longer be the case. You could therefore argue that those items might someday be useful again, and I would be forced to agree. But I have the feeling that, unless the GGG devs agree with me on this point, then not long after Anarchy ends there will be another similar limited-time non-HC League, once again making Standard League irrelevant.

Your points are valid, but note that I am not suggesting that Anarchy replace Standard at all but rather that Standard be given something, anything at all, to give players a reason to play there. Yes, it is a sandbox of sorts, because that is where all of your toys are, but I'd like to see it be more than just a dump: a place where it is worth time leveling up characters, and item-finding. This wouldn't require much. Just a few Normal League-only items would do the trick.

Someone brought up Ladder vs. Non-Ladder D2 play, and actually that's an excellent illustration of what is wrong with the current scenario. For years players lobbied Blizzard to give NL (and, by extension, single player) players the same runewords and potential drops Ladder players got, to (just as in this thread) make it worth spending time there and ignore Ladder (Anarchy's analogue) forever. But Blizzard refused, and it was the general consensus that the reason for the refusal was to force MP on players, in order to drive up advertising revenue on battle.net.

But GGG is not bound by the same revenue model, so D2 is not analogous.

Standard was messed up when they decided to put dead hardcore char into standard.

Standard League is the like the iPhone. Everyone gets so hyped up about it, only to discard it when a newer brand comes out, with little to no difference in terms of efficiency, mobility and flexibility. One can only cling to something for so long, everyone becomes so attached and fixated on the idea and concept of something new that they will unhesitatingly throw all their stuff out the window for a pet Unicorn.