To all legit players

I'll agree on one thing. It is unfair to those that do not have access to the mechanic.

PoE doesn't strictly forbid multiple instances, so all you need is more active accounts, which probably won't be a problem in open beta.
Right now team play is discouraged by 2 factors - xp sharing penalty and FFA looting.

A possible solution could be to change shared xp penalty into an actual bonus for nearby party members (level difference penalty should still apply, and the bonus itself should be much lower than 50% per player), and remove any xp bonus for players that are outside of the 2 screens zone.
This encourages team play and xp bonus offsets the risks of FFA looting.
For players that do want to use fillers (or simply do split runs with other players), +50% IIQ per filler should be good enough reward for having to kill tougher monsters.

Something similar was brought up during the buying stash tabs = PTW controversy a few months back.

This game is going to be free to play.
Therefore come open beta some people are going to make multiple accounts, so that they don't have to pay a cent.

I recall Chris saying people are free to make multiple accounts for extra stash, only that this of course will be very inconvenient.

Think about this.

Now, if you make separate mule accounts for armor, weapons currency, gems, how do you think the main account is going to pass on the excess loot? You would need to run multiple instances already.

That's right, POE must be able to, can, and does run multiple instances on one computer. Those with extra beta keys, why not try it now?

To not allow multiple instances means GGG loses the ethical microtransactions moniker. People who can buy stash tabs become get a huge advantage in recipe and currency farming mechanics.

Then of course, its a short jump into 'boosting'.

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kolton wrote:

For players that do want to use fillers (or simply do split runs with other players), +50% IIQ per filler should be good enough reward for having to kill tougher monsters.

This is an interesting suggestion.

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I'll agree on one thing. It is unfair to those that do not have access to the mechanic.

The other aspect is, it's a chore and terribly meta. It's also unfair for people who just don't want to have to deal with it in order to compete.

Thanks for making this post, Zakaluka. As most of you know, I'm a very non-competitive player and generally play either solo or with very trusted friends. That's just how I do things online these days. Thus I deeply appreciate these exposures to the greater 'game' at stake.

I probably have 'had' more keys than a lot of players but it never once crossed my mind to use them myself. I do have one alt account, but only because GGG haven't been nice enough to put in an 'invisible' mode yet and anyone can add me as a friend -- makes it really hard to lurk and pounce, which I'll admit is probably one of the few upswings to being a moderator who spends far, far too much time watching Normal difficulty global chat. :)

It's just not in me to 'hack' or 'cheat', not after Diablo 1. I can still remember how much fun I had before I played that game online and saw just how utterly meta-gamey Battle.net was and is. I still cling to that memory and embrace the fact that PoE has, so far, honoured it.

So I'll admit, while I appreciate you bringing this up publicly, Zakaluka, it annoys me in the same way I figure privileged people get annoyed when they're shown less-fortunate folk in a way they can't just ignore. That one is totally on my head. I won't pretend to care more than I do, either, because I'm too busy caring about other things, like people who don't feel the need to play in a manner with which I personally disagree.

But I've known that GGG does care, especially Chris, for a while. That just makes sense to me: the GGGang are massive D2 fans, they know what can happen to their baby if it is exposed to the big bad world too soon, and the last thing any of them want is to see it 'broken' in the fashion you've raised. I don't know why but that just made sense to me, so for people to spread rumours that GGG wouldn't give a shit about the threat of 'exploits' (the inverted commas are so very necessary here) is like someone telling me a mother is neglecting her child when I've seen, first-hand, how lovingly she treats that child and how carefully she's raised it. It's just toxic and ignorant and I dismiss it as such.

...but I suppose there's always the fact that I don't see that mother with her child 24/7, and maybe, in those hours when I'm busy elsewhere, things are different. Maybe the mother is doing her best and her best might not even be good enough. Of course there are those doubts, but they're pretty weak compared to the evidence.

Maybe it's the fact that GGG seem so happy to allow people to 'exploit' angles of PoE rather than nerf-nerf-nerf every time someone finds what looks like an exploit that has people nervous. They didn't come down on OldMan as hard as most other companies would have, yes. But they did make clear that had this been Open Beta, he wouldn't have gotten off with something so light as a name-change (which I still think was brilliant; progressive parenting at its best!).

In that light, perhaps Closed-Beta GGG and Open-Beta GGG are going to be two very different parents...

(Which of course makes me wonder if my days as a bantering, amiable moderator are numbered. Oh dear.)

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Zakaluka wrote:

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kolton wrote:

The other aspect is, it's a chore and terribly meta. It's also unfair for people who just don't want to have to deal with it in order to compete.

What I meant to say is to simply make it possible for everyone to mimic without the need of extra accounts.

I see.

You're suggesting that it wouldn't be completely off-the-wall to simply add a /players 6 difficulty option. That's actually a valid possibility, and I can only see two real downsides to it.

There'd be an issue with quant scaling, I think. Too easy to roll good maps when you get 3x as many drops per map.

The other downside is something Bird mentioned. 2-player partying would be the most efficient way to grind. People would solo or 2-player party. Nothing else would be competitive.

/players X has been bandied about. I'm in favour of it, but I'll admit I haven't fully explored the repercussions. Perhaps GGG have and that is why it isn't in.

/players n.

Give everyone instant access to instance boosting and make it available in races. It would add another layer of complexity, forcing players to decide what level of difficulty will help them level the fastest. Also implement reasonable level requirements, my 2 level 2s that have access to maps have no business in there, but I'm definitely taking advantage of it until it is fixe (not that I do often).