The reason for the low level of active players in Path of Exile

The reason I and many others in my friends list stopped is that the endgame gets boring after a while. Farming maps to be able to farm maps faster/safer is not a good enough reason to play for a long time. PoE needs a good PvP system. Then there will be a real purpose in doing maps.

From what I consider to be an objective viewpoint, Path Of Exile is a niche game. By definition and design it will not provide long-term appeal to a large percentage of people who play PC games.

The developers knew this from the start.

Be design, in order to actualize highly specific, "perfectly" min/max'd, arguably "niche" builds that require insanely rare items, players are expected to make an "investment" in the game. This "investment" is time.


What is stated above is what I find to be the current state of the game. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. I am, in my estimation, part of the actual target audience for this entertainment content. Any explanation or defense of my style of play is superfluous.

The reason for what you perceive to be "the low level of active players in Path Of Exile" is that, by design, it is not supposed to appeal to everyone. It is to games what the Creation Museum is to theme parks (http://creationmuseum.org/).

To create an analogy to address the "issue" related to gearing up perfectly min/max'd, specialized niche builds:
OP and I both work the same job. We both commute. I'm perfectly happy to get there in whatever way is most readily available to me, he chafes at the thought of anything less than driving a Bugatti. We are both fry cooks.

If you want the Bugatti, put in the time or win the lottery.

+1 Shagsbeard, you said it well enough, I'm just piling on.

100 hours in a game, is perhaps not much to ARPG fans, but is unimaginable to many players who have a serious life. They generally don't sink any time to grind, whether pointlessly or not.

Such players also love Diablo 1&2 because they were satisfied before having to do any repetitive content. They DON'T play games to escape the reality, they play because they love to.

They do love a quality game, but you can not make them stay.

"

Cronk wrote:

"

Cribstaxx wrote:

"

Shagsbeard wrote:

Why does everyone think that a game has to be popular to be fun? So this game doesn't float your boat. Move on to one that does.

Ask yourself... why did you post this? Is it to try to make people feel similarly to you? Is it in a vain hope that they completely remodel the game after what you think is fun?

PoE is considered fun by enough people for it to exist. That's sufficient. It doesn't have to be the most popular game on the planet to be good.

+100 This man understands.

Yes, and could be posted upon practically any thread which discusses anything about anything - which is what shagsbeard does, posts exactly the same lines on every thread about everything. If you agree with him on this topic, it looks great doesn't it. See it on a thread you actually agree with, suddenly it looks like what it is - a non-contributory repetition of static memes that could be applied to any thread and any subject matter.

I would question shagsbeards reasons for spending so much time in a 'discussion' room far more than crackmonster, regardless of the subject and my views on it.

Lol except that there is no contributory statements in this thread because there is no 1 reason for a decline in the steam players.

First we are only looking at a small % of the players (less than half from my understanding)

Also there are tons of reasons why a person could quit playing. The holidays just ended and schools and colleges reopened, that alone would account for a lot of people playing less or not at all from 2 weeks ago. Innumerable personal reasons, another game the person decided to start playing, and yes some because of boredom.

But the point is that no one can say "This is why" and just the fact that there is so much argument on the subject is an indicator that obviously this isn't something that is driving people away by the thousands because so many are defending it.

"

nGio wrote:

"

Snoozey wrote:

You're joking right? An Arpg without an item hunt. That would be swell.

A "hunt" is fine, and it's fun. Trying to find a needle in a haystack is demoralizing. Congrats if you're the guy who found the needle for your last few hundred hours of grinding, but it doesn't make the 20 guys who just got more hay feel any better.

Agree with Snoozey.


nGio, everybody found that needle, just not for themselves.

So, you trade that useless needle for another needle, or, since it's also very hard that someone who has "your" needle needs "his" needle which dropped to you, you trade that needle for currency, and then that currency for "your" needle.

And no, you don't have to play a trade simulator, you can if you want, but it's far from required, no... not far, it's few galaxies farther.

Everything works fine, people just want everything served on the plate.

Or would you like "improved" drops, how is that? People constantly point out that they want "improved" drops, let me hear the suggestion, I would really like to hear.

"

Sinnesteuer wrote:

From what I consider to be an objective viewpoint, Path Of Exile is a niche game. By definition and design it will not provide long-term appeal to a large percentage of people who play PC games.

The developers knew this from the start.

Be design, in order to actualize highly specific, "perfectly" min/max'd, arguably "niche" builds that require insanely rare items, players are expected to make an "investment" in the game. This "investment" is time.

I agree, but then I have to question who is the target of a "niche" game? Well, this game is clearly modeled after D2, which saw it's prime many years ago. Since then we have had several arpg titles, with none of them being "the next big thing". In fact, a lot of the best arpgs since D2, were structured and marketed wrong, and failed. HGL was a great game imo, but it was catered to this "niche" audience that was just too small to carry a game that is competing against video game juggernauts of genres more catered to today's gamer(like MOBAs).

So again I ask, who is the target audience of PoE? It's clearly not the younger generation, but instead it's the D2 generation. The problem is that the D2 generation grew up, got jobs, got married, had kids, etc. We can't grind like we used to. Can we put in 20-30 hours a week? Sure. But we aren't doing 20 hour marathon sleepovers at our friends' houses anymore.

What arpgs need now is the best of both, a hybrid of the old school D2 grinder with the youth of today's generation, who don't particularly enjoy arpgs. This is imo the biggest dilemma, and the reason that arpg after arpg falls into the toilet. PoE will never be D2, so GGG needs to decide who they're target audience is before this game bleeds out anymore players. At some point GGG and their loyalists will have to come to grips that like every arpg since D2 this just isn't working, and it's too bad because this game could be great.

"

nGio wrote:

"

Sinnesteuer wrote:

From what I consider to be an objective viewpoint, Path Of Exile is a niche game. By definition and design it will not provide long-term appeal to a large percentage of people who play PC games.

The developers knew this from the start.

Be design, in order to actualize highly specific, "perfectly" min/max'd, arguably "niche" builds that require insanely rare items, players are expected to make an "investment" in the game. This "investment" is time.

I agree, but then I have to question who is the target of a "niche" game? Well, this game is clearly modeled after D2, which saw it's prime many years ago. Since then we have had several arpg titles, with none of them being "the next big thing". In fact, a lot of the best arpgs since D2, were structured and marketed wrong, and failed. HGL was a great game imo, but it was catered to this "niche" audience that was just too small to carry a game that is competing against video game juggernauts.

So again I ask, who is the target audience of PoE? It's clearly not the younger generation, but instead it's the D2 generation. The problem is that the D2 generation grew up, got jobs, got married, had kids, etc. We can't grind like we used to. Can we put in 20-30 hours a week? Sure. But we aren't doing 20 hour marathon sleepovers at our friends' houses anymore.

What arpgs need now is the best of both, a hybrid of the old school D2 grinder with the youth of today's generation, who don't particularly enjoy arpgs. This is imo the biggest dilemma, and the reason that arpg after arpg falls into the toilet. PoE will never be D2, so GGG needs to decide who they're target audience is before this game bleeds out anymore players. At some point GGG and their loyalists will have to come to grips that like every arpg since D2 this just isn't working, and it's too bad because this game could be great.

When I read this I think to myself you want the game to be more rewarding. That isn't a bad thing but I get the feeling you feel like PoE is inordinately unrewarding per some reasonable unit of time spent. So for you what exactly would you like to get in terms of more or better rewards? In what kind of time frame?

"

GeorgAnatoly wrote:

"

nGio wrote:

I agree, but then I have to question who is the target of a "niche" game? Well, this game is clearly modeled after D2, which saw it's prime many years ago. Since then we have had several arpg titles, with none of them being "the next big thing". In fact, a lot of the best arpgs since D2, were structured and marketed wrong, and failed. HGL was a great game imo, but it was catered to this "niche" audience that was just too small to carry a game that is competing against video game juggernauts.

So again I ask, who is the target audience of PoE? It's clearly not the younger generation, but instead it's the D2 generation. The problem is that the D2 generation grew up, got jobs, got married, had kids, etc. We can't grind like we used to. Can we put in 20-30 hours a week? Sure. But we aren't doing 20 hour marathon sleepovers at our friends' houses anymore.

What arpgs need now is the best of both, a hybrid of the old school D2 grinder with the youth of today's generation, who don't particularly enjoy arpgs. This is imo the biggest dilemma, and the reason that arpg after arpg falls into the toilet. PoE will never be D2, so GGG needs to decide who they're target audience is before this game bleeds out anymore players. At some point GGG and their loyalists will have to come to grips that like every arpg since D2 this just isn't working, and it's too bad because this game could be great.

When I read this I think to myself you want the game to be more rewarding. That isn't a bad thing but I get the feeling you feel like PoE is inordinately unrewarding per some reasonable unit of time spent. So for you what exactly would you like to get in terms of more or better rewards? In what kind of time frame?

Well, I found an Aegis Aurora in Nemesis about 350 hours ago. Since then, I literally haven't found a single thing worth 1ex+. I have traded up thousands of Alterations and hundreds of Chaos all in an attempt at crafting a single item. I'm not asking for "tons of awesome shit", but if I look back at the last 350 hours being wasted I have no ambition towards grinding anymore. A small carrot every 100 hours or so isn't asking too much.

"

nGio wrote:

Well, I found an Aegis Aurora in Nemesis about 350 hours ago. Since then, I literally haven't found a single thing worth 1ex+. I have traded up thousands of Alterations and hundreds of Chaos all in an attempt at crafting a single item. I'm not asking for "tons of awesome shit", but if I look back at the last 350 hours being wasted I have no ambition towards grinding anymore. A small carrot every 100 hours or so isn't asking too much.

If we multiply the drop rate of item X (which was originally worth 1 exalt) with 1000 %, do you still think that item will be worth one exalt?

What are you ACTUALLY asking for?