Simply stop playing the meta...

Pretty much every QQ post I see (drops, RNG, nerfs, trading, game too hard pls halp, etc.) can be solved by not engaging in the meta-game.

The very premise of the game is exile in a harsh, unforgiving environment, you are meant to be punished, things are meant to be hard to accomplish.

From this perspective (the one intended in the spirit of the game) just surviving is rewarding, your decisions carry weight and impact, the slightest upgrade or quest reward feels heaven sent rather than a cruel jibe by the "evil empire of RNG" and "nonviable" skills become interesting and utilitarian.(Id like to point out this is not just while leveling but end as well, without the meta-perspective and some enjoyable tinkering many "nonviable" skills find their niche)

Even when trading, the misery I see most often described is a result of meta-perception, "Game does not drop enough currency for me to trade for upgrades" "ppl just flip,scam,RMT all day and as a result of their "cheating" have better gear and more currency than me" "The spam in trade chat is annoying eww" "I dont want to spend all my time trading" When approached from the perspective of a destitute exile trying to scrape together what he/she can, trading becomes a skill, failure is punishing and success all the more rewarding because of it. As for the time sink many claim trading to be, I call a choice, I spend maybe 30min - 1hr at most finding and successfully trading for anything I need. Again it is the meta-perspective that drives one to spend the time to find the "best" deal or make the "right" profit rather than enjoying what they can accomplish.

I enjoy a mixture of both the meta-game and, what I will call the spirit of the game. But I know that if I focused solely on the meta I would not enjoy the game even half as much, its more a curiosity, and interesting side show to the game itself.(and just generally interesting when it comes to the actual gameplay meta) Most the joy I derive from the game is conceptual, thinking about a character, the environment etc. and then attempting to bring that to life in the game, the particular struggles to do that is part of the fun.

In the end(tl;dr) it is your choice to engage the meta and the devs cannot save you from its effects on how you perceive and thus experience the game.

Thanks for the move.

TL;DR - OP wants you to live in denial

But I want to be like [insert your favorite streamer]!

"

Cergic wrote:

TL;DR - OP wants you to live in denial

Simply trying to provide another perspective from which to look at the game, one that it seems would benefit many of the ppl on these forums.

"

Cergic wrote:

TL;DR - OP wants you to live in denial

TL;DR, the OP wants everyone to shut up and get along.

TL;DR, Cergic wants to rage on the forums without getting along.

Just about sums it up people.

OP i love you! Finaly a post i can give +1 :D

So you engage in the meta but you make a thread saying you don't have to?

Also this game isn't hard. Dark souls 2 is hard, PoE has a lot of time consuming tediousness. That isn't actually hard, just time consuming.

I think what Hiro says is that most pain (here: frustration, resentment, unhappiness) comes from competing with others and comparing oneself to them. What others have, how fast they level, how high they level, how many exalted orbs and mirrors they have, what mind-blowing items they find (more importantly: that you don't find or have) etc. And when you try to "catch up", thinking you'd get "relief" (happiness, satisfaction, sense of accomplishment) if you did, you go down that endless frustration spiral.

A bit Buddhist, but this is certainly true for myself. I had more fun when I played Domination self-found, for example, working on my own goals that were independent of what other people did (like trying cheap builds, trying to make to with what I found, getting one of each class to 65, and so forth).

Then in Ambush I decided to trade and to level fast. I did level fast to 85, and then I crashed. Everything annoyed me: other people, the game, the desync, the Atziri contest, other people RMTing, the players bugging me with trade whispers and the attempts to low ball me, even my job that kept interfering with playing :), etc. I started to whine, complain and generally focus on all that's negative about PoE.

And above all, I didn't have fun. Not one bit.

Then I took a break, sorted myself out, and decided to go back to how I played before, in the "dead" HC league. Self-found, leveling a bunch of characters simultaneously, no trading, no mid range goals (hence HC league and not a temp league), sight-seeing a lot, trying out weird builds that may or may not work, and just chilling. An hour of play here or there, maybe three hours some nights, etc. And some races, just to see how far I can get (regardless of how far others get), and so forth.

And I'm enjoying the game again.