How We Approach Console Development

I like the way they are doing things and how they are approaching the different issue about haveing 2 different platforms but still. You hired more people to work on the console version so that your team wouldnt split up but you could have hired more people to work on the PC version instead giving you more ressource to fix the current problems on PC

"Guys, it's really hard balancing our game! What do we do?"

"Make two versions and tell the players it won't have a negative impact."

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Ashriel wrote:

"Guys, it's really hard balancing our game! What do we do?"

"Make two versions and tell the players it won't have a negative impact."

Maybe when console players see how bad Life builds are compared to ES that will make GGG finally realize how bad the situation truly is, because right now they believe that Life builds are in a good spot. LOL

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Ashriel wrote:

"Guys, it's really hard balancing our game! What do we do?"

"Make two versions and tell the players it won't have a negative impact."

welcome aboard

Honestly i don't know what to think, it just feel you guys decided on your own to use a vaal orb on the game we know, love and have been supporting, will it brick? will it get nice extra stats? Will it stay the same? That we still don't know for sure but i hope for the best posible roll.

I'm the kind of guy that ends up vaaling his 6L Chest Halfway the leagues so i get GGG train of thought and i kinda respect this ballsy move, i just wish GGG had been more open about console development so supporters knew where part of their money was going into... if release goes well i'm sure PC will benefit greatly and people will shut their mouths but if it goes badly and we don't get any returns of the thousands of hours you had to use on this project many supporters will fell backstabed for sure.

That said i know GGG will be able to get returns on consoles, my main concern is that there's no way for them to design new things without keeping in mind how they will effect the console version. New skills and boss fights are doomed to play smooth on both versions or not get released at all, this is very sad to me since this limits the amount of cool mechanisms and interactions that can be done but wont because of console and controllers, lets hope GGG proves me wrong on this.

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Black_Gun wrote:

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ripnburn69 wrote:

After the dust settles, it will be just another realm, like China,and previously Russia. Realms that have nothing to do with the real servers.

This Manifesto addresses all my concerns. My faith in GGG's vision, is still unshaken.

the main difference between the two situations is that those separated realms were still using the exact same game as on the EU/US/AUS servers. having the russia and china servers didnt interfere with the design - past, present or future - of the game.

with the console version of poe coming into play, this changes, as I explained in my previous post on page 3. having two versions of the game that utilize different hardware and input device resources necessarily means that from here on out, GGG will always have a strong incentive to have any new mobs, skill gems, bossfights or league mechanics working with both versions of the game. otherwise, they would be wasting developer time and money.

thus, GGG will necessarily have a strong incentive to look at any ideas and any game design aspects for both versions of the game through the filter of "would it work on the console". despite their best intentions, this means that the pure existence of a console version necessitates a dumbing down and a casualization of the game which will also (negatively) affect us pc players.

I have faith that GGG, and especially Chris Wilson does not want Path of Exile to fail. I understand everyone's concerns. I have them too, but like I said I have faith.

I have spent my evening reading rants, and hate, and regrets of time and money spent, pure hate, and rudeness of I'm sorry I gave you money. I admit I was triggered, and just had to say something nice. I also read a few thought provoking, intelligently written posts, expressing everyone's concerns.

Just like everyone else I will stop playing one day. But I won't regret, a minute or dollar spent.
I got what I paid for, endless hours of pure blissful fun, lots of memories, a place to put my loot, and something to put on my characters head that doesn't look like a pot. I win!

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The development and direction of the PC version has not and will not change due to the existence of the console version.

Except for how the console version magically produced all these performance upgrades, which totally couldn't have happened anyway, right?

This is easy to claim, but impossible by definition. Whether or not GGG somehow believes it to be true, this absolutely cannot be true - which we're unfortunately going to find out over the next few years.

Balancing two games is not as easy as balancing one game. Full stop. Wishing doesn't make it so.

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ripnburn69 wrote:

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Black_Gun wrote:

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ripnburn69 wrote:

After the dust settles, it will be just another realm, like China,and previously Russia. Realms that have nothing to do with the real servers.

This Manifesto addresses all my concerns. My faith in GGG's vision, is still unshaken.

the main difference between the two situations is that those separated realms were still using the exact same game as on the EU/US/AUS servers. having the russia and china servers didnt interfere with the design - past, present or future - of the game.

with the console version of poe coming into play, this changes, as I explained in my previous post on page 3. having two versions of the game that utilize different hardware and input device resources necessarily means that from here on out, GGG will always have a strong incentive to have any new mobs, skill gems, bossfights or league mechanics working with both versions of the game. otherwise, they would be wasting developer time and money.

thus, GGG will necessarily have a strong incentive to look at any ideas and any game design aspects for both versions of the game through the filter of "would it work on the console". despite their best intentions, this means that the pure existence of a console version necessitates a dumbing down and a casualization of the game which will also (negatively) affect us pc players.

I have faith that GGG, and especially Chris Wilson does not want Path of Exile to fail. I understand everyone's concerns. I have them too, but like I said I have faith.

I have spent my evening reading rants, and hate, and regrets of time and money spent, pure hate, and rudeness of I'm sorry I gave you money. I admit I was triggered, and just had to say something nice. I also read a few thought provoking, intelligently written posts, expressing everyone's concerns.

Just like everyone else I will stop playing one day. But I won't regret, a minute or dollar spent.
I got what I paid for, endless hours of pure blissful fun, lots of memories, a place to put my loot, and something to put on my characters head that doesn't look like a pot. I win!

Spoiler

oh, I for my part regret nothing, not a minute and not a dollar I spent on this game. but this passion for the game is also the reason why I dont applaud changes that are bound to negatively affect the direction of the game in the future.

you see... I do have faith in GGG. I'm absolutely convinced that they will handle the whole situation much better than, for example, blizzard did with d3. my issue is not a lack of trust in GGGs ability and good intent. my issue is that the reasons why the console version will negatively affect the pc version are irrefutable and are things that GGG simply cannot avoid. it's not a question of intentions or competence... the reasons why this is bad for the future of the pc version go to the very core of the (abstract) game design process itself.

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Odds_ wrote:

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The development and direction of the PC version has not and will not change due to the existence of the console version.

Except for how the console version magically produced all these performance upgrades, which totally couldn't have happened anyway, right?

This is easy to claim, but impossible by definition. Whether or not GGG means it, this absolutely cannot be true - which we're unfortunately going to find out over the next few years.

Yep, all potential content is going to be discussed at a meeting where they talk about if it works with a controller. It will be less likely to make it past discussion if it is clunky. Think about the neat way ED/Contagion works. Playing that spec would be horrible with a controller. Meanwhile the last round of skills we got are all OP facetank controller friendly stuff like cwc and blade flurry.

My other concern is how easy it is to dupe on consoles. The base features of Live/PSN allow you to backup and restore game files. Duping in D3 is easy as pie on console. Its practically a selling point. But in that game all you can do is cube mats and get pretty easy to get gear. In POE with unlimited duped orbs you can flat out break the game.

Whatever, this was a fun game while it lasted.

Like it or not.

You few early fudgers @ GGG's made an ARPG from scratch and in a few years it became the best by far on PC and now is even developed on Xbox?

Geezzz that's some successful entrepeneurial endeavor right there.

Congrats, be proud!