What Happened with Items

"

JellyJones wrote:

Can we PLEASE increase the visibility of Archnemisis mechanics. I hate getting one shot from things that are drowned out by the mess of particles. Heralding is rather muted in sound and no longer has the beam of light to indicate its about to land on you. I feel like I'm back to playing in the days of old volatiles that would just one shot you before you even realized. You guys recognized that as an issue and fixed it once, now you returned it back into the game. It wasn't an issue during Archnemisis league because you knew what you were putting onto the rare.
Now the rare can be off-screen and you just encounter a pack of "Minion"s and just get oneshot before you can even notice. Its just not fun at all and the game is just frustrating to play unless you're 1-tapping everything several screens away.

+1
also made post about AN and more problems https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3298458

Well, was waiting till next announcement to make my decision and this is it. Goodbye 3.19. See you in 3 months POE, hope you are not still sick by then...

keep up the great work GGG love the content

First and only post - 48yo casual and former dev

Since I'm often thinking "what kind of person has this take?", I'll give a quick description of myself. 48yo casual gamer who left my career to take care of my 77yo dad after my mom died of cancer. My work history is car audio installer ->laborer/carpenter (family business) ->game developer. I have been playing since Ultimatum and have bought packs/tabs on both PC and PS5. I know it's strange and cringe to give that info, but I think it's important to understand where I'm coming from. I am far from the average troll that exists on forums. This post will be more about the overarching issues with GGG, and little to do with the specifics of the changes they have made this league.

As I read these posts from Chris/GGG, I can't help but to notice many clues that remind me of situations and meetings I have experienced myself in the industry. First, I want to make it clear that hate/threats towards ANY owner or employee personally is unacceptable. However, criticizing and calling attention to specific failure or incompetence is completely valid. In fact, it's needed to make sure people actually do their job correctly.

There have been many examples over the last few leagues that strongly suggest structural and quality control issues within GGG. Items, skills, and content released after design and testing that are simply not working or need to be rebalanced in a way that makes it seem completely untested. Either there is an issue with the testing process itself, or the employees doing it are not up to the task. Surely it isn't unfair to point out the relatively massive changes that are often made to numerical values post launch is a massive problem. It's fine to tweak things once the community "stresses" content, but the size of the changes is alarming. Also, Chris suggesting that a change to the loot table of a 10 year old ARPG was suggested "in passing" and was an honest mistake, seems extremely dishonest. Especially considering his past comments regarding loot in POE.

Based on my experiences, and time in the industry, this is my GUESS as to what has happened to POE. It seems likely that Chris/GGG has wanted POE to play like D2 the entirety of it's lifespan. Unfortunately, creating new content every 3 months has led to massive power creep. GGG realized that since POE was being funded solely by supporter packs by this time, they couldn't just nerf the power due to player backlash. That is when they probably decided that selling to Tencent would be the answer. They could secure the near future of the company, the employees, and most importantly....the vision. The sale likely removed the stress of being beholden to the demands of the player base, and they could now focus on re-balancing POE and go all in on making POE2 the game they really want. I will add that they could have sourced funding for POE2 from so many other avenues based on their market position and years of proven success. Instead, they went for the big payout from essentially the Chinese government.

So why touch POE at all if they will already have a fresh start in POE2? It's pretty simple, if we are all zooming around like the 3.14 days at the time of POE2 release, the game will feel clunky and slow compared to what we were just playing. The majority of the community would still make the switch because it's the new shiny thing, but many players would stay with (or go back to) POE after realizing the new game isn't what they prefer playing. This is probably scary for GGG, not knowing what the community reactions and numbers would actually be. Therefore, the best move is to slowly (or not) ramp up the difficulty of POE until it closely resembles POE2 by release time. Players would be less inclined to stick with the old game and GGG wins by forcing hard mode.

Now I would like to address the people criticizing the community for complaining too much. Here is an analogy of what has happened to help those people understand:

Imagine you buy a new 60" 4k 144hz TV for $1000. You could have bought a 1080p TV for $500, but you feel the extra resolution worth the extra money. Now imagine that after a year of ownership, the manufacturer forces a patch that lowers the resolution to 1080p because it's what the manufacturer prefers, how would that make you feel? Keep in mind, that 1080p is still HD and looks good. You can still enjoy your content well enough, but it's simply NOT WHAT YOU PAID FOR! So when I read these comments, what I see is "stop complaining, you still have a HD TV, it still looks fine". Completely ignoring that what GGG is doing is fundamentally and morally wrong. The supporter packs that people have purchased over the last couple of years was to support the game that they were currently experiencing. Do you really think they were aware of the drastic changes GGG would make to the game?

Now, let me give you an acceptable version of the above example. You buy the 4k 144hz TV. After a year of ownership, the manufacturer forces a patch that lowers the refresh rate from 144hz to 100hz. They apologize in the patch notes "We are sorry about the change to your refresh rate, but we've found upon further testing that 144hz reduces the lifespan of the screen by years compared to 100hz. Do you see the difference? They made the minimum change possible, while helping the ENTIRETY of the consumer base with a fix that most people would objectively call a fair trade.

I will close by saying POE is still a good game, just not as good as it used to be. GGG and Chris are still some of the best in the industry, just not as good as they used to be. Unfortunately, GGG is looking more and more like EA, Activision, Blizzard, etc. and it makes me sad.

So the game atm is what u wanted on launch? this is sad... the game is fking boring and all u can farm atm is rng hope to get the right archmenises mob so u get the juciy divine nice... i have never been disappointed in ggg but this is the first time i feel like the king lost it's crown and time to try other games out i guess....

I will share what my philosophies are as a player, in hopes GGG realize the gap. Please feel free to add more to the list.

Philosophy 1: My time as a player is inherently valuable.

It makes sense that if you juice your maps, you get more rewards. We get this. We agree with it. It benefits the 0.1% more than anyone, and I will never be one of those players. But they spend time and resources and are also experts on the game, so they yield more returns. It makes sense, it's fair and it's logical.

However, if we talk about "more investment, more rewards", my time investment in the game is the biggest investment I am making. I want to be rewarded just by the virtue of playing the game. The base content of the game should feel rewarding. I should be able to sustain my maps, alchs, basic currency, etc. simply because I'm playing the game and I want to continue playing the game. Nothing feels worse than running 3-4 rare red maps and having to downgrade to blue yellow maps because you ran out of red maps and alchs.

Again, not saying fully juiced content should be less rewarding. Just saying that the base game should always feel rewarding and should not hinder my progress in maps, regardless of how juicing works.

Philosophy 2: This is a game about power fantasy.

Whether rare mobs are too strong or not is a secondary discussion. The reason I play this game is because it feels good. It feels powerful. FFS, I am a god slayer in this game. That is the basic premise of any ARPG: power. Yes, if there is no challenge, any game feels dull. It's the designer's core responsibility to find that balance. If I have to run away from a random rare mob, you have failed that design. And if the mobs are so strong that I cannot even run away from them, if they keep chasing me throughout the map and I need to logout, you have failed miserable. Let me feel powerful.

So, whatever you do about monster power, AN mobs, league mobs, etc., please remember this game is about power fantasy.

Philosophy 3: I came to POE for its talent tree, for the build diversity.

That is what hooked me into the game. That's why every public streamer goes "woooaa" when they see it for the first time. It's a core selling point of POE. Stop butchering it.

Yes, there are people that play the same build every league. But there is also a significant number of people that play a different build every league. We love it. Every time you are killing a build archetype because you want to "balance" the game, you are making it a bit more difficult for me to come back to the game. I want to play every league. I even want to play multiple times each league. I'm just not going to do it with the same build, through the same acts. Make build diversity a core priority.



I feel GGG haven't touched any of these points in their recent posts, and I hope this helps find a balance

byeee

@DarKMooNKiller, you right man!

GGG i want my 4k 144hz TV back!

"

Philosophy One: Reward mechanisms should scale properly with Item Quantity and Rarity bonuses

Currently, they really don't scale at a rate proportionate to the amount invested. Maybe you should put some effort into that.

"

Philosophy Two: Players should fight fewer Rare Monsters at once, but they should be more challenging and rewarding

Currently, there's only ONE rare worth fighting (Solaris-touched)... so no one is engaging with any of them, if they don't have to.

"

Philosophy Three: There shouldn't be a large gap between the difficulty and rewards of league content and base game content

Technically accurate in most cases, since the rewards are absolutely garbage across the entire system. The only exception at the moment, is chest rewards from Heist, Legion, Blight, and a few other marquee examples.


If one were to compare loot to a Sin graph with an average line drawn in it, it feels like you lowered the frequency between peaks and valleys substantially, and made the peaks FAR more narrow then the valleys. It feels absolutely punishing to play this game right now... and subsequently, its not fun.


IF YOU EVER NEEDED EVIDENCE AS TO WHY YOUR MASOCHISTIC DREAM VERSION OF HARD MODE WAS SOMETHING THAT NO ONE SHARED WITH YOU... YOU NOW HAVE IT. THE BACKLASH YOU ARE SEEING DUE TO THESE CHANGES IS IN-LINE WITH THE BACKLASH YOU GOT FROM EVEN MENTIONING THAT STUPID HARD MODE IDEA. YOU CLEARLY HAVE NO CLUE AS TO HOW TO READ THE ROOM.
(This action you've taken feels a lot like a certain gaming convention where a certain mobile game was introduced instead of the pc-platform title the community all wanted and was looking forward to.)

"

VIPER258 wrote:

"

InspireLight wrote:

Very well written. Thank you, Chris, for doing your absolute best. Your game and vision really help me have fun and enjoy the game bit by bit. I know there are many things that players do not like, and, in a way, their voiced opinions and views are helpful to keep making this game awesome, and yet I on the other hand feel as well that everything is excellent and that I can trust everything you have done. I am just the single minority, and this comment is not as important as most in here, but just wanted to thank you Chris and voice as well that I am truly so grateful for everything you are doing for us. I am patient and understanding and again truly grateful for creating such an awesome game.

Probably my only concern is how you emphasized being the PoE1 director vs the PoE director. I really hope that when PoE2 comes out that you will still keep being around for us. We all love you and support you in our own way. Thank you so very much.

Geez dude, you're really kissing some ass today. The fact that you say that everything in the game is fine, shows that you don't know much about the issues at hand or you don't care to know about them.
How do you expect people to react when you give them something good, take it away, not replace it with something equally rewarding. But then are surprised that they get upset about it.

As for the trust everything he has done part, I would comment on that but insta ban would be headed my way.

Thank you for taking the time to express your feelings as well. Also feeling grateful towards you for voicing them feelings. I am not as experienced, supportive and knowledgeable in the game for more than a little over a year, but I am so thankful and hopeful that things will keep getting better and better. Mistakes have been made, apologies have been extended and Leagues will keep getting better and better. Some drops here and there, some Leagues will be preferred more than others by me, but GGG is doing the best they can. GGG has my whole support m_^.^_m

Again, thanks for your comment.