ExileCon Put My Support Into a Conflicted Place

If poe2 looked like something I would playthrough more than once I might not care so much, but now that I am pretty sure I am poe1 andy for life I have to consider its longtime future.

Hell I do not blame them for making it a separate game but maybe they should have changed the name as well. Just having sequel that does not look like something I would enjoy is somehow killing my mood to play a game I do enjoy.

"

Nubatron wrote:

Please don't take this as some limp call for boycotting the game.

Nobody would take it like that because that would at the very least require someone with some level of influence.

"

bauermayers wrote:

"

Nubatron wrote:

Please don't take this as some limp call for boycotting the game.

Nobody would take it like that because that would at the very least require someone with some level of influence.

k

"

Nubatron wrote:

"

eperon wrote:

Hey Nubatron, it's been a few days. Have you been able to reflect a bit more on the news from exilecon? Well, I've been thinking about it a lot and have taken the time to read other opinions on the matter.
Initially, I would have seconded your whole orignal post. It was indeed a bit of a gut punch when Jonathan said that they had decided to split up the games when they revealed act 2 (2021?). I was both worried about PoE 1's future as well as the monetary / supporter side of things.
Now, a few days later, I think I've been hit by PoE nostalgia. I started to think back to the good ole times (I see your account is few months older than mine, but we've both been here for 10+ years). I started out playing PoE very casually, had to give it a few tries over a ~1 year period before I really got into it...but I'm still a filthy casual :). I thought back to fighting Dominus for the first time, or when they released act 4 and beating Malachai was absolute hell. The diffculty back then was amazing.
I now hope, that PoE 2 will be sort of a reset. Updating some systems (which sadly won't come to PoE 1) that needed it and getting rid of some of the bloat that has accumulated over the last decade. I really hope that GGG will apply everything they have learned in all that time and recapture the feeling of the good ole days.
We'll have to wait and see. But I will definitely stop "supporting" the game for now until I get a better picture.

POE2 has not really entered my calculus of the situation. POE2 isn't a thing yet to even to discuss with any real informed opinion. Hell, after what they pulled between ExileCon 2019 and Exilecon this last weekend, I have no reason to believe anything they showed just a few days ago.

POE1 is the game I enjoy and know. POE2 is a mystery and I don't care about it. Maybe it will be like Diablo 2, and improve on the franchise. But then again, maybe it will be like Diablo 3 and regress. That's just it, I don't really know and at this point I don't care.

I enjoy POE1 and thought improvements were coming to POE1 because that's what they said. My support has been based upon that illusion.

To finally answer your question, sorry about the rant, I am done supporting. I've supported enough to never feel guilt about never supporting again for sure. The only real question at this point is whether I continue to play as F2P or just move on.

The principle of them knowing since early 2020 and saying nothing is proving hard for me to forgive or forget. If I were to make the call today, I would say I'm done. Time tends to heal all wounds though so we shall see.

Thanks for the rant, mate :)

I can totally relate to what you're saying with regards to further financially supporting the game - the disillusionment is real, at least for the moment. But let's not forget that the game will continue to be here for a few more years (maybe even longer), so there's still loads of fun to be had with the game we've got right now (if you / we choose to keep playing).

I think there is a general misunderstanding about "supporting" GGG. If you buy some MTX or supporter pack for PoE you are buying a product from a regular company. It is very clever marketing of GGG to say that it is a supporter pack but in essence this is very much the same as buying any other product from any other company. You fork over the money, you get what was offered. What you do not get is any say in how the money is then used. If you want to have that kind of influence you need to buy shares and not products. I remember Charan (I guess that was his name then) going ballistic after GGG was sold. This looked like a very similar case to me.

"

Faendris wrote:

I think there is a general misunderstanding about "supporting" GGG. If you buy some MTX or supporter pack for PoE you are buying a product from a regular company. It is very clever marketing of GGG to say that it is a supporter pack but in essence this is very much the same as buying any other product from any other company. You fork over the money, you get what was offered. What you do not get is any say in how the money is then used. If you want to have that kind of influence you need to buy shares and not products. I remember Charan (I guess that was his name then) going ballistic after GGG was sold. This looked like a very similar case to me.

Yeah, I'm not really delusional about the money going to GGG and not POE1. I was generally okay with that because it felt like the two were working toward the same end state because that's what they said.

That's the conflict I was working through at the beginning of this thread, and before I knew that they knew for years. That completely shifted my mindset from conflict to no longer conflicted; just done.

Part of me wishes the MTX were not shared, so that I could buy MTX for POE1 and it was clear that I was spending on POE1 or because of POE1. I know that's ridiculous and an illusion of control, but it would at least feel like what I was spending on was solely in support of the game I want to play. Now it feels delusional to think that GGG won't kill off POE1 at the first opportunity because maintaining two games that share some things sounds like a pain.

Anyway -- I'm glad for this clarity now. It took a pretty hard hit from ExileCon to get to this point, but at least I won't be wasting more money leading up to 2024. 2+ years of supporting a lie feels like a lot. 3+ years would clearly be worse. Silver lining I guess?

Ironically, GGG selling out wasn't the thing that got me. I guess because that was bound to happen. Small indie company that quickly grew with a popular product? The sellout is as predictable as the sunrise.

"

eperon wrote:

Thanks for the rant, mate :)

I can totally relate to what you're saying with regards to further financially supporting the game - the disillusionment is real, at least for the moment. But let's not forget that the game will continue to be here for a few more years (maybe even longer), so there's still loads of fun to be had with the game we've got right now (if you / we choose to keep playing).

Hah, happy to rant anytime given my current state of mind :p

There may be a year or two left in the tank. And my son does like playing this game with me. I think that's the only thing holding me back at this point. It's something we do together. I hate that the game has that leverage and want to shift to something else with him to remove it. But it's there. Maybe I'll just F2P it into the sunset.

SSF feels like the best choice to burn server resources but add nothing to the in-game economy/engagement. Maybe that's the way? :)

"

Faendris wrote:

I think there is a general misunderstanding about "supporting" GGG. If you buy some MTX or supporter pack for PoE you are buying a product from a regular company. It is very clever marketing of GGG to say that it is a supporter pack but in essence this is very much the same as buying any other product from any other company.

narp, there are very few services you can use for free and pay what you like.

"

Nubatron wrote:

"

eperon wrote:

Thanks for the rant, mate :)

I can totally relate to what you're saying with regards to further financially supporting the game - the disillusionment is real, at least for the moment. But let's not forget that the game will continue to be here for a few more years (maybe even longer), so there's still loads of fun to be had with the game we've got right now (if you / we choose to keep playing).

Hah, happy to rant anytime given my current state of mind :p

There may be a year or two left in the tank. And my son does like playing this game with me. I think that's the only thing holding me back at this point. It's something we do together. I hate that the game has that leverage and want to shift to something else with him to remove it. But it's there. Maybe I'll just F2P it into the sunset.

SSF feels like the best choice to burn server resources but add nothing to the in-game economy/engagement. Maybe that's the way? :)

I've been watching a guy on YouTube (Regular Schmuck) who started a first time playthrough a couple days ago, and is having an absolute blast. I really enjoy a new Exile's take on the game, but it makes me sad to think he doesn't know that PoE may be on borrowed time. ='[.]'=

my impression of exilecon:

- saw the streamer dudes and went like "dough, weren't those guys are all off playing blizzard games? i will never forget their elitist attitude towards the game, ggg and chris before they left. why didn't ggg invite new streamers who actually play poe?

- kripp got in shape again for the interview with the schäfers and breivik, without that opportunity he probably wouldn't have come. elitism eventually pays out i guess. on the upside, his analytical skills and game design knowledge are unbeaten at this point, from ggg's pov it was probably worth it.

- ggg really needs to pay users with mtx to use twitch, the stream broke down several times for me. i have no tv cause i hate advertisements, thankfully twitch filled that role giving me plenty of reasons to hate that shitty plattform while i fell asleep during car adverts while i can't afford a new car.
on the positive side, you don't need to go back to the point before the interview after the advert shit anymore cause the stream doesn't keep running in the background

- the rooms at exilecon were decorated professionally, made me envious of those who went there

- presentations were overal more professional but not boring, the plenty occasions where people solved issues on the stage were signaling: we're doing this for gamers, not for news outlets or other companies to brag about.

- due to his 90% speaking time it's clear that jonathan has the higher ground in poe2 development but since i couldn't follow all his machine gun like statements as a non english guy i had to wait for the other folks explaining his points.
i'm still reading.

- i'm still having to watch the last 30% of videos but i still have to digest the old twitch advertisements, maybe tomorrow