What happened to Chris Wilson?

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auspexa#1404 wrote:

chris wilson stepped down to avoid being associated with poe 2

it really is that bad

What? Source please...

Nah, According to the very serious 4chan article he stepped down to have more time for his "obsession with the black lotus magic card", so this dude is not very well informed. Get your facts straight man!

He probably left due to the crap that this game is starting to push. They might have a little bit of control but daddy tencent actually rules the roost. They made a huge profit off of the good will they garnered and then immediately spit in everyones face with this lackluster dev cycle. How on earth are they going to full release 9 months from now? We all know that this game is not going to be finished this winter we're just waiting for the announcement. This was my firs encounter with GGG and they got me for 240$ but I will never spend another dime here. I wanted and expected a different kind of game company but this is just more of the same and Wilson saw the writing on the wall.

Seems very likely that if all the founders sold and have less power, the company is likely to go the direction of Blizzard. Still making content that appears outwardly similar, and probably of some level of quality, but increasingly without the soul and care of the original team and founders. Until you end up with something like retail WoW, which is still a playable game, but not at all similar to the original product, much more monetized and with worse support, and probably less desirable to the original playerbase. Founders are what defend the original vision and strategic direction of a product, when that starts slipping new people don't understand or agree with the vision, and are generally pushing for more monetization which ruins games over time.

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Poiuytr133#2949 wrote:

Seems very likely that if all the founders sold and have less power, the company is likely to go the direction of Blizzard. Still making content that appears outwardly similar, and probably of some level of quality, but increasingly without the soul and care of the original team and founders. Until you end up with something like retail WoW, which is still a playable game, but not at all similar to the original product, much more monetized and with worse support, and probably less desirable to the original playerbase. Founders are what defend the original vision and strategic direction of a product, when that starts slipping new people don't understand or agree with the vision, and are generally pushing for more monetization which ruins games over time.

they sold their shares and tencent gained full control 7 years ago. the game has had its best years in those 7 years. tencent has done essentially nothing to dictate the direction of the game.


GGG was founded and gave birth to poe when jonathan rogers wanted to make a computer game and his college friend chris wilson convinced him to make a successor to diablo 2. so jonathan started coding and built path of exile.

jonathan is the current director of GGG and is the lead developer of path of exile 2. he has total control and is making path of exile 2 in the spirit of the original vision they had when they first made path of exile 1.


what they are doing right now is making less money than just continuing with path of exile 1 leagues but theyre doing it because they want to make a better game.




tencent gained total control through shares 7 years ago and nothing you have just theorised has actually happened or shows any sign of happening. so dont worry about it.

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Snorkle_uk#0761 wrote:

they sold their shares and tencent gained full control 7 years ago. the game has had its best years in those 7 years. tencent has done essentially nothing to dictate the direction of the game.

This is my experience as well. Someone might quibble about majority ownership versus complete ownership but the point remains. Tenscent might have some long view chinese world domination of videogames plan (LOL), or it might be pretty much exactly what it appears to be a giant money making machine; but neither 1 or 2 seems to be worse for corporate ownership 2 didn't so much as ship with a extra monetization designed into it. Let alone mobile gacha cash shop nor done anything REMOTELY Diablo Immoral-like

They could (probably should have if they were smart) made you buy stash tabs again, or not allowed MTX to duplicate. POE2 MTX will show up in POE1 for fucks sake. Name another major game that would do that?

They could have a fucking cash shop full of "Level 100 for $199 USD" tons of other games have this shit. So many people just don't have a clue.

The fucking second I see evidence that Tencent has ruined either game I'll be crowing about it the same way I beat the drum of Warrior needing improvements lower right melee being super neglected, POE1 feeling like loot dumpster dropped on a space ship shooter and so on.

Tbh the only sussy thing I see going on is Chris leaving without a farewell and Johnathan making an uncharacteristic short video of a hasty feeling apology about how POE1 was just going to have to take a back seat for a few more months 8 days later.

When I remember all the videos with Chris he was always a fan of PoE 1 Ruthless.
And PoE 2 has a lot of that game design/philosophy.
And that is why I don't like PoE 2 as much as PoE 1.
I don't think Tencent has decided to make PoE 2 like this.
(Tbh I don't understand why anyone would do this ...)

Now has Chris left and PoE 2 is still Ruthless.
GGG looks more chaotic than with Chris but a new game is always a big step (with more or less chaos).

PoE 1 has it's own flaws, some whould have been "repaired" the last years without PoE 2.
But nearly every game developer makes a new game after some years.
PoE 1 is older than nearly every other game even when it was improved so many times.

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Gixxpunk#3348 wrote:

As of March 25, the game and company GGG is 100% owned by SIXJOY HONG KONG LIMITED, a subsidiary of Tencent.

Former owners Christopher W., Jonathan R., and Erik O. have sold all their shares to SIXJOY. They no longer hold any ownership stakes but remain listed as directors—positions that SIXJOY can revoke at any time.

You can verify this information through the official New Zealand Companies Office:
[Official Company Records](https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1887410/documents)

Additionally, there are unconfirmed rumors suggesting that Christopher W. hasn’t been present in the office for an extended period.

Make of this what you will.

This makes me really sad.
I recently saw his GDC talk about playing poe forever and it made me come back.
It's like Gabe would sell Steam.

This is not a complaint to existing directors.

He was probably sick of Jonathan badmouthing PoE 1 every chance he gets.

On a more serious note; He has "been at it" for 15 years, taking PoE from a garage project to a titan in the ARPG landscape. Now his baby comes second and he has passed the torch, and can enjoy the rest of his life on the Tencent money, spending it all on MTG cards.

Have a nice one, Chris. You've given me a decade of fun :)