Why POE2’s Direction Is Worrying for Veterans and Newcomers Alike

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Kaukus1#7461 wrote:

To the newer players defending these changes without understanding their long-term impact: you’re not helping. Ignoring valid criticism isn’t supporting the game; it’s enabling bad design. Constructive feedback is what helps games improve. POE2 has the potential to be great, but it needs to address these issues before it alienates the very players who’ve been its foundation for years.


Agreed with everything you stated in your original post, and especially so with your closing statement.

The people I've seen defending PoE2's atrocious design philosophy are people who were never going to accrue thousands of hours of play time in an ARPG in the first place. ARPG lovers want an ARPG they can devote years of their free time to, which means it needs to be something that's fun, fast paced, easy to lose yourself in, doesn't require your absolute focus and attention lest you die to some miniscule in-game element that might be buried under layers of other graphics, and is endlessly repeatable.

I haven't even finished the campaign yet, and I've given up due to boredom. The game isn't hard, it's just annoying and tedious. I haven't died on my character to anything other than on-death explosions that I couldn't see, or to instant-death mechanics. I kill white and blue mobs in one hit, yellow mobs in two, and bosses in 30 seconds or less. But even with MS on my boots I traverse the world so slowly it feels like a chore, and the maps are unnecessarily large without clear paths through them or any sense of being a real world. They feel like mazes built to be mazes, while PoE1's world felt like an actual world we were fighting our way through.

This game might do well for a short while due to its graphics and how smooth its combat feels (if slow and tedious), but I see no long-term staying power in it. It feels more like a one-and-done RPG, and when put into that category it's not even a very good one.
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Impressive games collection exile, but are you a 'default'?

Look.. alot friends payed so much money.. and they love everything about poe2 the way it is. The game is deceloped for millions.. not for 10 players.

Today almost no one plays and speaks about diablo1.. although it was a success to make something new which attracted more gamers
. See d4.. 600 million revenue.. make it real to adress that market demands..

Alot already seasoned poe2 tried poe1.. and they hate it.. if they could they would ask for discontinuation of poe1.. just to further enhance 2.. maybe this should just be done as it is not needed and so that the comparison stops.

I for example love poe2 crafting.. we had in a group a super deep and successfull crafting session in the morning.. it was awesome and thanks for implementing it this way.. (i throw up if more currency is implemented.. its fast paced.. perfect for running). Poe1 crafting is garbage. so old so clunky.. not modern.. and so easy.. lol.. recombinator.. add two rares and get best of two back.. i would be done after day 1 not day 3..
This cant be demand and target group (40/ 50 years..). If you like to read books about a game play dwarve fortress.. it was not super bad.. but.. maybe 500k sold copies. Got that also lol?

Its about develping 600 mil revenue game .. no one would play poe1 2.0 . Oh ok.. maybe you are the fraction or d1 guy.. but .. the market are not the defaults... its the backers who love ggg.. face it.. there.was never a promise to create a second part nor a demand for a new.poe1 season (its complete..and old).. thats why it will not receive a new season in 2024.

Thanks ggg for that awesome game..you would even have my vote to close down poe1 to focus on 2. Please dont develop it for 10.players but for the millions target group.. i fear if we dont speak up here it.will fail.

Want to laugh? 2 seasoned poe1 players discussing they were searching for poe1 skills.. righteous fire and bone shatter..

Ggg already said..rf was wrongly implememted .. it was a fail.. not a w, and boneshatter exists as it is a combo now!! Not.even this they knew..

And i tell you.. 40% of passive tree can be reduced.. i would throw up if i see poe1 tree.. without design and spirit.. looks boring.

If you want easier game.. play poe1.

Its same with hc players...dont balance this tiny fraction.. so many ssf are.in 80s and so many of.my friends done with poe2 leveling.. very performance oriented but would never play hc due to.power.outage chance.. they are decent.. and not no lifers...not defaults. You want to balance around this group.. not the 400 lvl 40 hc players.. which complaint. Lol..

Remove hc.. offer only core and ssf.. balance around this via portals and give players a kill counter + achievement.. if they are deathless and all these meetings discussions and weird balance tweaks which drag performance ..vanishs.. give us fun and engaging challenge.. and not boredom after 3 days with lvl 99.. xx million happy.


Holy Godzilla. Is this what having a seizure looks like?
Calling PoE1 the easier game after you made an entire list of things that traumatized you in PoE1 because you have 0 skill w/e is laughable.
Get good, enjoy your bland and watered down poe, spam dodgeroll. In two month you'll be playing and gifting 1000s to your next "goty".
Brainless milk cow.
Last edited by epiphase#4568 on Dec 16, 2024, 3:20:08 PM
Just cutting in (late apparently), that while I do disagree with most of your (that is, the OPs) points here, I will say, thank you for at least putting the effort into actually talking and not just screeching in non-sense.

If people want to push for a different idea or be critical, it's a breath of fresh air to see them actually be able to communicate what those ideas are, so an unironic, fully earnest pat on the back. The forum would be a nicer place with more of that.
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Agreed with everything you stated in your original post, and especially so with your closing statement.

I thought I'd go without trying to nitpick on this topic, since in general it raises very valid concerns, but praising this bit made me triggered enough.

See, we can dissect some weaker point like "Long campaign = bad", and it'll be pretty clean it has no ground, and especially it has no ground claiming that anyone who's fine with campaign length is automatically wrong.
All it does is applying PoE1 meta-knowledge about leagues onto PoE2 and makes a conclusion that nobody will want replaying campaign every three months.

Well, except we're not talking about PoE1 here. PoE2 is a different game, exactly WHY are you all assuming leagues will behave exactly the same as PoE1? We currently have one "early access" league that will be cooking for OVER 6 MONTHS (if not much longer), why are you even crying about "oh replaying campaign every league is horrible"? You haven't even SEEN any details on upcoming leagues.

Now, if we strike out all the points from the list that are extremely premature to be even discussed (and any discussing on them happening right now is only trying to pull facts from PoE1 and apply it to PoE2 blindly), I'm quite fine with the rest of arguments.
Last edited by just_dont#6539 on Dec 16, 2024, 3:27:11 PM
100% spot on.
Been trying to say this since the first few days.

The real issues got buried in arguments about nerfs and difficulty when the bigger problem is that the game is difficult to enjoy and not suitable for deep endgame engagement or a league structure.
Agree with author.

(About campaing I think the problem is that the areas are huge)
Just stfu with your "modern gameplay".
Modern gameplay would be to pay for ascedancy, craft item with real life currency and a chance to break, buy lootboxes in hope of having a skill upgrade.

Can you guy just fkoff insted of arguing the obvious flaws of this bad game.

Tell me how slow gameplay based around dodgeroll is modern?

The thing I hate the most about PoE2 is all the dmbfks like you it brang in the genre.

This is an aRPG it is unpopular by nature, the player base is dedicated people playing this games for decades.

Lemmings like you will be playing the next "best game in history" and give up your old toy even before PoE2 make his official launch.
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Agreed with everything you stated in your original post, and especially so with your closing statement.

I thought I'd go without trying to nitpick on this topic, since in general it raises very valid concerns, but praising this bit made me triggered enough.

See, we can dissect some weaker point like "Long campaign = bad", and it'll be pretty clean it has no ground, and especially it has no ground claiming that anyone who's fine with campaign length is automatically wrong.
All it does is applying PoE1 meta-knowledge about leagues onto PoE2 and makes a conclusion that nobody will want replaying campaign every three months.

Well, except we're not talking about PoE1 here. PoE2 is a different game, exactly WHY are you all assuming leagues will behave exactly the same as PoE1? We currently have one "early access" league that will be cooking for OVER 6 MONTHS (if not much longer), why are you even crying about "oh replaying campaign every league is horrible"? You haven't even SEEN any details on upcoming leagues.

Now, if we strike out all the points from the list that are extremely premature to be even discussed (and any discussing on them happening right now is only trying to pull facts from PoE1 and apply it to PoE2 blindly), I'm quite fine with the rest of arguments.

Hello !
As for myself, that's not an assumption, and I'm not even comparing to PoE1.
After how I felt on my first playthrough, I wanted to try with a different skill/ascendency, to confirm my feelings. 2nd char got me bored so hard, I quit before finishing the campaign. To further confirm it wasn't because of this new skill, I tried a 3rd char. I litteraly fell asleep few times in the zones between bosses, before calling it a quit.

When I agree with OP about the replayability issue, it's not because of assumption. I litteraly cannot see myself replaying it. RIGHT NOW alrdy. And the game while in EA, is really fresh, that shouldn't be happening.

Also, we have to remember that not everything is blind. Veterans come from a time where PoE1 was slow as well. And we saw how it became more popular. You could argue we are at a different time, but it doesn't come out of nowhere :)
Last edited by rob_korn#1745 on Dec 16, 2024, 3:41:16 PM
Great post with excellent points made. Agree with pretty much everything you mentioned. Instead of feeling exhilarated after a game session, I'm exhausted and stressed. Doesn't feel like a game but a rewardless slog sometimes. Here's hoping they listen.
I completely agree, But I also remember the fallout of when POE announced console, and tencent buy out.

While I do agree with you, and all your points. I'm also aware that there were decisions that would 'destroy' the future of the game. But it seemed to work out well for them. And maybe I'm just not seeing what it could be.

If they continue this route, this game is not for me, and even if I play a league I will never play through the campaign more than once a league. It was mentioned that the campaign skip for 2nd+ characters in a league wouldn't be needed if the campaign was better. This makes the campaign feel worse.

I don't think ARPG game devs understand their game is not the campaign, it is the maps and endgame. Everything before is just how we get our builds online.

But if in 2 years time, it brings in enough constant cash to keep the game growing, who am I to argue?
Last edited by stvndall#4574 on Dec 16, 2024, 3:44:52 PM

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