A Message to Path of Exile 1 Players

I'm glad that 0.2 will be focused on before 3.26.

Although I prefer many game mechanics form PoE1 (Sockets, Links, Gems, Gem-leveling, crafting, etc...) I am curious about how PoE2 will develop after months of player feedback.

For me, ever since the announcement of PoE2 instead of PoE4.0, excitement for PoE1 unfortunately has died out. Reason for that is the astronomical retaining of innovation from PoE1 in favor of PoE2. I remember when a new league added dozens of new and updated skillgems, ability balance, ascendancy and passive-tree reworks, even the implementation of ascendancies in the first place! Instead it was just (but I have to admit interesting) league mechanics. But in the grand scope of activities in the Endgame I often found myself doing old content instead, like delving, heisting or doing a league of towerdefense.

Unfortunately all of the real fresh ideas were saved up for the successor game:

- hardly any new abilities for several leagues
(because that would cut features from PoE2)
- hardly any changes for outdated ascendancies
(because there are 18 completely new and unique ones to design in PoE2)
- no new weapon types
(because they were a major selling point for PoE2)
- no revision of basic resource-management, mainly Mana
(except for playing archmage, eldritch battery is the way to go for everyone)

I doubt that any of the features mentioned above will be ported back to PoE1 to make gameplay and character development feel fresh again, so I have high hopes for PoE2, but there is a lot that needs to be worked on - and I specifically exclude the endgame here.

PoE2 right now is just too shallow in its core:

- abilities locked to weapon classes
- scaling of conversion only affected by the target value
- absence of passive tree masteries
- lack of cross-traversing the passive tree in a satisfying way (center section)
- less obscure ways to apply and scale damaging ailments

... and many more I will keep adding in various places as my feedback during the span of early access.

Some of those issues will be tackled with the release of more features in upcoming content patches, but I'm afraid, that some are already set in stone - being a downgrade from the original.


And for PoE1? There's only one thing that has to be ported back:

- WASD movement, that's all
(ever since playing it in PoE2, there's no going back)

Poe2 is ass and your vision is garbage.
How can you release a game that has less builds and depth than modern diablos?
It's pathetic.
Poe1 has a decade of content you could reshape to be playable and satisfy the player base(addicts). But no

I would expect to see the player retention of poe2 to look more like the one for last epoch, game is ok, but just too small to get really exited over and its so very far from being a complete game.

I would have expected that POE 3.26 had received the attention that GGG previously committed to, which would also have given the GGG team some time before coming with the next POE2 release which is seriously needed.

I think GGG have taken the worse possible route here, completely destroying POE1 and its loyal and growing base, while overly pushing marginal improvements into the large abyss that are the POE2 endgame, instead of doing what was communicated.

For reference here is the player retention for last epoch

https://steamdb.info/app/899770/charts/#3m

And yes at launch it was also better than POE1, however POE 1 have been growing league over league for a very long time and it seems like GGG forgot thats the real messurement of success for a game.

I think that GGG despite of trying to save POE2 are actually killing both games.

So GG to GGG

"

1towelee#6374 wrote:

in my personal opinion i think this isnt a bad thing. i know alot of people i got into the game wanted longer league times due to playing casually because well lets face it life comes first. so i feel this could be the start of that. maybe once it gets sorted and things die down we can have leagues that are 5 or 6 months long. that way we no longer have to rush to end game.

The 6 month cycles were suggested because we saw low quality content for every league recently. The last two ones felt a bit rushed or something quick thrown together to simply ship another league. They didnt feel as quality. There have been similar ones over the years such as crucible and more. It depends on the player but many were not happy with those. So they rather wait 3 more months than having to play something of lower quality and more often.

"

kagamul#7417 wrote:

Dear GGG,

please take a moment to consider the reasons why people may spend money on your game(s). Sure, pretty MTX are fun, but consider that some - perhaps even many - are simply expressing their appreciation for you as a company taking a different approach to game development than the rest of the industry. For you pouring your heart and soul into your game(s). For monetizing your game(s) fairly. For not exploiting your players for profit (except with Lootboxes, you're better than this).

Consider, then, that all that gets thrown out of the window the instant you simply abandon your game(s), be that intentionally or otherwise. Pulling Staff away from PoE1 had precisely this effect. Making overly ambitious claims like "PoE2 will remain in early access for at most year" has backed you even further into this corner for the foreseeable future.

None of us want to see you go. We love you for the work you've done so far. But we simply cannot support you like this, if you turn your back on your own games like many other studios seem to do these days. Trust in your ethics as a company, once properly lost, is near impossible to rebuild.

So I beg of you, please, do get your priorities straight - and fast!

I am so sad and angry that I just quote you on this instead of bragging. I think this is totally my opinion.

Thanks for sharing and being so open to the community about whats going on! People are going to cry and complain about it, but that's just what people seem to enjoy doing these days. In my opinion you guys have been doing a damn good job dealing with everything that has come with the poe2 release, as well as the years of enjoyment you have brought all of us, I for one have no problem or issue with waiting a little longer for a new league especially when there is so much to be explored and tinkered with in poe2 in the meantime. Thanks for all the hard work guys and also for listening to the community and all their little problems, it isn't easy building something that's for everyone, and you guys do a better job then anyone else out there that could be used in comparison. Keep Rocking!

I'm sorry. But Poe 2 sucks. It's so unfun it's not even funny.

I won't be buying anything going forward (super glad I didn't buy ea).

I sunk about 1k into Poe 1 because I wanted to support a great team. I do not want to support the dev of Poe 2 in its current state

"

ExplodingCoreq#4754 wrote:

The reactions are baffling to me. Maybe because I'm a new player who only really started playing in Settlers.

Precisely.

You must keep in mind those who've played PoE for years have done so largely on the basis of the three-month League cadence, for them the core experience in the reset every 3 months, the start from scratch with some revamped/rebalanced skills and a new League mechanic.

For these players it's been over 6 months since anything changed and that means PoE has become stale in a way it's rarely been before.

This is why you're seeing the reaction you refer to. In your case I totally see why you view this delay like you do, you have over 10 years' content to experience for the first time, especially the higher tier content of the endgame. This will keep you occupied and happy for some time to come.

Frankly, this state was entirely predictable given GGG's size and the massively ambitious path they took for PoE2 after abandoning the 'PoE 4.0' approach .. to be honest it rather shocks me Jonathan was so late in seeing the reality, echoes of 'Bioware Magic' thinking.

Very sad, I don't think it's too hyperbolic to think that some long-time PoE1 vets will not be around for 3.26.

I've been playing this game since 2012 and this is the first time I'm truly disappointed with GGG.
It saddens me deeply to see my favorite game of all time being disregarded like this.
Until GGG can show me they intend to keep their word that they will provide content for both games without either suffering, they won’t receive more money from me.

You know, the premise of PoE 2 was that it will fix lots of things which were apparently too hard to fix in PoE 1. I think the whole thing about making it more clear what is killing you/removing 1 shot meta etc was supposedly something that needed a new engine etc - but look at the state of PoE 2, it really hasn't fixed or changed things that positively in that - if all that development effort was instead put into PoE 1 - it would be a far superior game than PoE 2.

I think the PoE 2 pivot was a mistake, they made a different game, it's not really a sequel. Skill gem system didn't get better but took a side step (has some pro's but a lot of con's), the passive tree has become far worse... I could list some other issues but ultimately, I am most sad that we couldn't see what PoE 1 could be today if PoE 2 did not exist - it would truly be a marvel.

I tried PoE 2 but couldn't enjoy it, in comparison to being absolutely hooked on PoE 1.