General Discussion - A Different Perspective – POE2 Isn’t POE1, and That’s OK - Forum

The main problem is that PoE 2 lacks identity and a clear target crowd. You can't make a game for "everyone". I seriously think that A LOT (no, I'm not pulling "minority" or "majority" out of my ass as a lot of people in here) of people praising PoE2, are first and foremost "story mode players" that won't return every league/season, sinking hundreds of hours into the game. Which is totally fine, I'm not judging. But regarding promises; GGG have been VERY clear on the fact that PoE2 will be a seasonal game, focused and based around resets every 4(?) months. With PoE2's current campaign and pace of progression, A LOT (nope, still not doing it) of players will be VERY demotivated by the amount of time it takes to reach "the real game"; endgame. So the main question here is; all these people praising PoE2's lengthy campaign and its 'limited' pace of progression... Are they going to stick with the game several years from now, sinking time and money into the game? If yes, fine, go down the current path. If not? Should GGG maybe steer the direction towards players willing to do that? Currently, they are trying to please everyone, which will be impossible in the long run. I firmly believe that for a seasonal game to be a success in the long run, it needs to target the players willing and wanting to be here every season. Last edited by MisterFancyPants#7969 on Apr 10, 2025, 1:34:24 PM	Posted by MisterFancyPants#7969 on Apr 10, 2025, 1:32:49 PM Quote this Post
" CAPSLOCK_ON#7907 wrote: " hornfeld#7213 wrote: it's not just ok it's a breath of fresh air. I'm only playing poe2 because it's not like poe1, the devs let the community ruin that game. It's kind of surprising how much the vocal minority on reddit is throwing temper tantrums since isn't it still fairly typical for over half the player base to stop playing a league 2 weeks after release. It's weird how people keep saying the devs arn't listening to them, but i think the major reasons for most of the gameplay decisions are to force people to actually play the game. not just run through story mode, spend their currency to buy whatever gear the youtube guide they watched told them to, then die to some bosses and stop playing for 3 months. LMAO you're the vocal minority lil bro the game was growing league after league how did it get ruined if ggg listening to the players was making it more popular? next time think please That’s not entirely true. POE1 peaked at around 200k players during its best league. POE2 is already hitting close to 600k — that’s nearly triple the peak player count. This means roughly 400k new players are giving the game a shot. That’s a massive influx of fresh interest. As a developer, your priority shouldn’t just be the returning POE1 veterans, but also how to retain and engage these new players. POE1’s league model mostly relied on the same core group coming back every few months. Very little long-term growth in new players. POE2, on the other hand, is clearly drawing attention outside the existing community. If you ignore that and only focus on what the old guard wants, you risk driving away a much larger potential player base. Peace Love & Understanding	Posted by mathisen99#4731 on Apr 10, 2025, 1:33:34 PM Quote this Post
" mathisen99#4731 wrote: POE2 is already hitting close to 600k — that’s nearly triple the peak player count. This means roughly 400k new players are giving the game a shot. Wrong. It's not "hitting" those numbers. It DID hit those numbers when the EA launched. 400k of those 600k magically disappeared when they released the latest patch, and we're back to PoE1 numbers. So you could say that those 400k that "gave the game a shot" did not really like what they saw? Numbers are funny that way, you can do a lot with them. Which brings me back to my previous post; if all of these players can't be bothered to test out this patch, will the really be "returning players" each league? Last edited by MisterFancyPants#7969 on Apr 10, 2025, 1:40:59 PM	Posted by MisterFancyPants#7969 on Apr 10, 2025, 1:39:35 PM Quote this Post
" mathisen99#4731 wrote: I've clocked in over 40 hours on Path of Exile 2 so far, playing three different builds—Witch with minions, Essence Drain, and a Poison-focused Ranger. After taking a multi-year break from POE1, coming into this fresh, I can confidently say this: the game feels good to me. It has rough edges, sure, but it's not the disaster some are making it out to be. What I’m seeing in the forums, Reddit, and streams isn’t just criticism—it’s a culture clash. Most of the backlash seems to come from long-time POE1 veterans who expect POE2 to behave like a refined version of the game they've mastered. But POE2 isn’t POE1. It's trying to be its own thing, and in many ways, it should be. POE1 became about speed, efficiency, and scaling complexity. You'd clear screens in seconds, race through maps, and optimize builds to the pixel. That meta shaped expectations. But POE2 is deliberately taking a different approach: it's slower, more deliberate, with longer TTK (time-to-kill), tighter skill progression, and a heavier emphasis on moment-to-moment combat mechanics. Yes, some things need tuning—minions feel squishy, some skills feel too slow, and loot rewards are a bit stingy—but the game is not fundamentally broken. The core systems are solid, and there’s real potential here. From my perspective as someone not carrying POE1 habits into this game, POE2 is doing something interesting. It feels more like an action RPG that values precision, positioning, and skill timing rather than just raw clear speed. It’s more like a reimagined ARPG than a sequel. And honestly, that’s refreshing. So maybe the real issue isn't that the game is bad, but that it's being judged against the wrong standard. If you expect POE2 to be a POE1 expansion, you’ll be disappointed. But if you approach it with fresh eyes—or at least a willingness to adapt—you might find there’s a good game here trying to emerge from the noise. Your opinion would be relevant if they didn't initially sell the game as a secondary campaign parallel to PoE1 with a shared endgame, that would benefit PoE1 with development and technology. Since a lot of initial investment came at that time with those explicit indiciations present, it is not relevant. They took money on the basis of one idea, and then made something completely different.	Posted by Pathological#1188 on Apr 11, 2025, 3:58:42 AM Quote this Post