A Ghost In The Machine

He was a bow-wielding, HC Witch Hunter Merc.
Level 61. Fast, agile, full of potential.

Every dodge mattered. Every node on the tree felt like a decision between life and death.
He wasn’t my strongest character—but he was my creation.

Then came Silverfest.

I’d killed him dozens of times before.
His slam? Telegraphed. Predictable. Never a threat.

But this time… he came in so fast from off-screen,
that before I even registered what was happening—
my char was gone.

Just like that.

So I tried shrugging it off. Told myself the move was to keep going in SC. He had more to give. Everything was going to be okay.

But it wasn’t okay.
Because he wasn’t the same.

He was a ghost in the machine.
And worse—I was too.
Because without that thread of purpose running through everything… the game had nothing left to offer me.

I finished the campaign off anyways.
First thing I did was respect out of defense, dumped everything into damage, and tore through the rest like it didn’t matter—
because it didn’t.

Then I stood at the edge of maps.
The portal was open.
But I had no reason to step through it.

That’s when it hit me:

I never started playing Hardcore because I enjoy dying.
I started because Softcore stopped giving me a reason to care.

And to be clear—this isn’t a knock on Softcore.
There’s a ton of value in that style of play, and I’ll be back in it from time to time.
But for players like me—those who need weight behind their choices—Hardcore is the only mode that delivers it right now.

And that’s the point of this post:

GGG has built a platform capable of so much more.
More modes.
More rulesets.
More ways to inject purpose into the game for different kinds of players.

Right now, PoE2 is built around inevitability.
You will beat the campaign. You will reach maps.
The only question is when.

And once you’re there, the game—though mechanically deep—stops asking anything of you.
There are no stakes.
No reason to be present.
No reason to care.

Hardcore fixes that with one rule: Stay alive.
And that one rule changes everything.
Every fight becomes a choice.
Every victory feels earned.
Every character becomes someone worth protecting.

But when that rule breaks—when meaning disappears—
even the most polished ARPG starts to feel hollow.

So here’s my ask:

Don’t stop at Hardcore and Softcore.
Lean into what this platform is capable of.
Create more purpose-driven modes that give players a reason to stay present.

Ironman. One-life leagues. Campaign-locked ladders. Account-bound consequences.
Not as replacements—but as options for players chasing something more.

Because players don’t burn out from difficulty.
We burn out when there’s nothing left to fight for.
When our characters become ghosts—
and we follow them.