PoE1 vs PoE2?

I'm mostly just reading along. But I've noticed that a kind of hostility has developed between PoE1 and PoE2 in this forum. PoE1 players are being called stupid "zoom zoom" gamers. As if focusing on efficiency is a bad thing in a "grind your gear" game.

I've thought a bit about where this discord among players comes from and I've come to the conclusion that it's clearly GGG's fault. If they had kept their promise that PoE1 would remain independent and completely unaffected by the development of PoE2, many players wouldn't have been upset about PoE2.

Conversely, many players who prefer PoE2 wouldn't be upset that some developers have now been diverted back to PoE1, thus delaying the progress of PoE2.

Why don't players let other players play how they want? If someone wants to quickly "zoom zoom" through maps, then let them. If someone wants to have a difficult fight against white mobs for minutes, let them do it. But don't force them to spend ages struggling with maps just because it's your style of play.

Personally, I like both games, although PoE2 just seems too sluggish to me. Far too slow. It seems like it was developed for the unemployed or people without families or real lives. 20-30 hours per character just for the campaign is too much.

But people will notice that efficiency is always preferred. Why do over 50% of the remaining players play a one-click clear screen build? Because it's more efficient. Why waste 10 minutes on a map that might even have 0 drops when you can run five or more maps in the same amount of time?

As I said, it's a "grind your gear game" from a studio called "Grinding Gear Games." And the faster you grind, the better because it's more time-efficient.

Long story short: let people play how they want. Even in PoE1, you can slowly mess around forever if you choose the right skills. But to all those who accuse PoE1 players of mindless zoom-zoom gaming and who have never played PoE1 themselves: play it without a build guide and I want to see how far you get. I bet you won't even get to Maven. If anywhere close. You don't need as much brainpower to play in PoE2 as you need to be able to zoom-zoom in PoE1. Even if someone thinks the great combos and dodging or parrying require skill, that's just boring repetition in a fight that's far too drawn out. But as I said: to each his own.

Cheers.
Last bumped on May 12, 2025, 5:56:02 AM
Both games being balanced around trade is currently gimping both of them.
In PoE1's case the speed at which you clear the game ends with them having a completely dead league at the end of the 6th week, which was fine back in the day, but now there's 30-40 week leagues for them.
In PoE2's case the speed at which you don't clear the game ends with you just buying all your gear from the chinese gold farmers 1 week in with a meta build and binning the game for the rest of the 16 week period OR basically never clearing the game in the same period.
Neither of the two sides are getting an actual game and the only ones getting the experience they expect are the "700 hours in hideout" Monties that don't play the game to begin with.
Since at least one of the sides used to be happy it's logical to conclude that it's a developer spread issue, so now we're stuck in a thug of war with them as the rope. If anything I'm surprised there's not MORE animosity between the camps.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info