Final verdict after three weeks?

Any exaggerated or biased opinion about the game, company or Mark Roberts the lead developer. I'll make some examples...

For me what stand out about Mark Roberts was something he said "based on popular demand we introduced it" (something like it, not the exact quote). Its interesting to know how GGG makes the decision on what's deemed "popular"? Reddit activity/upvotes, PoE feedback section or some statistic based on financial support?

There's players who're playing solely because the league and game is F2P..
There's players who've quit the game.
There's players who have yet to play the game.

There's four distinct and broad markets / audiences within the industry, but I won't discuss that here. From those four markets there's one specifically that GGG targeted with the league and from within that market there's a subset of markets.

Example, we have hardcore, SSF and trade. The event GGG organized and promoted on league launch with Mark Roberts as I mentioned being the lead developer awarded ten players with the most exclusive MTX among other things, now here's the more interesting thing and question.

My opinion is that trade league players didn't grow in numbers, but it feels like because the SSF hardcore diminished, so in the past if ratio was 60/40 now it's 80-85% to 10-15%.

Now, I have a question for Mark Roberts, if you're promoting a competitive event, where you give out the most exclusive MTX rewards within days, because that's the duration before the objective was completed, well you're saying that playing PoE on Friday and through the weekend every four months to compete in the event should be good enough to be a supporter?

Now, more opinions. THe established PoE streamers are struggling already with viewership and through the first three weeks the numbers the game averages (during a summer season) were also P2W, as in GGG was sponsoring streamers through sub MTX and other free MTX and at some point with how many MTX players have, will they even bother wasting future bandwidth with PoE in the background while AFK?

Final opinion. Brazil, Easter Europe like Russia and China is the majority of the steam concurrent players. GGG is struggling in the most appealing market where free time is a lot more valuable based on standard of living, and also where the majority of whales and wealth exists, like North America, Australia, some European and South East countries and this is also bad news for the established streamers.

My final verdict is that you end up with the product and audience based on the opinion or "vision" that starts from the lead developer, because that's the majority of the players who'll remain and relate. The owners can always sell the company if or when they get an offer

GGG should be fine as long as the remaining players or market is enough to cover the necessary employees salaries and other related expenses after taxes, while the owners can always sell and usually when that happens there will be significant changes with things like the "vision".

Until last year we were more informed with the state of GGG and PoE thanks to the annual financial reports being available, while now there's more uncertainty despite the optimism or promise by GGG lead developers of more steady / consistent leagues going forward, but again more doesn't necessary mean better than what's been already available and for a while.

I had an enjoyable two week F2P experience of 3.26, but if it was gated behind a paywall I would not justify worth $20 to play and support more of this "vision" going forward, especially how it's highly unlikely there will be another event like the Gauntlet and overall player power versus the content available.
Last edited by Kopogero#0635 on Jul 8, 2025, 11:56:07 AM
Last bumped on Jul 8, 2025, 2:48:44 PM
First league I have really played since beta and its...okay?

Its pretty clear why poe2 is more popular; Poe1 is just medium-interesting, in my opinion. There are an overabundance of activities to distract form the fact that the game is simply a spreadsheet simulator full of defensive and offensive layer stacking that frankly, don't make sense.

You would think that 90 all resist, 90% phys-damage reduction and 8k life would make you tanky right? WRONG. Its a convoluted process designed for long-term players. That said, I think that is fine though? Eventually GGG will move further over into poe2, whether they say that or not. I enjoy the game overall, but I can't help to feel that the plentiful game activities just hide the flaws. Even with 1/100 of the content, poe2 is just more fun to pick up and play.

I have had an fairly enjoyable, albeit frustrating experience. I started VFOS, transitioned to molten strike of the zenith since I have never played either before. Its been fun to mess with the build, and I am now clearing most things I wanna do pretty easily. I mean, I haven't done uber sirus or valdo's maps yet, but most other stuff. Currently working on Delve.

Anyway, that stuff aside...the offensive and defensive mod stacking is more grueling than the enjoyment you get from playing the game. Perhaps SSF is a better experience, but trade as a "newer" player is a miserable experience. Same reason I quit playing "back in the day", prior to a trade website.

Mercenaries are...alright, I guess. They are basically d2 mercenaries from 25 years ago, but you can take their stuff. Half the items don't work on them and build crafting options are limited.

I'd give the game, in its current state, a 7/10 if you like arpgs. Probably a 5/10 if this was your first one. I couldn't recommend it to someone unfamiliar with the genre. I would just send people to poe2. It is a better middle ground balanced between fun and complexity.

I can't really comment on this league specifically, since I didn't play the others.

Last edited by sempuken#7215 on Jul 5, 2025, 4:51:44 PM
PoE 2 is definitely not more popular beyond some exaggerated numbers on launch based on marketing and streamers

Also, PoE 2 is heavily controversial based on Steam reviews, PoE 1 is not
Last edited by Johny_Snow#4778 on Jul 5, 2025, 4:51:42 PM
This "expansion" and league was the easiest skip of my life. GGG needs to do much better. Personally I'll continue spending both my time and money on Last Epoch. Unlike GGG EHG respects and values my time.
hoho yeah I passed on it.
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6/10

T17 bad, T16.5 bad
"
Crîmnor#4334 wrote:
This "expansion" and league was the easiest skip of my life. GGG needs to do much better. Personally I'll continue spending both my time and money on Last Epoch. Unlike GGG EHG respects and values my time.


I'm sure they appreciate your endless feedback even though you're not playing
Did this guy just write a novel cause he didnt get a MTX?

lmao new to forums and god damn its hilariously entertaining.
Probably 7/10 (ignoring the server problems as i'm feeling kind)

Its fun, and its PoE and it has all the hooks its developed over the years to make it fun to develop and blast with a character.

But its also very samey still with too much focus on turning the game into loot explosions I think, some of this is "always happier if you don't read reddit" but I like scrolling for really unique builds but basically everything is about mageblood drops or div/hr strats with nobody playing the way I feel the game should be played.

That is a personal opinion though and obviously many players that enjoy loot explosions will think i'm an idiot.

The easiest way to describe it is its moved steadily away from a game where HC where the balance metric and things were carefully tuned so big rewards were present but not common and very hard to constantly repeat.

Instead its gone heavily into clown fiesta territory where the game genuinely feels like the point is to play it like Alks meme clip about flying through the air. Now that's pretty fun and maybe i should just lean into it and play SC the same way - but it isn't as fun as lets say when conquerors were new or ritual league etc even expedition.

Some of thats because its become far too easy if you aren't running the vanity content GGG are cramming in every league but even the existence of this vanity content points to the problem, the mods are absurd once you've got to those kind of numbers you know balance is long long gone.
I'm currently falling out of love with PoE rather quickly. It feels like the game has now reached a point where everything is either "immortal all-destroyer" or "whoops, one-shot again," with nothing in between anymore. To me, this has finally become more tedious than fun, mostly because I just don't have the time to invest in PoE anymore.

I can't help but think that PoE has reached a stage where it barely holds together, with so many mechanics, systems, and stats interacting with each other that even GGG doesn't seem to know what's really happening anymore (or maybe it has been like this for years, and I just didn't want to see it?).

After almost a year without playing PoE, coming back to it has made the cracks much more visible to me, to the point where they overshadow the good parts.

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