The feedback this game gets feels resentful at times. I think there's a reason.

I think many people who are successful in PoE1 and who are not immediately successful in PoE2 are too quick to blame PoE2 game design for some of the negative aspects of their experience.

I think many of the issues on which people are giving feedback are rooted in an expectation of personal success which is not being achieved due to a lack of personal skill/understanding and being mis-attributed to subpar game design.

Just some examples:
- A feeling that progression does not happen fast enough.
- Feeling that bosses take too long to kill
- A general feeling of low player power (related to a perception that you have to follow a meta-build, or meta-style to be successful)
- "This was a problem fixed in PoE1 that has now re-emerged in PoE2"

Of course, I'm not suggesting that every single instance of feedback about those examples is just someone being bad at the game, but I do think that many instances of feedback are suffering from the fact that PoE1 exists and people have been playing it long enough to forget why they're good at PoE1, and it likely makes interpreting feedback for the game difficult for the developers.

I haven't no-lifed PoE2 by any means, but I can tell from the leaps and bounds in my progressions that once many aspects of PoE2 become solved similarly to how they are solved in PoE1 - especially ones involving the campaign, campaign bosses and some skill/support synergies - almost all of the complaints related to progression around those aspects disappear or are so significantly mitigated that posturing previous negative experiences surrounding them as "bad design" doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

Maybe a metaphorical situation - someone is shooting a bow & arrow at a target, missing, then asking for the developers to move them closer to the target rather than put in any efforts to improve their own sharpshooting skills - which I might add, feels quite satisfying to achieve once you are able to. To come back from the metaphor, I also believe many players will improve with enough playtime and especially once the community-accessible level of information to "solve" in-game aspects grows and matures.

Again, I'm not saying I'm "fully" pro and everyone else needs to "get good" or anything like this at all - but I have put in the time and effort to see myself get over a lot of the negative aspects that many, including myself, initially experienced, and can see that they were rooted in inexperience over design.

I can continue to feel my inexperience in PoE2 when there are moments of uncertainty - my brains ability to gauge situations, plan a strategy and execute hasn't turned into a series of rote muscle memories yet. These are the parts that I think most people might say "feel bad" and can be experienced as extra friction during gameplay when they haven't experienced it in a PoE game since 2017.

It can be frustrating if I'm not in the state of mind to take a step back and problem-solve, and there are conscious notes of gamer-resentment that sometimes surface because I am not experiencing the buttery-smooth flow-state my brain adapted to in PoE1 and is expecting from a PoE-game. I tend to get over this and back into the problem-solving mode quickly - it's very similar to ripping a high-level character in HC to 'bullshit', taking a break, and finding yourself on the beach/riverbank a few days later to 'do it better' this time. But it does remind me that this is a new, different game that still needs to be figured out.

Anyways, maybe I veered a little to illustrate my point but I'll reiterate:

I think a large portion of the sentiment coming out in the feedback has substantial roots in PoE1 player expectations of success being crushed - which inevitably feels bad and unfun - as they come to terms with the fact that their brains are conditioned to "Do X, receive Y" through years of PoE1 habits.

Their experience does not immediately translate into the same rewarding gameplay-loop they've conditioned themselves to enjoy after 10 years of PoE1, and there is a prominent and disproportionate mis-attribution of this negative experience to game design rather than player skill.

I know that there's only a minority of players who are even going to have the level of PoE2 and PoE1 gameplay experience to share my perspective at all so I'm ready for a majority of disagreement here - but sometimes I think the worst thing to happen would be for the developers to listen to most of the feedback I've read through on the forums.

A large reason I love PoE1 and PoE2 is that they are designed around rewarding player skill and knowledge - I personally think lowering those thresholds in PoE2 because people haven't figured out PoE2 yet should be done more carefully than how I see a lot of people clamoring for it to be done.

I remember an interview where Jonathan mentioned they have to "decode" player feedback before they act on it and I can definitely understand where he's coming from!

you probably should post some examples for people explaining how they're not good, otherwise your post is basically just "negative feedback? you're probably not as good as you think you are: the motion picture"

Thing is most people bypass the 'skill and knowledge' check on both games via trading + build guides. and since poe2 is not a cookie cliker type game the crowd that likes that finds it boring.
i see it in a new generation on all fronts. you show them an old documentarry from the 90's and they will find it 'boring' because its not as entertaining as the YT 'documentary' they watch on 2x speed. they are hooked to poe1 like they are hooked to social apps, and often request teh very psychological manipulations taht got them hooked. if anything i feel for them because if a boomer type like me got snagged on it for first few weeks of poe2 then i can only imagine wtf they must be going through

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AintCare#6513 wrote:

Thing is most people bypass the 'skill and knowledge' check on both games via trading + build guides. and since poe2 is not a cookie cliker type game the crowd that likes that finds it boring.
i see it in a new generation on all fronts. you show them an old documentarry from the 90's and they will find it 'boring' because its not as entertaining as the YT 'documentary' they watch on 2x speed. they are hooked to poe1 like they are hooked to social apps, and often request teh very psychological manipulations taht got them hooked. if anything i feel for them because if a boomer type like me got snagged on it for first few weeks of poe2 then i can only imagine wtf they must be going through

Having said this, I want to add the fact that the game is also in an identity crisis. During the campaign, it tries to be the old 90's documentary, and in the end game it suddenly goes to the modern documentary. This confuses everyone and leaves you with an awkward experience.

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lupasvasile#5385 wrote:

Having said this, I want to add the fact that the game is also in an identity crisis. During the campaign, it tries to be the old 90's documentary, and in the end game it suddenly goes to the modern documentary. This confuses everyone and leaves you with an awkward experience.

few months ago i would agree with this fully, but since then i completely avoid deli/breach and ritual (as much as i can) and started playing more logbooks/trials. I have to say that beside some unlucky mob combos in maps the game feels very much like campaign (just more intense like it should be for engame) so i think its just the unfinished mapping, and well the copy-paste mechanics form poe1. now what direction they will move with this is what i'm most curious about.

i have threads about breach/deli/ritual in feedback section, alsothis is a good post addressing the rng layers in general mapping
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3813822

Stop digging

the reason is , its bad.

Bad decisions all over the place.
The skill tree is a branch, you are railroaded into picking specific builds.
There are no branches or intersections long lines of stat increases with obvious destinations. Its like you are waiting in line to arrive at developer sanctioned builds..

Weapon and class option limited behind bloated stat requirements.
can't be a Xbow and Staff user because equipping decent ones are not possible
without the Give all my stats neck.

Too frustrating to bother making gear work because if you take off one piece of gear .. all the rest red out ...why ... stat requirement.
So assembling a gear set off the ground is not viable ...

Better to just go to the store and buy a win .
Which is what this game is ... go to the store , buy your gear ... walk straight from campaign to the highest tier map after the quick trip to the store.

Where you dont worry about stats cause you buy EXACTLY what you want.
And devs are still adding jank recombination that just breaks you gear, and believe players want to play a casino game.

Or 1 in a thousand odds of ... pfffffff hehh crafting ... cant say that without laughing.

There is no game here ...
Looks like a made for China model tbh.

The reason you are trying to find is looking at you ...
The game is bad, thats why 500,000 people left.
And they didn't just stop playing ... they left sour , jaded,
and nice and sweaty!

They are not coming back no matter what the dreamers say here.
They didnt leave because they were done with the season .
The servers emptied out a week after the last update that means nobody even bothered with end game.
Nobody is streaming this .. go look on twitch .

Its just a mid game.
fun for a bit but no elements to keep you interested.