Will GGG cave and listen to those who want PoE 2 to be a PoE 1 reskin again?

I'm actually surprised at the changes GGG is making thus far. I didn't think they had it in them, or knew what they had to do to make PoE 2 it's own distinct game. Rather than just making it PoE 1 remastered (Same game with a different coat of paint).

There are still many balance changes and game changes that need to be made imo. I feel player speed/power and monster speed/power will prolly still be really high. Bosses will prolly still die in 2 seconds, etc, but one step at a time.

So the ultimate question remains: Will GGG continue to make PoE 2 into it's own game or will they bow down to the "Just make PoE 2 into PoE 1 remastered" camp?

0.4 Launches tomorrow. As is tradition, certain streamers, and the usual suspects on reddit/official forum will run their usual doom and gloom rounds.

- Streamers (won't say names) will make content about how the game is headed in the wrong direction, and GGG needs to return it to what it was (aka more like PoE 1)

- Reddit/forum users and streamers will talk about how every map is a walking simulator cause every inch of the map isn't filled with monsters they can chain reaction explosions on.

- They will say "Loot doesn't drop anymore. Loot was stealth nerfed and EVERYTHING IS GARBAGE"

- They will talk about how it takes them 5 minutes to kill 3 white monsters.

- They will bombard steam reviews with "MOSTLY NEGATIVE" to really make GGG understand that there is only 1 way an Arpg can be made in the current year (Zoom zoom 200ms 1 click nuke 2 screens).

- They will shout about how EVERYTHING IS A SLOG, CLUNKY, AND UNPLAYABLE. They will proclaim the only way the game can be salvaged is if GGG returns to zoom zoom 1 button clicker. Their go to for everything they don't like is "CLUNKY". This is code word for "make it faster", "Speed it up".

- They will claim the game will die unless GGG takes back EVERY CHANGE THEY'VE MADE.

- Certain streamers (if you watch PoE on twitch you already know who) will try to use their base to rally against GGG and really "stick it to them" lol.

and many more.

All of this will happen within 1 week of launch, coming from streamers, "content creator", and the usual forum suspects (reddit/official). It's pretty much par the course at this point.

Will GGG cave to this mob and "realize the error of their ways". Quickly reverting all their changes and return PoE 2 on path to be PoE 1 remastered. Or will they tell those screaming the loudest that "The game they are looking for already exist. It's PoE 1".

Overall I must say that I'm surprised. Looking at GGG's history the past couple years I would not have expected them to do this. Will they stay the course and continue with the changes or revert back to PoE 1 remastered. Only time will tell I guess.

i had left a negative review on steam because of the citadel map bug leading you to lose the map and key to arbiter plus performance issues

if this bombing happens i will retract mine
reviews should not be weaponized, everyone should act like an adult

that's the difference between sheep and rational and healthy human

People leave neg reviews for game breaking bugs all the time on steam.

I was talking more about people using it as a "change this game to PoE 1 or else" type thing.

Which is what happened a lot in 0.2.

Whenever something is called clunky its possible that it is clunky.

The data doesn't lie. The majority of people are playing the types of builds they can remove all clunk from.

Everyone is free to play builds that require solving PDE's before you press your payoff skill. Just because deadeye/bows are broken doesn't effect you.

The only way it really does is whenever they balance the endgame with so many monsters to challenge those people. Then the "clunky" builds feel awful to play.

It also depends on your standards. If you just want to play the game like your playing n64 in 1999 and don't care about generating an empire of currency then you have different needs in your game play.

I don't know the exact data but its something like 43% of people are playing deadeye and bloodmage. I don't know what all builds are considered clunky as all i played was fire titan, ice strike monk, and le deadeye last league. I will say i had so much more fun on the fire titan outside of the abyss monster degen and the 2 fps sometimes. The deadeye was so fast and the game was so easy i couldnt stomach playing it anymore. I play ssf though so I dont care about what my currency tab looks like.

At the end of the day its probably more economical to cater to the majority of players like Chris Wilson said whenever melee people wanted love a few years ago.

His quote was something like "people are asking for melee changes but we wanted to make changes for the other 90% of players"

Honestly, outside of endgame balance having to keep top builds in check. There is absolutely nothing about balance that has anything to do with any individual unless its the tanking of your personal archetype of skills that you like to play.

If you like to play a warcry warbringer with totems and it is a "clunky" build and does 75k dps. Then if deadeye launched and tailwind gave 50% movement and attack speed per stack. Would that change your ability to play warbringer if you're not interested in zooming through game play and building an empire of divines?

It shouldn't, but it likely gives people fomo and makes people feel forced to play those builds. Especially if you're interested in becoming rich.

I hope not. For as many times I think to myself "I wish PoE2 was like this" I pretty much have the same thoughts when playing PoE2.

Please keep them distinct though for the love of god give us a 3rd way to ascend. Ultimatum and Sanctum have always been my least favorite league mechanics.

"

Will GGG cave and listen to those who want PoE 2 to be a PoE 1 reskin again?

Probably not

Negativity sells so of course those streamers and content creators will make those videos. I don't know about you, but if a game is not going in a direction I like, I leave my feedback and quit to play a different game. It seems that PoE1 mains are unable reach the quitting stage, but I haven't looked at the numbers.

I downvoted 0.2 because

a) they delivered content later than expected and way less then promised
b) the servers in my region were constantly crashing for 2 months straight

which is exactly what steam tells you to do. And I removed it when the issue finally got solved.

My review clearly helped because we went from "nothing can be done" -> mostly negative -> "this is our number 1 priority" -> steam goes back to normal.

As for the upcoming leagues. I'll give a negative review if they screw up on that level again, because it's just wasting time instead of working towards a technical sound game with 12 classes & full campaign.

But clearly this all must've been some streamer-controlled conspiracy and not a legit issue with the game. And casuals like myself cannot not have legit opinions.

I know OP doesn't wanna say names but... look... I just opened youtube and got greeted by a short... no hate and all but... sigh.

Can we like... do better...?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AEGizQiTFB4

there is a priority: china/rmt > streamers (zoomers) > vision > those-who-wait-for-meaningful-gameplay

PS: at least they tell us they reduced number of monsters in 0.4. 1st step off screenclear towards singletarget skills being possibly viable (maybe we even start to distinguish monsters or even their animations).