Do People Enjoy the Poe1 Campaign?

6/10 FOR ME. 10/10 END GAME THO

I have played since 2013 and I used to really hate doing it and part of the reason was that I was rushing and couldn't enjoy it because of the idea of being early to the loot. A couple of years ago I decided to chill, take a lot of breaks between acts and set an easily achievable goal of getting to maps by the end of day 2, doing the league mechanic (which everyone says to skip) and I save my higher playtime push for when I get a halfway decently geared toon which I enjoy playing. Taking the time constraints out solved my hating the campaign and now I'm just la la la la daydreaming of past campaign runs and cruising.

I heist and set up Delve while still in the campaign and efficiently grab a few hundred chaos from some Heisting and chaos recipe which hardly takes me any extra time. Start of day 3 I buy 10c ish worth of gear and start filling out the atlas. Easy way to do things IMO and low stress. Yes, I'm giving out my secrets but I'm guessing no one will care much and keep busting their butts.

I enjoy the campiagn a lot, it's got good story beats, and it's functionally just a series of random maps anyway if you're just brushing through, with some picking up a few bonus skills, which makes character advancement feel more brisk.

I think campaign on its own is great but not when you have to do it every new league on every new character. That's way too long for a 'tutorial'. But after what I experienced in PoE 2, I think this campaign is absolute blessing and I even started to enjoying it when I look at that contrast.

GGG has been pretty firm on not making the campaign shorter or giving alternative leveling methods. On the other hand they were also firm on no Auction House and automated trades. We see them bringing more and more changes that remove friction and annoyances so players can enjoy good parts of the game.

I really love Act 7 for some reason, and also Act 9 because I love farming Blood Aqueduct and Act 9 means that you are almost at the end game - the best part of the game. Hate Act 3 and 8 because of the temples and how long they feel in general. The rest are okayish.

All i ever wanted was the ability to choose how to level. i appreciate the acts and story a lot more if i can choose to replay them rather than being forced to redo it all the time.
i literalle just want to grind monsters in random areas instead. d3 rifts were a great alternative for me

I like most the original 3 acts, act 4 is fine, rest is ... ugh, whatever. I do appreciate the fact you don't have to run everything three time per char tho.

I enjoy the campaign and usually play through it several times each league. Maps is when I start to burn out.

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scottslayer#6428 wrote:

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

The question will always be "why should they?". And the answer to that question is different depending on why you ask. Every player will answer it differently, and the same probably goes for every developer too. What justifies them spending time and resources on the campaign?

At face value a more varied campaign would help with player retention. You said you're semi-sick of the acts, so multiple path ways to endgame might solve that.

I know it's subjective but for me Path of Exile is an exploration game. With all the effort for the past 6 years being solely placed on endgame it would be refreshing if there were more "paths" in the campaign. The game is called Path of Exile after all.

-1. You are the minority. POE is a map grinder. Campaign is a tax we must pay to map.

People have been debating this for years.

I've completed Acts over 150+ times, as I've been playing for quite some time and enjoy trying different builds. For me, Acts are still Path of Exile. They're a path. And you can play it differently each time. For example, using different skills or with different gear. Besides that, random generation and random drops add variety. Even in their current state, Acts are a viable, replayable system.

Problems arise if you're caught up in the efficiency meta, and you'll have a heart attack if you linger in Acts for even a minute, when that time could have been spent farming Juice Maps. Or if you've intentionally turned Acts into a chore, using the same leveling build for five years in a row. These types of people usually ask for shortcuts, skips, and alternatives. That won't happen.

The point of the game is to create a character and progress. And completing Acts is an integral part of progression. If you're playing "Build A" to farm 100% of your budget for "Build B", and you're preparing 100% of the items for that build in advance so you can simply create a character and equip it right away, that's not how the game is designed. This is an option for PoB enjoyers who don't care about progression; they're happy to just play a pre-made build, where the only progress is the currency drops, and then go buy another build. Such players are extremely rare. And significantly breaking the game's core for them is unjustified.

If you're not willing to spend 8 hours completing Acts, maybe you shouldn't play a game that requires thousands of hours to master? I've already played over 12+k hours. Of that time, I've spent less than 10% in Acts. Rather than reducing that time, I'd rather the remaining 90% be better.

Many build concepts perform well and confidently through Acts, but lose their scaling potential in the endgame. This is a real problem that can impact the player experience.

While you're squeezing into the meta's bottleneck, you're doomed to boredom. Playing with experimental builds can be frustrating, as they might not work and it's a complete waste of time. But if you play the game, you're already committing to wasting your time.

Try, experiment, create. If you've already conquered all the existing content, then in the next league you can repeat that success using your own skills, not someone else's perfect build. This is a different level of play, a different level of enjoyment. This is how the game is designed. To help you find your Path of Exile.

p.s. For those who think PoE is all about "T16 mapping and just killing mobs," I'll ask a question. Why don't you play Standard? There are ready-made, strong builds (even legacy ones), currency, and the Atlas itself. No need to rush through Acts. Where does the essence of the game go in Standard league? A broken economy is the wrong answer. Progress is the right answer. Without progress, it's just a cookie-clicker.

In short...

It's cool... ONCE per league.

After that it's just a slog that prevents any desire to reroll. But hey, at least you get twink gear to get the reroll through the onerous task in half the time!