I wish Path of Exile 2 didn't exist.

This is just rambling from someone who doesn't know how to compartmentalize his thoughts or feelings & doesn't know how to structure a paragraph so, it's gonna be a mess. Also, as someone who's been around since open beta on and off (unfortunately don't know how to access my old account, hence the creation date of this one) I have the highest respect for GGG, I've never held any game company in high regards (Jagex, Riot, Blizzard) but GGG has always been... Different, for the better. So this isn't meant to drag them.

I was SO excited for Path of Exile 2, I really thought it was going to be the absolute greatest thing I would experience in my life (I'm a loser, life has no grand plans for me) but it just... wasn't. I have tried to like the game & I have just not been able to, the gameplay feels so foreign, wasd is something I've never been accustomed to & mouse and keyboard just feels so... bad. The combat system is just awful, most recently I tried to play again... Started a huntress & found myself having to do 2-3 3 button combos to kill white mobs... Something like whirlwind, flame wall & tornado I think? I got to the red veil and just logged off.

It's easy to say skill issue or whatever, yes, I've read all the comment sections of every youtube video ever, it's all the same. I get it, I'm bad. But like, that doesn't take away from the fact that it feels weird to be someone SO addicted & passionate about Path of Exile, only to be alienated from the target audience of it's supposed predecessor.

I want to be clear, I understand that GGG's second game is VERY popular & I'm happy that it is making the company I respect so much money & hope that it continues to do so.

To address the title, I want the game under the title of Path of Exile 2 to exist, I want the people who enjoy it to be able to continue to enjoy it and to experience what it's like to have a game company that cares about it's players. I just wish that it wasn't branded as "Path of Exile" because... It's just not. And while some might say I'm just playing semantics, that's not my intention at all. I wish I was better with words, but I'm pretty fuckin stupid.

Just to help me be able to spit out my point, an example name could be like "Exiles of Wraeclast" of something... Something that shows that yes, the game is tied to Path of Exile, but it's not the same game. The reason that this has become such an issue for me is largely to do with search engine optimizations & because of talk amongst other gamers. When I search or mention path of exile, I am referring to the greatest game that's ever existed. It feels like shit to have to unrecommend a bunch of creators/GGG's videos in my feed because they are "Path of Exile(2)" related... Or when I search for a guide for something Path of Exile related and google is throwing a bunch of POE2 unrelated non-sense at me. ("Well you've allegedly played since beta why are you looking up guides hUrDuR") I've had a minor stroke in the past, my memory is affected by it, I need to be able to refresh on things regularly, to include campaign run optimizations.

The other aspect has been it's effect on Path of Exile's league cycle... I might be in the minority here, but 3 month leagues were just perfect... I had a month or two to play in economy, a mode which I enjoyed very much so & then could swap to SSF/HCSSF as the player base started to die down & normal people took their breaks, then by the time I got the burnout from SSF it was time to start another economy league & it was just... peak. It was like the perfect dr*g addiction, I never developed a tolerance, never needed more, just a perfect cycle. Now it's just been dread since the launch of POE 2.

Again, I'm in a bit of minority here because 3.26 wasn't for me, I didn't enjoy the mechanic so I didn't really play & things came up irl where I couldn't make it back for 3.27, which sucks because I think I would have really enjoyed it... I digress. Yeah, I might just have unlucky timing since returning to the game, but it just feels so much worse being someone who can't receive the same joy from POE2 that others might be able to...

I'm losing my train of thought, I've half a mind to just delete this entire post cause it's just a hot mess of word vomit but I'm gonna post it anyways, maybe there's more people that empathize with what I'm trying to get at. Maybe a conversation can form from my word salad. I dunno...
I'm gonna start back up in league of legends I guess until 3.29 is ready, which might be part of the reason for this post to.. a call for help lol.... League is a miserable addiction.

Please do believe me when I'll say that life has plans for everyone, you just need to start hearing it's plans and continue walking further
Life can change in a glimpse, and would you be shocked to hear that it can happen for the better! Sometimes just being ready to answer the call is enough!

I assume you have quite some free time if you're not fighting your addiction with LoL and you're happy with being addicted to PoE...just give 0.5 a chance, try it out.
Worst case scenario? You'll just loose a week or two but so what? Don't you have time anyway?

If you're pessimistic (and maybe for a reason) about life, why not experience new things anyway? Not that it would be for the worse, right?

[Removed by Support]


Life doesn't make you - you make your life, and I'm pretty damn sure you can

I shoulda done a different title I guess... Really wasn't intending on this post ending up in the cesspool that is EA feedback, cause it's not even really feedback, other than the game title suggestion, which, lets be real. It's never gonna change. This was more just a feels post. General chatter. "Fuck, this feeling sucks, anyone relate?"