Open Letter to Qarl, regarding topics discussed in RMT thread

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Qarl wrote:

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ephetat wrote:

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Chris wrote:

Some players immediately use all their currency items on the spot to improve their character. These players generally have quite powerful characters and items, but are always low on actual currency items to trade. They’re often seen trading powerful upgraded items for currency, in an attempt to reroll/upgrade other items and fuel their addiction.

No, Chris. This isn't the case, not any longer, not for some time.

Players definitely still do this. There is a decent portion of players who do use all their currency on items, and a good portion who actively use much of their currency on items. Both these groups tend towards heavy item traders. (Not all of them though, there are those who use their currency on items and do not interact with others at all.)

You are generalising your own experience with the game to others. There are a wide variety of styles of play.

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Tanakeah wrote:

Spoiler

And if I may ask, who are these 'decent portion of players' that you are...well...making what seems to be a general statement about? Are they newer players who, when they get currency via whatever means, start throwing it at items they have and want to try and craft? Ones that are experienced and are trying to craft specific stuff and know they need to hoard and pool before trying? Are they newer/experienced players that are just throwing currency at items as soon as they get it and then wait for a few more currency orbs to drop and then immediately throw them at said items, or what?

I'm not going to speak for anyone but myself here as I have read this thread from start to finish and speak from my experience alone. At first, I did what Chris said...I would trade items that were 'powerful' and ones I didn't need for currency so I could try and craft gear for myself. After all, that's what I thought the notion of CRAFTING ORBS in this game was about. Not talking about trading or the 'barter economy'...to me, and just to me here, if orbs have properties that allow you to craft items in certain ways, then they are CRAFTING ITEMS. Well, apparently I was very, very wrong. As much as I hated to admit it, the reason that I was originally drawn into this game was becoming more and more clear that it was the most unrewarding, illogical, silly thing to do. Crafting, I began to understand, was an absolute CRAP SHOOT 95% of the time.

The ONLY REASON, the ONLY REASON that it is even remotely good is because you have enough people BRUTE FORCING THE RNG and FINALLY getting things that are worthwhile and in the higher end of things, that means mirror-worthy items. BUT, let's step away from that because that's not the main focus here, and I do realize I might go a little all over the place, so I apologize if I'm not as coherent as I would like to be. I, like others, have realized that crafting is not worth the time or the effort, EVEN WHEN I HAVE ITEMS THAT ARE MOST CERTAINLY WORTH CRAFTING. The last successful item I 'crafted' was this:

But you know what? The ONLY mod on there that was crafted (and took 5 eternal orb tries for) was the life mod. Everything else on that item was already there when it DROPPED for me. I didn't start 'from scratch' and try the transmute/alt/aug -> Regal -> Eternal/Exalt route...that would've been a MASSIVE waste of currency to me. ...Ironic...I keep calling the orbs currency and not crafting components, but that's another tangent I'll stay away from. Here are some other items that I have in my stash that I WANT TO CRAFT, but I REFUSE to even attempt to try with:

Spoiler

I have at least a dozen more in my stash as well. Now, most are going to say, "Oh, those are not god-tier items, blah, blah, blah, blah." and you know what? I DON'T CARE! I don't NEED god-tier items to have fun in this game, but instead of this game ENCOURAGING me to try and craft items, it DISCOURAGES me to do so because of excessive RNG amongst other things. I am well aware I have more than a few pieces of mirrored gear that I saved up for and bought and traded for, and that's also telling...I know that when shooting for those kind of upgrades to what I had originally that it's better to hoard and spend currency on those rather than try and do it myself because 95% of the time it's CHEAPER in the long run. That's because the crafting isn't crafting...it's GAMBLING, and I don't want to gamble with the amount of RNG in this game. I weighed the pros and cons of it and in the end it's more logical to just hoard and buy for a set price because the game will not throw me a bone.

What I want to emphasize is not the mirrored items or anything like that, but as others have most likely said, players begin to realize that the crafting isn't crafting and it's just gambling that leads to little to no gains. The game doesn't encourage you to use these crafting resources even as you level up, and while newer players will certainly use them (I know I did) they will eventually realize that it's actually a waste of those resources. Better to save everything up and scrape by with lesser gear that more than does the job until maybe late Cruel and then it's hop on board the poe.xyz train and learn how to search for what you want and looks for the cheap deals and learn better gear management. I had to learn this disappointing route myself and that to me is a real shame, and I think more and more people are beginning to realize this as well.

Again, I know this was a bit all over the place, but it still makes me shake my head. These 'crafting orbs' have lost much of their value in terms of crafting and have become the defacto currency in this game...they are like copper, silver, gold, and platinum of other games, but just have other uses for them. Their monetary value is and has far outweighed their practical crafting value thanks to a multitude of reasons, one of the big ones being (once again) the excessive amount of RNG in this game and it has really hurt these orbs in that way. I feel as if GGG originally wanted the CRAFTED ITEMS that people used the orbs on to be the 'barter currency' that players would use, but from my perspective, players realize that they're true worth is to give to others who brute force the 'gambling RNG' and that hoarding to save up for items (crafted or dropped) is a much more logical decision in the end.

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Qarl wrote:

Both of these intentions indicate investment and interest in the game. I do not consider that a bad thing.

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The specific issue being referred to was players unable to progress, where a solution was in their inventory. This is generally not a current issue. It was an issue some time ago, and I was discussing the nature of the issue as in aside in another thread.

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I certainly have no issue with players having currency in their stash. In this thread it seems player indicate they keep currency because its trading value is higher than its crafting value (keeping the currency because they might want to spend it later), or because its best used in large amounts later (keeping the currency because they want to apply it to items later, in volume).

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Qarl wrote:

I certainly have no issue with players having currency in their stash. In this thread it seems player indicate they keep currency because its trading value is higher than its crafting value (keeping the currency because they might want to spend it later), or because its best used in large amounts later (keeping the currency because they want to apply it to items later, in volume).

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Qarl wrote:

It is important that good items drop. Being able to have good items from killing monsters is a fundamental element of the game. We more often get the complaint that nothing good drops.