An Update from Chris

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Schakar wrote:

In my eyes you just made one fatal mistakt: Console support!

Just check out all the Console to PC conversions. They care a shit about propper input handling. One of the best examples are Metal Gear Solid V and Skyrim. TERIBBLE COMPLICATE Controler stearing without propper support for Mouse + Keyboard!
Inventory handling at Skyrim is still imposible without mods!!!

Just trash all PS2/XBOX stuff. USELESS WAST OF TIME!
And more time to care about your core comunity: PC.

It's realy easy.
PvP games are PvP games.
PvE games are PvE games.
PC games are PC games.
Console games are ... useless trash anyway.

NEVER EVER TRY TO MIX THEM! It will allways and 100% FAIL.

Considering the influx of new players to the game, this entire post is a bit redundant. You can talk about PC masterrace all you want, but to ignore an entire market of gamers in the consoles is a mistake.

I personally used to play it on PC a few years ago. After they launched it for PS4 me and 6 other friends downloaded it day 1 and posted a lot of money into it, to support that they decided to go console ready. We were so excited to play it again!

Us console players are a part of the playerbase now and I don't see any reason for you to say it's a useless waste of time. Considering the market, the amount of players and the evolution of the game, it's anything but useless. It's a perfectly fine direction for the game to go. The game has translated beautifully to the consoles and after a few performance fixes, it's a fine addition to the PoE family.

I am having a blast playing it again and I look forward to many leagues to come!

As for GGG, I tip my hat to you on the very open and candid post. It's refreshing to see the honesty and straight talk that is in the post and all the responses here just show, that the community is still here for you. Keep on trucking and we'll eagerly await the news you have to share!

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Chris wrote:

A big topic in the gaming industry recently is development crunch. Some studios make their teams work 14 hour days.. <some text removed>. I will not run this company that way. While there's inevitably a bit of optional paid overtime near league releases, the vast majority of a Path of Exile development cycle has great work/life balance. This is necessary to keep our developers happy and healthy for the long-term, but it does mean that some game improvements will take a while to be made.

I´m more than happy to hear that. Seems you are a good boss :)
Your staff would be frustrated and no longer motivated if they are being forced to permanently work overtime. Having a happy and healthy staff is - in my opinion - the most important thing in a company; simply because those people are more motivated. Maybe this is seen differently in US and Japan, but how many people there run into suicide when they just live for the work (sorry for using that extreme example, but it should really be seriously considered when asking staff for permanent overtime). And if the staff knows that the "overtime" days are limited like 4 times a year, 1-2 weeks before releases of new leagues, they are more likely accept that overtime work with pleasure, as they know they will have a great life / work balance the rest of the year. And sometimes you need some break from work in order to get fresh ideas and your brain will work much better if you are not overworked, have enough sleep, time for your private life, etc...

Another one mentioned that you should maybe consider new leagues every 4 months instead of 3. Not sure what the majority of the players here think about that, but for me personally i would be perfectly happy to have new leagues every 4 or even (for me better) 6 months. There is so much content in the game now, that i simply cannot reach mid-/late endgame (grinding Maps > T13, pushing the atlas to reach elder/shaper, Delve in depth xx, doing ubers, farming Labyrinth, etc...) before the 3 months are over. my highest char i got was a lvl92 (or 93) char, but just because i was sick for 2 weeks during that league and had so much time to play which i (and probably 85% of other players here) usually do not have. I have never reached the shaper, (uber)elder and uber atziri until now and it won´t happen this league as well. In order to get there i will be forced at some point to switch no standard league...

I dont like reading you're super excited to present this or that, cause it's the same thing you qere saying about synthesis and my personal worst, betrayal. But hey, i get it, you're all humans and need to rest and such. No pressure, im just happy this thing wont go core. Keep up the work.

What a true gentleman!!!

Bring on the next league any my 60follars with it :)

Keep it up

1st - Increase camera distance by 50% at least

2nd - Make RNG less random and more predictable

3rd - Decrease an amount of dropped trash items
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3HyUXdK9k

Maybe then you'll be competitive with modern ARPGs.

I really love the skills system of PoE, I never seen anything even close to it.
But everything else vary from "Ok, I can bear it" to "Meh, who even created this?"

P.S. You didn't want to work 14 hrs per day, but to be successful in your game (have most rare and top gear), players must play 16 hrs per day. Neat...

Good to know, I really appreciate that proper explanation was given about what is going on.

Please take your time to finish all projects with proper attention they require.

Regarding Synthesis as a idea and mechanic it is very interesting so I am looking forward to see it added into core game in the future after proper rework.

Keep the good stuff coming into this awesome game.

10k+ upvotes on reddit for a post that, well, doesn't actually say anything. Chris, as usual, is truly the king of PR. It's great that he's not leading the company into abusive crunch times, but no one thought he was, but sure, let's throw in that paragraph and get some free praise for people who think the games industry is 100% uncaring towards people's health.

Sorry, Chris, your apologies and explanations simply can't make up for all of the oversights and shortcomings that are already so past overdue. But good job fooling reddit and calming the storm with this post's rhetoric, even though it said absolutely nothing and fixes absolutely nothing (unless you want to get pedantic and count the super tiny teaser at the very end).

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cradzilla wrote:

chris has bitten off more than he can chew with multiple simultaneous projects (3.7, xbox, ps4, exilecon, korea, china, 4.0) spreading resources too thin, resulting in a slew of mediocre league launches going back to at least abyss with the same mentality of 'ship it now, fix it 1-3 weeks into the league'. he's stated that they shifted all console resources to ps4 as soon as xbox launched, leaving little to no resources to fix the myriad problems with xbox and now ps4 is suffering the same fate. we got a rushed bestiary last year which was hatched over the christmas break with even less qa than normal, and a year later the same mistake is made with synthesis.
the severe lack of quality competition in the arpg state has been the real mvp in poes success. if blizzard didnt shit the bed with d3 and then immortal, ggg wouldnt have gotten away with a fraction of the garbage theyve been spewing out lately with the promise of fixing it at a later date
gamers crucify other companies for these same practices but ggg just gets a slap on the wrist and they promise to do better next time lol

and that excuse about no custom event for league end lmao ok mate. all you had to do was make a mayhem league for those who want some voided fun and turmoil for those who want a character in standard that theyll never play again. wouldve been better to never even utter the words mayhem/turmoil when announcing the event

THIS

Dude I'm not going to make the fanboy because atm there are big issues about game balancing and optimisation. But still PoE is probably the only game in history providing this kind of content in a cyclic way. I'm one of many players that come on the game once, twice or 3 times a year enjoying the new mechanics of the game and trying to git gud(now better) at it. Those last 3 to 4 years, PoE has been one of the brightest parts of my gaming experience and I'm thankfull for that.
The game is aging well, the sad part is that it has been casualised a lot but it's imho cyclic too kind of, it was the same few monthes before act 4 got released and it was the same before elder got released (like shaper started beeing a real punching ball back in abyss for example).

That game still needs credit, and if it manages to evolves again in a positive way, good for ggg and good for us too.

About synthesis the big issue was the map drop nerf and the flow. Make the blocks sellable for example and it may become very good instantly. I'm not against playing in that nexus thing but it takes 20-30mn of mapping refilling blocs then you have to go back in. It's the most daunting side mechanic ever created. I did not liked it, I stoped very early and when I came back last week I was like wtf is that shit how could I play it :)

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Chris wrote:

...
A big topic in the gaming industry recently is development crunch. Some studios make their teams work 14 hour days to pack every patch full of the most fixes and improvements possible. Sometimes when we read our own Patch Notes threads and community feedback, we feel that we are being asked to do the same. ...

Big topic indeed, and i think i have an unorthodox solution to it. Perhaps you will find it beneficial to adopt some form of it for Path of Exile.

The solution is: significantly reduce amount of fixes and improvements required by adding one more specialist into the team, whos work will be to investigate causes and circumstances of substantial bugs, of most disliked by playerbase features, etc, - and present conclusive evidence (to leaders of the development team or, perhaps, to you personally) about who happens to be most directly responsible for such bugs and badly implemented features. Based on such evidence, specific developers who would be repeatedly found directly responsible for problemtatic content - could then be shifted to some other duties, and/or asked to shape up, and/or properly educated to do their job better, etc.

Needless to say, this kind of in-team self-control / quality assurance is one very sensitive thing. However, with proper procedures for adequate confidentiality of gathered data and evidence, as well as well-thought code of action for such an "investigative" specialist himself, - i believe this has the potential to massively reduce, in the long run, both number and severity of things which require "fixes and improvements". And thus, the feeling you spoke about, - could also be massively reduced.

P.S. Oh, and one very important thing about this all - is that often times bugs and bad features are not made into the product by any ill will. In a good team, never are; but still can be great many. Via incompetence, basic error, sheer stupidity (which we all do, at least once in a rare while), unfortunate set of specific circumstances, or miscommunication between employees. I highly recommend to dig for some matherials about how large companies assert this kind of content / team control. Perhaps you'll find some Blizzard's papers on the subject? Etc. Best of luck!