An Update from Chris

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Vanadium81 wrote:

I don't know if I agree with you about the xp penalty on death , it used to be 15% btw … and if theres no risk at all the game feels meaningless

I do agree its a gut punch when you get into a situation where you cant possibly survive , but to not have a penalty on death it becomes like the boss kills on normal mode where you just portal back continuously and theres no sense of accomplishment whatsoever. (yes I am aware end game maps only have 6 portals) but my point still stands

So make it 4 portals, make it 2.5% on act 5-10 and 5% after and it would still be a lot more in balance with how screwed up a lot of the maps get with a huge list of terrible deadly affixes and then that one random mob that does 20k damage out of nowhere when you were facerolling the last 2 hours on supposedly the same difficulty.

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themrpid10 wrote:

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Vanadium81 wrote:

I don't know if I agree with you about the xp penalty on death , it used to be 15% btw … and if theres no risk at all the game feels meaningless

I do agree its a gut punch when you get into a situation where you cant possibly survive , but to not have a penalty on death it becomes like the boss kills on normal mode where you just portal back continuously and theres no sense of accomplishment whatsoever. (yes I am aware end game maps only have 6 portals) but my point still stands

So make it 4 portals, make it 2.5% on act 5-10 and 5% after and it would still be a lot more in balance with how screwed up a lot of the maps get with a huge list of terrible deadly affixes and then that one random mob that does 20k damage out of nowhere when you were facerolling the last 2 hours on supposedly the same difficulty.

I almost think it should be a scaling death penalty , I mean 10% when your lvl 95 is horrendous compared to lvl 80 , and at like lvl 97+ its many many many hours of lost time. scaling would make more sense to me, that I could get on board with

as an aside ive been playing since open beta and the highest ive ever gotten was 95

From being extremely skeptical of your competence regarding community interaction as of late, you've literally just redeemed yourself completely in my opinion. You addressed the concerns of the community and you really do seem genuine with this post. In a world where we have companies like Activision, EA and so on, it's not always easy to maintain trust as a game company. The trust can be lost incredibly fast currently because of those dishonest and outright disgusting companies.

You however, GGG, set an example of what we gamers are so hungry for. Trustworthy devs that value the playerbase more than investors. While you being acquired by a Chinese giant corporation that favors the Chinese government is in my opinion, a horrible mistake. You atleast kept your morals straight and the playerbase is your number one priority.

And lastly what I want to commend you for, and certainly not the least. Thanks for standing up for your developers. Crunch time is unacceptable. I'd imagine that other large corporations might force such crunch time on their valuable devs. But money can motivate heinous actions to the devs. Thankfully, you respect them as one of the most valuable assets to the company.

You've repaired my recent distrust in your company. My promise of not buying any more supporter packs have lifted.

Keep kicking ass Chris. I don't post often but you and your team will always have my support. I usually play a couple of leagues and take one off, so I wasn't part of this league, but I'm REALLY looking forward to the next two leagues! I've been wanting to get back into Melee!

And just for maintaining that work/life balance you can count on a supporter pack from me next league or big league release. Developers and a lot of publishers push their teams too hard and it's not fair. You have all the respect in the world from me.

Keep up the good work. We all make mistakes, have projects that don't pan out how we want, and sometimes have to spin a lot of plates at once. Good on you for addressing it with the community.

Love,
GGGfan.

Sincerely;

Kudos to you for doing the right thing for your employees. I'm elated to see you trusting your instincts when it comes to the often vocal and negative segment of the internet. The pressures you are under to deliver for your critical fans - notwithstanding to do it in the spotlight - is something that deserves our respect. Take your time, build the content you want and know that the vocal few are far outnumbered by those who appreciate your brilliance. We also know that innovation takes risks. Risks don't always pan out and we should revere those failures, not chastize.

As it stands, POE is my favorite game of all time. I've played every update since the beta and there is no other game of the caliber. GGG took the D2 framework and built something special. I've gotten a number of my friends into POE and nobody can remember a game that has gained in player base for the last 7 years, let alone match the expansive depth.

What you've done and are doing is defining the genre. Keep it coming.

Regards,

Brad, MD

Look, I appreciate the game and all your hard work as much as anyone, but instead of telling us you'll look into things, just tell us when our desires don't match up with your priorities. That way people will quit asking you to fix things that you have no intention of fixing. Like if I ask you to get rid of the extra empty map stash tabs, in standard, and you tell me to stick it in my ear, I'm going to quit asking. If you don't tell me but you imply that you are going to look into it I'm gonna just keep asking about it. I would honestly rather have you be rude about it than give me the wrong impression.

I'm sure you guys are going to blow us away with 4.0.0 and one mediocre season doesn't destroy years of successful seasons! You guys are great at what you do and keep it up!!

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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. 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.

From one large team manager to another: Good on you. Good on you.

LOVE YOU GUYS AT GGG! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! :)

Hats off to you Chris and all GGG team, one more time, as usual, but this one even with more strenght and emphasis for been so humble, professional and close to the players as to take the effort and energy that implies to communicate all you just did in your post. You have just adressed the issues, recognised it, and answered all the questions completely. Again, hats off and all the love for you and GGG team, i couldnt be more satisfied and happy.

And regarding the several topics and posible issues; yeah, its true synthesis hasnt been the best league, but thanks of it not been the best, now you are taking the right steps, and im sure next league is going to be amazing, and even more the ones to come. We have to make mistakes to learn, we have to fail to improve after; and that goes for GGG and for all of us as players. I believe we ALL players should learn aswell, after seeing your post, to be a bit more patient with mistakes, to be more objective when we do not like something, and to try to be more constructive in our critic in order to help GGG improve the game we love.

And, i believe that after the post, everybody should be aware of the difficulties of bringing a new league, with huge amount of new content, new mechanics, skills, revamps, etc each 3 months, while at the same time you are making the game grow overall, and at the same time you are building and making the big big expansion that is going to be 4.0.0 (and that im super excited and hyped for it, and that im sure is going to be beyond amazement.)

Summarizing, thank you very much Chris and GGG team, for been such an amazing team, that works with the heart while using the brain, and that truly listens to the players and tries to make the best game possible. Way too many people should learn from you.

All the love :)