An Update from Chris

Thank you for your clear communication and solid core values. I respect a good work/life balance and have no desire for your team to be pushed to the point of misery in order to produce more content.

I feel Synthesis' core problem was that it was very time consuming and complicated and that the rewards were not good enough to justify investing in. Where it is now is probably fine, but the changes came too late for league start to feel good and so I feel overall, it was not a great league.

That honest feedback said, PoE is my number one favorite game of all time. My experience in Synthesis did not alter this opinion. I love and trust GGG to continue producing excellent content. You have my complete support.

Also, thank you Chris for staying in contact with the community. There was some concern about the Ten Cent investment and estimated personal Chris profits because many people with a large cash payout would stop working and just relax. Your obvious passion and concern for this company as well as the game you have produced inspires confidence and trust. Thank you for doing the voice overs for the trailers, for answering community questions, for taking time to do interviews and appear on community content like Baeclast, for responding directly when some elements of the community are pissed off, for complimenting your staff publicly, for being honest when you feel you have not done your best, for being kind and patient with people even when they don't deserve it. I respect you sir and you have my support.

with love,
Jonathan

P.S. Bex question - Does Chris get passed encouragement in forum posts like this? Or do I need to send him something more directly?

My work life balance as a developer right now does not allow me to enjoy Path of Exile. So I hear you loud and clear about work/life balance. I would very much like my boss to think that way too. Keep doing it your way! :)

Spreading wide with xbox and ps4 + korean version is way too much with the amount of expansions you are throwing down. While I am thankful for this post it scares me a lot. I think you need to reduce the amount of expansions per year by 1 and rather do quality over quantity.

Posts like this by Chris is why GGG is hands down the best gaming company period.

"the next generation of Action RPGs is coming"
Chris, don't make me laugh. Path of Exile is so far ahead of every other Action RPG, it's like 3 generations ahead already. The complexity of the perk tree and items puts it so far ahead of the competition, I really can't see how many new releases would be able to compete against a so established game as PoE.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you are taking this as seriously as you obviously are. I just can't think of any AAA company that could make a game competing with PoE in the current landscape of gaming.

I could say that POE is the best action RPG ever made. Don’t worry about demanding stupid players that expect you exploit your people to satisfy their needs! Keep the way you have always been! LOVE YOU GGG!

"

When we reveal 3.7.0 in three weeks, you'll see that its league has a focus on repeatable fun, and the combat revamp has a lot of focus on improving the fundamentals of Path of Exile's gameplay.

While this sounds very good...

It has happened way too many times where Chris has said something and when time came it was completely different or not at all what was promised.

So i'll hold judgment untill we can see what 3.7 is and actually play it.

"

we have made promises that we haven't yet fulfilled.

I cant sit here and be hyped up anymore over words and promises

"

All of these areas, from 3.7.0 through to the eventual release of 4.0.0, are going to make massive and lasting fundamental improvements to Path of Exile.

Again these are just words I cant just automatically believe anymore like I used to back in the day.

I can hope that what Chris says is true and will happen, but I expect the worst.

"

creating an entirely new type of one-month race.

You didnt have to.. we wanted what you guys offered

Mayhem or Turmoil

Is GGG still confused on this subject?

You gave us flashback, the most toned down/boring version of any 1-month league event.

You had 2 other options from past small events to choose from that would have vastly received better community feedback.

"

Due to the sheer amount of stuff we've been working on, certain topics have not been addressed to the satisfaction of the community.

The main one being trade

Trade has not been addressed for years

"

Later this week, we'll post our first set of answers to the questions from the Q&A. I will make sure that it includes all the hot topics such as Synthesis, trade, console improvements, ExileCon races, etc.

Im really interested to see answers about trade

REALLY interested

This makes me sad, it's Beastiary all over again.

League has issues to be sure, but instead of ironing them out, just tossing the whole thing out, to maybe be brought back in a meaningless lobotomized form.

I think Synthesized items were a mistake. Fractured mods are cool. Memories are mostly cool - though there is some issues with the decay mechanic, and it over-pushes players into speed clear meta with how unforgiving it can be. The Memory Nexus was a mess at release, but now it's interesting, rewarding, and fun.

Some good, some bad, but I'd say a lot more good then bad overall. Feels like a mistake to toss it all out because initial impressions of many players were (mostly rightfullY) focused onto the bad aspects.

This post has made me very happy. It really touched every concern I developed recently, nokappa. I'm feeling optimistic again. Thanks for taking the time Chris!

Thanks Dad.