Streamer priority confirmed. PoE is free to play, so play it for free, but Boycott GGG.

Schadenfreude is one of the most human feelings you will ever experience. It is how a lot of people define their own fragile happiness, for lack of genuine contentment.

What divides good people from bad, heroes from villains, is how long it takes to feel guilty over it. The longer you can find joy in someone else's suffering, the worse of a person you are. Regardless of all other alignments, beliefs or agendas.

The celebration over the villain's defeat is almost always very brief, and typically bittersweet. It's what comes after, the numbness of a lost cause and fear of the void left in the villain's wake, that separates fantasy and reality.

But let's be clear. There are very, very few such villains in real life. Most people can't grow a moustache worth twirling and they're too busy worrying about their own perceived villains to behave like one themselves. Equally, heroea are recognised only after the fact and typically are nothing more than those who both did the right thing and were somehow noticed doing so. Those who do the former but fail the latter vastly outnumber the so-called heroes.

And I think everyone counts themselves among that number more often than not, clutching at the pearls of delusion and muttering "I could be worse...I could be so much worse..."

It's almost the opposite of schadenfreude. This taking delight in the lack of suffering we inflict on others and the covetous glee that they will never know how close you sometimes come to ruining them simply because you can. The secrets you keep. The flaws in their armour you do not reveal. Oh most days you don't even think about it. But sometimes it seems like the only power you have over anyone. And it's only barely eclipsed by the self control to hold back. A stronger...better power. Or so you've been told.

Schadenfreude is almost ethical compared to this.

Gosh, I really swerved off topic there, didn't I?

Oops. Silly me.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

This taking delight in the lack of suffering we inflict on others and the covetous glee that they will never know how close you sometimes come to ruining them simply because you can. The secrets you keep. The flaws in their armour you do not reveal. Oh most days you don't even think about it. But sometimes it seems like the only power you have over anyone. And it's only barely eclipsed by the self control to hold back. A stronger...better power. Or so you've been told.

You must know that not everyone's mind works that way right? I've known some borderlines that do though. I've got my own dysfunctions but that isn't one.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

But let's be clear. There are very, very few such villains in real life. Most people can't grow a moustache worth twirling and they're too busy worrying about their own perceived villains to behave like one themselves. Equally, heroea are recognised only after the fact and typically are nothing more than those who both did the right thing and were somehow noticed doing so. Those who do the former but fail the latter vastly outnumber the so-called heroes.

Villians are more like doubt for your own safety and welfare implies forsaking someone in danger or in a moment of need, profit at somone's expense when there is little consequence or disregard the harm to your own economic well being, or to save your drowning wife or your mother? That exists ... when there is a negative effect in all regards, What would you do?

The Cost of Self Sacrifice is a tragedy than heroic. In the event everything turn out fine, a man become a hero. More often in a much more dramatic sense when everything fall to pieces, that person may be a moron as he is lacking in judgment. He should either be forgotten or never be mentioned.

People admire the "superhero" celebrities not the heroes with no names.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

The longer you can find joy in someone else's suffering, the worse of a person you are. Regardless of all other alignments, beliefs or agendas.

You just invalidated whole healthy part of BDSM community, you know. And it - exists.

Since whole game's VISION(TM) drifts towards unsolicited non-consensual S/m, it's twice as funny. I mean, not if that wasn't happening before - it's just much more prominent now.

-- --

Speaking of original topic, there WAS a smart solution which would make EVERYONE happy.

Let streamers enter ahead of the rest. Disable means for dealing damage for them.

How It Works: streamers may still join other players' parties, serving as operators for them, streaming other (rightfully first on servers) players' experience.

Community engagement! Fair play! A spotlight for average player! So much positive experience this approach could net! For everybody! But failed!

The funniest part is, it does not even require truckloads of coding since we're having Keystone which does half of the job already. . .

Hm. I always figured BDSM was for the most part a sort of complicit playact given the existence of safe words and other measures to prevent genuine damage but eh if that is how you choose to read what I said when I very clearly was referring to actual cruelty and torment then good for you. :)

--

I don't think that's a good solution. People aren't going to sit and watch what is essentially play pretendies and I don't see streamers embracing what would obviously be a pointless exercise when people want to see the real thing. There is a reason gladiators weren't just actors...


And since I never see it happening there is no point arguing it further. But again, if that is what you believe would be a good solution, good for you. I will gladly recant should you turn out to be right. :)

--

Anyway...I do think GGG learned their lesson and won't give streamers priority access again. And they won't put themselves in a position where they are legally obligated to do so...not even for a truckload of money.

But that was never my argument. My argument is that even if they have learned their lesson, that isn't the point. They are still the same company that thought it'd be perfectly fine to do it in front of everyone. That somehow had the gall to think you would all be just hunky dory with streamer access priority. That you would be delighted just to have something to watch even though that one thing is something that until that moment you were told would be fair for all rather than open to priority access. Had there been no backlash there wouldn't have been an apology. Even though they did the wrong thing and knew it. Almost certainly knew there would be backlash but considered that an acceptable risk compared to said truckload of money.

The lesson learned wasnt "don't do dodgy things again", it was "don't let them see us doing dodgy things again".

In that light providing 'solutions' to the streamer access priority issue is sort of missing the point. GGG already solved it: don't do it again.

But that isn't the real problem here. And I'd be just repeating myself were I to continue this post, so I shan't. You've either gotten it by now or you haven't.

:)

GGG! How about an MTX divided cape, kind of like the ribbon mobs in the Solaris/Lunaris temples, but with more splits so the flaps resemble streamers?

"Streamer Privilege": Get ahead of the crowd with this commemorative cape.

Make it available in various colors, 150 points each and also have one or two special designs that drop sparkling, multicolored particles as you run and the streamers are flapping about. 250 points. Now those would be capes to behold!

Chris's weekly Q&A sessions have been an interesting way to do some rebuilding. They may not bring back dollars right away, but they are spending real time and effort to engage players. A distraction from the issues? Maybe, but as far as players go, it is a good one.

It is hard for me not to see it all as damage control. Which is perfectly fine as long as people are aware that this attempt to return to visibility and not just flitting accountability is a reaction and thus to some degree forced if not coerced.

The fact that it's being done by way of streamers doesn't really assuage either hahahaha.

But I guess His voice is too strong now to be delivered unfiltered and alone. Interviews are rarely as unstructured as they try to appear but that doesn't mean they're not earnest or elucidating.

I still think the real game is reading between the lines but the risk with that is picking the wrong lines. Beats taking obvious spin at face value though.

Interesting but not surprising that it took a dramatic change to the individual experience to incur significant revenue loss rather than these more easily swept away breaches of conduct. I suppose one does lead to the other in some vague way: they were overconfident with this thread's topic; they largely got away with it; they remained overconfident and yet again tested players' limits, but this time with the gameplay itself; they apparently didnt get away with it. But like I said that is only a vague connection.

I think the real connective tissue here is in both cases a company that has been running this same game for a decade or so has made some pretty rookie mistakes that resulted in self-goals. Although that is only when said rookie is overconfident and unwilling to listen to feedback. Oddly enough that isn't the sort of rookie GGG was. They were if anything hesitant and very open to feedback. In short they had an unusually strong bond with their players early on -- the cynic in me knows why; the optimist doesn't want to hear it thank you very much.

So it's almost like they've gone from one type of rookie, one type of amateurism, to another. At no point did I get a sense that GGG was a mature, comfortable company delivering its product with confidence and reliability. Perhaps I am not alone on that.

And I don't really think that is their fault. PoE was always going to be a blazing comet and even its devs, its creators and "owners", were going to be dragged along for the ride.

I really do love re-watching that 2011 gamingplanet.co.nz video showcasing a very young, very eager GGG. Oh, you had no idea what was going to happen. What was going to happen...to you.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

So it's almost like they've gone from one type of rookie, one type of amateurism, to another. At no point did I get a sense that GGG was a mature, comfortable company delivering its product with confidence and reliability. Perhaps I am not alone on that.

And I don't really think that is their fault. PoE was always going to be a blazing comet and even its devs, its creators and "owners", were going to be dragged along for the ride.

Eh, they're the ones who settled on a quarterly release schedule and scope creeping their expansions + staff to the point it got. Which is to say they put themselves under some serious pressure and crunch, which opens the door to decisions, actions, and statements prone to...whatever you want to call the last 6 months.

Thanks Charan.

Clearly in the last month Chris/GGG has shown a different face to the community and each of us will spin that change towards the outcome we want to express. I've only been playing since April of 2014 and have none of your first-hand experience with the early game, GGG and Chris. My tendency is to take a business oriented perspective because I come out of that senior management environment. many growing companies make missteps, some serious and others less so. Usually it takes a significant customer/public outcry to create a true wakeup call for top managers. When that happens customers get to decide if the change is real, the public face of the company is genuine and if the changes benefit them as customers. I do not know if Chris is genuine in his communications efforts of late or if he is papering over stuff to buy time and good will. You are probably a better judge of that.

At this point I give him the benefit of the doubt. I think he has recognized that he and GGG have made some serious missteps. Some long sought changes to gameplay seem to be manifesting. More might be coming sooner rather than later. He seems to be talking to the forums more and Reddit less? Idk, I don't go there.

If Chris is faking it, we will all know soon enough and the hole he dug for the company will get much bigger. I like the game enough to let him keep trying while I keep playing. I'm mostly playing Standard this league; the Excavations aren't interesting enough to overcome the leveling, leveling, leveling boredom. The streamer issue is less relevant to me since I don't watch any of them. I just play for fun.

Running a $70 million USD company is hard to do. Running one that has customers who you know and who know you makes it even more difficult. I trust that Chris wants POE to continue to be successful and have happy players while at the same time he tries to stay focused on his vision for the game. A vision that has evolved over the years as resources and staff have grown. I imagine him sitting at his desk thinking: "If only they could see what is coming in POE2, they would be amazed!"

Getting there with the current game continues to be an anchor they are longing to cut away, but can't. I am hoping that Chris has made a significant course correction regarding gameplay and communicating with all of those who play POE.