It's finally happened....PoE 1 is dead (in my opinion)

I have played since the beta. I have over 15000 hours. I have quit before, but I kept coming back because the game was still fun, just in smaller doses.

Now, with this new league, and the history of changes over the last 2 years....this is not the game I want to play.

People reading this might disagree, might not care, might denigrate me for making my opinion/feedback known. But I have given this game every benefit of the doubt for damn near 3 years now.....and I'm done.

At some point and time, around 3.14 or perhaps even before that, the devs changed course drastically and decided that punishment was far more important than enjoyment. That randomness was far more important than a clear line of sight. That invalidating entire swaths of builds was the ONLY way to create "difficulty" or "meaningful" encounters. I'm done with it.

They did this major overhaul of the endgame but....I just don't want to play the GAME, regardless of any overhaul. I don't play standard because its a decade+ wasteland of garbage and shunning. I look forward to interacting with a new league, but every single one of them is an overtuned, 1hko-fest, mess of design flaws, exceedingly punishing time constraints, randomness, and just plain garbage.


I honestly don't know what the "goal" is: they offer QoL, but then take away QoL at the same time. They nerf overtuned monster mechanics, but then introduce new overtuned monster mechanics. They introduce new gear, skills, and potions...only to turn around and nerf them for the xth time. It's like the development team legit has no idea what they are doing anymore. Some say they are "preparing us for PoE 2", but I think that's a total bs response. PoE 2 is an entirely different game, with a different skill system, a different monster system, a clean item bank, a different story, and an entirely different battle system. They CANT be preparing us for that game within this game, at least not in any meaningful way. The second they announced PoE 2 being a separate game was the same time that developers ceased being able to "prep" us.

I have lost all faith in this game, it taxes my time for no reason, its poorly designed and then ignored, its being changed to suit a player that simply isn't me anymore.

It's a damn shame......I am holding out all hope that PoE 2 is going to be insanely good and that all these recent PoE 1 development problems are simply because all attention is going to PoE 2, but the fact that I am losing complete faith in GGG as a company and game developer is reminiscent of how Blizzard did me dirty with D3, DImm, and D4.

Farewell everyone, I'm done with these forums as well. I'll check the news every now and then, but poe.com is gone from my bookmarks and dead to me.

it stings, it seriously stings. i kinda feel the same, my eye opening moment was Helldivers 2. a multiplier, semi-grinding game where you fight throngs of enemies, some of them more BS than others

ive been playing it since release and damn.. it feels as if FUN was the goal the devs have in mind. they make mistakes, they made blunders - but it all seem to be a momentary lapse of reason, an exception. because everything else is done purely for OUR enjoyment. and that game is tough as f.. so no freebies, no hand holding.

i do not remember that feeling emanating from POE patch notes since 2.x era

everything done recently had one goal in mind: 'raise engagement metrics', 'better conversion ratio' - you know, the financial goals that care about money, not players who spend it

the nerfs, the convoluted mess, ignoring issues (melee.. like holly f.. Call To Arms bs), moving stuff around just to move it (LMB - seriously?), QoL.. current patch's QoL is something games in early 2000 wouldnt brag about. POE is terrible in QoL department and it seems people are right claiming 'it is held hostage' and released only when needed to appease

i do not know what their target audience is - but i bet 10h/day streamers is a close call. regular players are expected to play for several weeks to 'complete' their chars. in a game where replayability is its strongest point.. seriously?

and if people start to shorten the average - lets cut stacked decks, essences and delirium on top of moving all good uniques to ubers (seeing Starforge as an Uber drop rubs me in a bad way).

i wonder what of these changes (excluding these tesed before release) were made with players' FUN in mind, and what as a method of increasing time/mtx sales convesion




oh and POE2 and POE1 - if my ~20y tenure in IT business tough me something: you cant teach old dog new tricks. these two games share teams and methods. one is affecting the other. what we see now is POE2-ification of POE1. polishing of archnemesis i call it. because this league seems to be AN 3.0 (but without the rewards)

if POE 1.3 was Necropolis league - it is possible there wouldnt be 1.4

If GGG was serious about QOL features, then they would have implemented a death log years ago and those "constant incremental improvements to graphics" seen in every set of patch notes would go to improving constrast and brightness (HELLO GAMMA SLIDER PLEASE) in the game instead of taxing your system even more for a game that is OVER 10 YEARS OLD.

As for POE2, if you have any interest in melee gameplay, then your feeling of exhaustion and frustration will be 100x anything you currently feel in POE1.

And yes it seems the target audience now for POE1 is some combination of basement dwellers who simultaneously spend 12-18 hours/day playing and have master level credit card skills.

Let's hope the competition makes GGG incredibly humble and introspective again, but even then there are way too many addicts remaining in POE who love their extreme masochism. My favorite recent comment was "Last Epoch is just a poor rip-off of POE." Cool, so where is my death log in POE like the one that exists in LE. Where is the graphic design in POE so I can actually tell what the hell is going on before my character is deleted by something random again?

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mnieradko wrote:

If GGG was serious about QOL features, then they would have implemented a death log years ago and those "constant incremental improvements to graphics" seen in every set of patch notes would go to improving constrast and brightness (HELLO GAMMA SLIDER PLEASE) in the game instead of taxing your system even more for a game that is OVER 10 YEARS OLD.

As for POE2, if you have any interest in melee gameplay, then your feeling of exhaustion and frustration will be 100x anything you currently feel in POE1.

And yes it seems the target audience now for POE1 is some combination of basement dwellers who simultaneously spend 12-18 hours/day playing and have master level credit card skills.

Let's hope the competition makes GGG incredibly humble and introspective again, but even then there are way too many addicts remaining in POE who love their extreme masochism. My favorite recent comment was "Last Epoch is just a poor rip-off of POE." Cool, so where is my death log in POE like the one that exists in LE. Where is the graphic design in POE so I can actually tell what the hell is going on before my character is deleted by something random again?

i am 1 of this dwellers that play poe 18h a day for a weak :D and this is a swing and miss then hit yourself in a knee kind of bad league.... and direction of poe

Build enablers should drop from the normal pinnacle bosses. Or why would we even fight them? To collect embers?

+1

I played PoE since June 2, 2012 but I quit 2023.

I (we) waited patiently for many problems to be fixed or at least addressed but after way too many years I also came to the following conclusion:

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sidtherat wrote:

everything done recently had one goal in mind: 'raise engagement metrics', 'better conversion ratio' - you know, the financial goals that care about money, not players who spend it

After so many years it just takes a little bit longer to quit the forums, too.

...and has ingame undertaker to bury it.
(Sorry I am here only for the joke.)

Nevermind.

PoE died the moment they announced PoE2.

Not just because it's a new game either. Because it frees them from investor contract constrictions. It also allows they to fix deeply rooted problems. It's quite clear PoE1 is not getting the same attention. PoE1 and PoE2 are not going to get the same investment of time or money.

The game that produces the most profit. Gets the most attention.
They're not going to compete against themselves.

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Xzorn wrote:

PoE died the moment they announced PoE2.

Not just because it's a new game either. Because it frees them from investor contract constrictions. It also allows they to fix deeply rooted problems. It's quite clear PoE1 is not getting the same attention. PoE1 and PoE2 are not going to get the same investment of time or money.

The game that produces the most profit. Gets the most attention.
They're not going to compete against themselves.

but poe2 is probably still years away because jonathan is a perfectionist and wants everything to be 100% right...remember poe2 has been "coming soon" since 2019