POE 2 early access paywall

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Ulsarek#7159 wrote:

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Ispita#4020 wrote:

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Waiden#9514 wrote:

There will be PLENTY of players playing Early Access to test all the features, so why would GGG want to make it free to lure players who make zero research on what Early Access is and then complain about how unfinished the game is?

In this case, I believe Early Access paywall is indeed a good thing because we know it is not a cash grab or scam. If someone has an issue with it, there are like 1000 great games to play in the meantime.

There is much in what you say but why market the game as Free to Play when it clearly is not? It has a 30 usd price tag at the moment and will be discounted to 0 dollars in half a year to a year.

PoE 2 will be free to play when it releases. Early access is not the release.

It is a soft release. The game is released and ready to be played. It is just a marketing naming.

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AlvinL_#4492 wrote:

You people are tripping.

Spending at most some entry level support pack worth of money is not pay2win - you still have to put in the hours to fill those tabs with something worthwhile. There are players who spend Thousands, Tens of thousands on mobile games for extra resources - THAT is pay2win, [Removed by Support]

you won't waste space to flip items if you have only 4 tabs


Your tab will be full of currency, map already.

There is a small chance you really drop a HH and it takes 2x1 space only. But the currency you made still take a lot of space

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

That is essentially what pay2win means. Overcoming a challenge or making it more accessible with real money. That is why stash tabs are, in fact, borderline pay2win.

I'm not getting into this for the 1000th time in any detail but no it isn't, if you believe this its because you've never played a game that is actually pay to win.

Stash tabs are a convenience but you aren't winning anything by using them, in actual p2w games somebody who gets their wallet out is pretty much untouchable by somebody who doesn't.

Edge cases like this just devalue the term to where its worthless to use as a descriptor, come up with a new one and save pay2win for the insidious shit it belongs with.

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Ispita#4020 wrote:

It is a soft release. The game is released and ready to be played. It is just a marketing naming.

Is it? Half the acts and classes are missing.

Ah, but it's the endgame that matters :)

I wouldn't call this a soft release... it's a release. The amount of hype and interest makes this a big fat release, actually, and the official 'release' will be more like a big DLC.

The term predatory is being thrown about in this thread often enough that I think some don't know what predatory means.

Both the buyer and seller know exactly what they are buying and selling. GGG offers early access to POE2 for a price, and the buyer gains access to POE2. There isn't anything hidden in that transaction or held back. Both parties opt into the transaction without coercion and consumers can opt to not buy it without any notable loss other than gaining early access to a game that they can access later without spending a dime if they so choose.

Predatory requires some form of coercion, monopoly, deceit or knowingly taking advantage of a party that doesn't know any better or has no other choice.

A good example of predatory is health care in some countries; mine included. Health care isn't something you can always opt out of and it's not something you can shop around easily. It's a monopoly in the sense that emergencies send you to the closest hospital and your options are pay the price or potentially die. It doesn't even require you to be dying immediately. Hospitals have no competition and have no reason to reduce or negotiate prices. Pay or die. Predatory. There is a reason why so many bankruptcies are caused by health care -- because people have no choice.

A less dire example being someone who has no transportation options that needs to buy a car for their job (or whatever) but has no credit so they are forced to take on a 30% car loan. That one does still require both sides to opt in but one side doesn't really feel like they have a choice if absolutely need transportation for something.

GGG isn't doing anything predatory here. I would argue what they're doing enables people with less to still enjoy the game that otherwise couldn't afford it. It's much closer to altruistic than predatory. Before anyone jumps on that comment, the key part of that comment is proximity to the meaning. Of course they are not altruistic.

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Nubatron#4333 wrote:

The term predatory is being thrown about in this thread often enough that I think some don't know what predatory means.

Both the buyer and seller know exactly what they are buying and selling. GGG offers early access to POE2 for a price, and the buyer gains access to POE2. There isn't anything hidden in that transaction or held back.

If you cherry pick a term and then leave out the context it was used in, then sure. For the record, I used that term to describe the general monetization of the game. Points systems are inherently predatory design. How that translated for you into the Early Access key being predatory is beyond me.

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AlvinL_#4492 wrote:

Ah, but it's the endgame that matters :)

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Xyel#0284 wrote:

I wouldn't call this a soft release... it's a release. The amount of hype and interest makes this a big fat release, actually, and the official 'release' will be more like a big DLC.

Just because what matters to you or what you would call it, doesn't mean it is true or real.

Game is not finished yet, we miss 3 acts and some classes. I would reckon we miss some endgame too.
That is why the game is in beta, and that is why we got "early access" - stuff needs to be tested on a large scale.
It is not even a soft release since we still do not have all options nor will characters be kept after early access ends, everything is deleted and reset.


There is a reason why you need to buy a supporter pack to get the access.
IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE GAME, you can buy $30 pack and play test it.
If you do not want to do that, then you have to either get the key, or wait for the release.

You are only entitled to the stuff GGG gives you. Nothing more nothing less.
They could have easily priced it $60 since is a brand new game.

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Xyel#0284 wrote:

I wouldn't call this a soft release... it's a release. The amount of hype and interest makes this a big fat release, actually, and the official 'release' will be more like a big DLC.

It is not because a lot of hype is being generated by streamers, that this is a release? No it is not. It is just an early access. Similar to poe 1. You can call a cat a dog if you like but scientifically a cat is not a dog.

POE 1 had closed beta in 2012. Open beta in 2013 and the real official launch was end of 2013.