Game is dropping like a stone

I can't agree.
That game really been "dropped like stone"



And BG3 is surely successful game?



So it's not so bad IMO. PoE2 is EA, NMS and BG3 were in "Release" status.

"

baldystardust#2056 wrote:

I can't agree.
That game really been "dropped like stone"

Spoiler

No Man's Sky
Peak ~212 000 players at 2016/08/12 and ~ 4-5 000 players month later

And BG3 is surely successful game?

Spoiler

Look at this, ~ 875 000 players at max (second weekend after release) (2023/08/13) and four weeks later - ~ 496 000 (2023/09/10)

So it's not so bad IMO. PoE2 is EA, NMS and BG3 were in "Release" status.

They also don't reply on seasons and MTX. They are one and done games, not games meant to be replayed. You can't compare single player narrative games to a season ARPG.

"

Karishin#7986 wrote:

"

baldystardust#2056 wrote:

I can't agree.
That game really been "dropped like stone"

Spoiler

No Man's Sky
Peak ~212 000 players at 2016/08/12 and ~ 4-5 000 players month later

And BG3 is surely successful game?

Spoiler

Look at this, ~ 875 000 players at max (second weekend after release) (2023/08/13) and four weeks later - ~ 496 000 (2023/09/10)

So it's not so bad IMO. PoE2 is EA, NMS and BG3 were in "Release" status.

They also don't reply on seasons and MTX. They are one and done games, not games meant to be replayed. You can't compare single player narrative games to a season ARPG.

My point still stands because it's not the same thing

Then go on then , bring us a comparison with another ARPG that will outline PoE 2 retention as tanking .

"

Karishin#7986 wrote:

You can't compare single player narrative games to a season ARPG.

I don't compare games, i compare charts and players dynamics.

Have you called NMS "single player narrative game"? Tbh, it's not "narrative" at all

Despite of genre, any notable game comes to debute with some degree of hype. And loses that hype and "occasionally attracted players"

That's my point.

"

baldystardust#2056 wrote:

I can't agree.
That game really been "dropped like stone"

Spoiler

No Man's Sky
Peak ~212 000 players at 2016/08/12 and ~ 4-5 000 players month later

And BG3 is surely successful game?

Spoiler

Look at this, ~ 875 000 players at max (second weekend after release) (2023/08/13) and four weeks later - ~ 496 000 (2023/09/10)

So it's not so bad IMO. PoE2 is EA, NMS and BG3 were in "Release" status.

Plus the TE surely didn't realize that POE2 early access = Beta.

Imagine screaming for a perfectly polished game during a Beta and raging about the devs why they don't spend the holidays to completely change the game so that it corresponds 100% to his personal preference. ^^

326,155 people online on Steam alone, the fuck are people on about?

You think they're worrying? I'm absolutely certain they show this thread on a screen during their christmas party and laugh their asses off.

"

fouquet#0993 wrote:

+

my feelings are the same. Disappointed by the fact that GGG seems to have actively unlearned everything the learned from PoE1.

Yep
In settlers league POE1 everyone hated the Pirate fights being ONE portal.
I literally quit playing the League when my Tier 9 and 10 Crew and 4 million resources got deleted because The game Crashed in the Pirate fight.
Getting t9-10 crew and 4 million would take me 2-3 WEEKS of play to get back.

POE2 has been a big disappointment for me. I feel like its D4 mixed with Elden Ring with a POE Skin on top.

I wont be spending any $$ on POE2 if they dont change a TON.

"

crazyfingers619#3901 wrote:

"

KingHadu#3474 wrote:

Yeah no one wants to play this game filled with scammers, Jonathan was about to finally implement a modern Auction House to stop all these scammers but Tencent stepped in.

An Auction House would eliminate their HideOut MTX sales people only buy these HideOuts to show off to buyers, if they implement a AH it would kill a large portion of their revenue.

Selling a paid game like this then making such bad game designs on purpose to promote Microtransactions is just pure scummy stuff like what Blizzard does.

But then again POE is owned by Tencent.

I was afraid to hear this was the key reason for this, had an inkling it was. The only reason to allow such terrible systems would be because of massive revenue streams.

Real darned shame. Oh well, it is what it is.

I was Very disappointed to hear that GGG is owned by Tencent. I dont think I will be spending anymore money on POE1 and DEFENTALY not on POE2

"

Karishin#7986 wrote:

It was dumb of them to release this holiday season when it needs so much work. Don't give me " its christmas they are with their families" crap. They decided to release a busted game and then were prepared to go radio silent for upwards of a month +. Its not a good look. They had plenty of time before christmas to reassure people; but they chose to say nothing.

For some reason the felt obligated to release with well before it was even ready for early access.

Yeah, considering how much work it needs and how buggy/unoptimized it is from a tech POV this was kinda crazy in hindsight

"

eldheim#2436 wrote:

Yeah. Check steam charts.

For those that does not understand player count and ratings, its both going down, fast.
No, it's not "expected" or "normal", and any serious company should treat this with great respect and worry.

This is a game with 40 ish campaign hours and about 250 endgame hours if you go by GGG's estimates themselves.
It shouldn't have peaked until about mid January.

The drop-off is happening before most players even reach the worst part of the game, which is early mapping (sub T10), and point 5/6 and 7/8 of ascendancy.
For the people not playing meta builds, another brick wall will be found in late maps, as you die constantly and brick your XP gain.

When the players that are now battling through cruel reached that stage of the game, expect both ratings and player numbers to drop like a stone.
The hype train audience that came from one hit wonders and told everyone we should find it fun or go back to POE1, will take their leave around that time too.
They will move on to the next great big thing, that isn't POE1 or 2.

Campaign A1-3 is great. The difficulty should have been more of a curve, but the story is good, bosses great, art and sound on point.
That's where it all stops for me.

Melee is atrocious, ascendancies locked behind content most people dislike a lot, magic find is bricking the economy, crafting a random joke, early mapping is completely joyless and has no drops, late maps are horrible of you are not one of the meta 15k energy shield builds or some sort of one-shot exploit.

Passive tree massively unbalanced, and the overall pace combined with map size makes running maps a chore, not an action-filled fast little run you could do between work and dinner.

Death penalties beyond silly, punishing most builds while incentivizing a few handful of others.

Yeah this is early access.
But GGG, this is an abject failure, and I expected so, so much more after all the experience and feedback you have accrued over the years.
No, I don't expect POE1 -I expected a lot more. But got less. A lot less.

I've pointed out the peak issue to people, myself, and the low-IQ crowd just doesn't get it. They think this level of retention is a sign of massive success, not understanding that for this type of game, particularly with it being paid access, it's a monumental failure. It shouldn't have reached maximum peak on day 3, and it certainly shouldn't be down 26% peak to peak, Sunday the 8th to Sunday the 22nd, literally only two weeks later. It should be growing in numbers in this time span, if it were successful given the nature of the game and its early access status.

At current rates, it will take around 2-3 months to dip below 50k concurrent users at peak. And, given the nature of this style of game, the rate of decay is extremely likely to exponentially accelerate until it bottoms out with the relatively small handful of diehard fans who will play it no matter what. You see this in the Steam Charts for PoE1 after each new league start. Therefore, my expectation is that PoE2 peak will dip below 50k within 6 weeks of EA launch.

And, because of how PoE2 is designed, which is with heavy amounts of anti-player, anti-fun mechanics and design philosophies, most of the players who leave will have no desire to return.

GGG was worried about too high of loot drop rates and the negative impacts of lowering them over time, and yet they didn't think about the negative psychological impacts of having too many anti-player mechanics and design philosophies during the players' first impression, and how lowering the number of those, or even removing them all entirely, won't bring back players who have already formed a tainted and negative first impression of the game.

And that, to me, is the most frustrating part about all of this. GGG has proven they listen to feedback, even if it sometimes takes far longer for them to do so than it should. But there are so many people defending bad mechanics simply because to do otherwise would be to admit they paid money for an inferior product, and they're being toxic enough to players offering constructive criticism that it's driving us away and potentially convincing GGG that they don't need to change the core issues.