GGGs Vision for PoE2

TLDR: We need a Design Manifesto clarifying the Vision for PoE2 so the playerbase understands the steps GGG are taking to achieve it please.


Important note to start: This post is mainly focused on the need of a clearly communicated vision. I will include my personal opinion, but i do not claim it to be the right, most popular or otherwise better direction, that is for GGG to decide.

What is PoE2 supposed to be?
While some few ask this question openly, others state the noticeable difference between campaign and maps and almost every feedback thread includes some comment on what GGG needs to change about PoE2 to make it what people want it to be. This results in a lot of tension and hostility between players with different ideals for the game and i think its high time we had some clear communication for what this game is aiming for.

Marketing of PoE2 before the EA release had a lot of people thinking (excitedly or worried) that PoE2 would be slower and methodical. The showcases of combo gameplay and melee mechanics like active block created a picture quite different from PoE1 gameplay. At the same time, veteran players kept asking (anxiously) about the speeds at endgame and were reassured with (imho rather vague) comments that you will still be godlike and able to break the game.

Questions resulting from this divide are contentious and the root of a lot of hostility. Will PoE2 be a successor of PoE1 (and risk replacing it) or is it supposed to be a new take on the ARPG genre? Is it going to provide PoE1 veterans with the experience they know and love (like maps) or is it aimed at players that are not interested in PoE1 (like the campaign)? Is there a possibility for a compromise between these interests and what could it look like? Is mace-gameplay the problem or everything else :) ?

To me this question seems important not because i personally prefer a specific outcome, but because it is crucial to set expectations for the changes coming to PoE2.

This kind of post has already been made many a time already.

Poe2 is poe1 ruthless, which had like 40 players.
But unlike poe ruthless, GGG + Tencent spent a really huge amount of monopoly money on promoting the game.
Anyone who is even remotely famous played poe2 on release.
And it worked for a week, until people started to sus out that something doesn't add up here.

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Alivkos#3986 wrote:

+ Tencent

That is the general issue... every game Tencent put their money on ends up a dungpile.