Instant Gratification is a Problem

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Endz#7323 wrote:

Am I the only one other there that hopes poe2 is made harder?

It sure could be a bit harder, but there is still a lot of space for that in endgame tbh.
But just like PoE1 it's in a good difficulty spot. I mean we do see some individuals being hardstuck in the campaign and early game for weeks, and getting entirely filtered by the most basic boss fights.
That really does speak for itself that both games are far away from offering full instant gratification, cause if they would you'd see those individuals with more success and less complain topics :)

Guy here in his 40's. I've played videogames on NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx, etc. I played D2 on and off "seriously" for 10 years, played D3 for many years, numerous other ARPGs, all forms of WoW including the original vanilla in 2004-2006.

You don't quite seem to understand what the core issue is with POE2 AND with POE1 --> there is no correlation between difficulty and reward

- you memorize the boss mechanics
- you optimize offense and/or defense
- you get your face rearranged if you're melee
- you fight through the horrible CPU and GPU performance in ANY situation
- you get offscreened by *insert caster/ranged mob here*
- you do the above until your eyeballs fall out of your head

And what's your reward in return? What's your reward in an ARPG where ALL WEARABLE DROPPED ITEMS ARE GARBAGE and crafting is necessary? Gee, I think you get approximately NOTHING for your punishment.

I played countless games, and countless ARPGs, which had a good connection between difficulty and reward. Where is it in POE1 and POE2? I juice a map and i get 10x the useless rares and 10x jeweler orbs?

I'll paint you a picture to try and force POE1/POE2 crafting-centric RNG abomination gameplay into D2 from which these games draw so much inspiration.

- you find and/or legitly (no dupes) trade for the runes you need for a particular runeword
- you find and/or legitly trade for the base socketed item for the runeword
- you carefully insert the runes into the base item in the correct order and there is a 99%+ chance that the runeword completely fails, so all of your invested effort is useless

That's POE1 and POE2. What delayed gratification? THERE IS NO GRATIFICATION EVER!

What kind of community evolved here where it's considered OK for ALL WEARABLE ENDGAME DROPS TO BE GARBAGE! And the alternative is what? Here's your 100 layers of convoluted "crafting". Hope you pass the 99% fail chance at any of the steps or all of your effort is wasted.

"GIT GUD SON"

What a joke

In general, I'm all for increased difficulty in a game up to a point, but in an ARPG that draws its inspiration from D2, you want to compensate that difficulty with NOTHING? Get out of here.

I suspect that the OP has read to many posts from people that go way over the top procaliming POE 2 to be a "dead game" and all that other nonsense.

The reality of the situation is that a large amount of people arent having fun with the game as for why its subjective and very varied and im sure you already seen most of the reasons by now.

The complaining wouldnt have been nearly as bad if it hadnt been for the POE 1 hiatus. Had we still gotten our 3-4 month leagues as was promised by GGG people would have complained sure, but not nearly to this extent since we would have known we could just play POE 1 if POE 2 wasnt our cup of tea.
But given that the only version of our favorite game that is getting updates right now is POE 2 this is where we are channeling our dissapointment.

If you take time to listen to more sensible people like some of the more popular and older POE streamers youll get a much better idea whats going on over some kid or emotinally stunted manchild screaming bloody murder in the forums.

I completely agree with you and its going to be an absolute tragedy when they ultimately make this game into PoE1 brain off zoom zoom cookie clicker.

thanks to zoomers and streamers biching about game
and peoples who wanna poe play like a spreadsheet simulator
or people addicted to gambling


i dont know, its sad times because all those clowns making fun of Jonatans vision

and they dont even know why he and chris wanted create poe in the first place.

cause diablo 2 doesnt have succesor.

vision is poe 2 being d2 succesor.
some of the changes makes the game more like d3 wich i hate with passion

I think it’s fair to say that gaming has changed a lot, and not all of it appeals to everyone. But framing it as “instant gratification is a problem” while building your entire post around your own personal gratification—nostalgia, superiority, and a desire to have the game reflect your specific values—feels pretty contradictory.

You’re not wrong that many games today are more streamlined, more accessible, and sometimes more forgiving. But not everyone sees that as a negative. For some, it’s about respecting limited time. For others, it's about getting to the meaningful content faster. Difficulty hasn’t disappeared—it’s just evolved. It’s moved away from “how long can you tolerate grinding” to “how well can you execute, adapt, and problem-solve.” Games like Soulsborne titles, roguelikes, hardcore PvP, and even execution-based MMOs like Tera or Monster Hunter are great examples of this.

The post also leans heavily into personal narrative—“I’m a dying breed,” “I was raised on the grind,” “new age gamers won’t get it”—as if your preferences are the gold standard. That kind of framing isn’t a critique of design—it’s a demand for validation. You mock people for “screaming to get their way,” but this whole post reads like a dramatic plea for your own version of the game to be preserved untouched, no matter how diverse the player base has become.

It’s totally fine to love the grind. Some people genuinely enjoy the slow burn, the incremental progress, the high-investment systems. But that doesn’t make other players who prefer faster pacing or alternative systems somehow “lesser.” The idea that adding accessibility ruins games only holds water if a game is stripped of its depth to do it—which, so far, GGG has shown no signs of doing. If anything, PoE2 seems to be aiming for even deeper mechanical complexity while offering multiple ways to engage.

So no, you’re not the only one hoping PoE2 is hard. Many players want challenge. But the difference is, some of us want challenge that respects our time and skill—not just our willingness to repeat a loop 500 times. Difficulty and grind aren’t the same thing. And neither is ego and expertise.

The irony? Everyone wants PoE2 to be good. They’re just so wrapped up in their identities—grinder, veteran, casual, theorycrafter, execution god—that the debate becomes personal. And once it’s personal, healthy conversation gets replaced with thinly veiled ego battles.