Streamer priority confirmed. PoE is free to play, so play it for free, but Boycott GGG.

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V3n05 wrote:

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argoniashawks wrote:

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V3n05 wrote:

This is the most pointless thread in the history of ever. Legit, it was just one league launch, they learned their lesson, and they fixed the situation for the following league. Why is everyone so butthurt that one league GGG gave streamers priority? Let it go, let this thread die. Everyone is so upset that streamers were given priority, and rightfully so, but that shit is over. Let it die like Hillock

Well if and i say IF a game did give or does give some players game advantages its very disturbing!

And guess what? It was one leaguestart, and that's it. The issue is over and they haven't given them priority again after Ultimatum because they realized the mistake. Exactly why this thread is pointless because they learned from it and moved on. Why can't the players do the same?

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LiMA6 wrote:

If they had to make the mistake to realize it, perhaps their vision is also a mistake...

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Lordofthedreadz wrote:

Of course they will give them advantages to show the game in a good light, this is common practice in teh videogame industry.

Streamers are not players like you and me, not even close.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

Saying "let this thread die like Hillock" on a thread made by the guy who turned serial killing Hillock into a national pastime in Wraeclast is pretty funny. Heh.

I don't believe this issue arose with this launch mainly because this launch didn't have the same conditions. To my knowledge they didn't promise 2 hours of unhindered play to a paid streamer regardless of server traffic. And as noted by others, the changes wrought by 3.15 resulted in a lower launch figure and much quicker dropoff in player concurrency. Might be related, might not. Maybe GGG really did improve their server capacity to prevent a repeat. Dunno, dun care.

As someone else so aptly noted, if they had to take such drastic measures with the former release to realise their vision, maybe the vision is the problem. I'd go one further there and point out that we can pretend that GGG's vision is obscure or mysterious but we can't pretend the grand debut of PoE on the big stage was one of player exploitation as a resource of unlimited funding: how we can get people to play this game forever. You can read this as "how we can provide such a great game that players won't want to stop" but I'd like to believe we are none of us quite that naive. Not now.

And if players are now merely seen as a resource rather than the audience for whom GGG want to make the best PoE possible, then paid streamers have to be considered as their own thing. Of course "paid" is sort of murky; every successful streamer gets paid, that's the business. I don't mean anything as vulgar as straight up paying them to play; I mean anyone who makes money primarily from getting others to watch, play and support PoE. Once GGG identify that quality in a streamer they stop being a mere player with a twitch channel and become a potential source of knock-on revenue.

I think it equally naive to believe that GGG wouldn't capitalise on that in any way they can within their own ethical framework.

The point is that I think that framework is far more fragile than GGG would have people believe, and any damage dealt to it should not be forgotten. It is, after all, pretty much why so many of us started supporting GGG in the first place. I think there are less admirable reasons to stop than in seeing that delicate ethical position is struggling against the demands of being a world player in an inherently compromised industry, ie free to play gaming.

But as I also said: if you still enjoy Poe and like the mtxes, purchase them all you want. That's for your benefit. Just don't automatically support them now under the impression they're the same company as then. Truly they are not.

And sure, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way and I'm projecting my own ongoing shock that the devs I supported so passionately now work for a company that can make blithe decisions that grind against everything I thought those Devs stood for...but as others have pointed out, you don't reach 70 pages of discussion if you're the only one to feel a certain way.

Just because I shit posts doesn't mean I shitpost. ^_^