Wanted to share something from a dad who tries to enjoy this game with his son.

I play this game with my 15 year old son. So there is always this unique perspective I get to see while sitting next to him.

There are literal points when I see the fun drain from his face. However you can and want to math that out... it's the effect the game is having on him.

We had such hype moments in season one. I remember randomly chancing into an astramentis (the good one before it was gutted, still have in a case with spaghetti and all). We were both running around the house and annoying mom. It was a legit awesome memory. That then, because he was running the monk at the time got to HAVE A FUCKING BLAST!

Not a single thing like that has happened since, everything slowly has the fun drained from it. Disappointment from slowing development to a crawl. Every season we boot it up it lasts less and less for both of us. Knowing all the issues still plaguing the game are still there (there are seemingly way more bugs in group play and we seem to find them all).

Finding loot and playing the game NEED to be core. And it's not, it's a sad replication of a stock market meant to keep players spinning wheels as LONG as possible. And naturally people (my son in this case) are being repelled by what should otherwise be a great game.

Aye. It's been going downhill steadily, and predictably. And the missing ingredient is mostly 'fun'.

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LordKillius#0678 wrote:

Knowing all the issues still plaguing the game are still there (there are seemingly way more bugs in group play and we seem to find them all).

This is a running joke with my friends. We feel the devs only play single player. Otherwise, glaringly obvious things like instance owner bugs, and visual puke during combat wouldn't be a thing.

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mikeab79#3627 wrote:

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LordKillius#0678 wrote:

Knowing all the issues still plaguing the game are still there (there are seemingly way more bugs in group play and we seem to find them all).

This is a running joke with my friends. We feel the devs only play single player. Otherwise, glaringly obvious things like instance owner bugs, and visual puke during combat wouldn't be a thing.

The most "fun" we had this season was calling this the "season of the angles" because (and I am guessing to introduce variety) all the bosses and maps in the story were simply flipped to a different angle. We have both run several characters in different seasons and this was a first for us.

He played a bear and I tried wyvern and I legit had an impossible time actually getting to the mobs to do anything. Not to mention he found a way to bear teleport and was like 5 screens away sometimes, the animation on my screen was just him flying across the screen and we were dying laughing. Had I not been getting stuck in everything slightly geometric in any way I might have enjoyed I dunno... just walking. And let's not even get into visual clarity, that is an insane mess for group.

Then we got to temple which of course was a flaming pile of dog doo doo that only worked for either of us maybe sometimes. We just couldn't click on anything. That was one of those moments where I saw in his eyes "fuck this shit why am I not getting anything for playing the game". Which is a valid complaint to be honest.

It just bums me out that we are cartoonish Bethesda level of celebrating the comedy of these bugs as our only form of entertainment in this game.

It's the same allure as a slot machine. Frequent gamblers want to chase the feeling of that one time they got a 500x payout from their wager and will sink way more money than they get back to hit it again.

At least with PoE2 you don't have to pay to pull the lever so to speak lol.

I got a tecrod's gaze to drop this league and it was great, sold it for 58 divs which let me power up my char (who had little use for it) considerably but i know if I keep playing for that kind of chase again it probably won't happen.

I also managed to craft a 15 div staff which was awesome. But again these are basically the two highlights of the entire league for me.

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Weaver#3527 wrote:

It's the same allure as a slot machine. Frequent gamblers want to chase the feeling of that one time they got a 500x payout from their wager and will sink way more money than they get back to hit it again.

At least with PoE2 you don't have to pay to pull the lever so to speak lol.

I got a tecrod's gaze to drop this league and it was great, sold it for 58 divs which let me power up my char (who had little use for it) considerably but i know if I keep playing for that kind of chase again it probably won't happen.

I also managed to craft a 15 div staff which was awesome. But again these are basically the two highlights of the entire league for me.

Call me crazy but my son and I like slaying monsters fighting tough bosses and getting loot for it. How do you miss so big on bringing in a younger generation when things like diablo, vampire survivors, last epoch and a plethora of others is something he grew up on, I'll never know. For everything those games lack they still provided him moments of pure joy. Path is nothing but bugs and roadblocks so someone can feel superior for copying a guide faster than someone else.

Also to your point that first astremntis we found was going for 500+ div at the time. We never sold it, because PLAYING with it was FAR more fun than any fake day trading we could have done. GGG is missing the point SO HARD when it comes to this.

My gf played through all of .1 with me and she refuses to play since .2 so I try each league by myself now. .1 I made one of each character but a warrior. Every league since .1 I make 1 character or I play in standard so I dont have to start with nothing again.

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mikeab79#3627 wrote:

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LordKillius#0678 wrote:

Knowing all the issues still plaguing the game are still there (there are seemingly way more bugs in group play and we seem to find them all).

This is a running joke with my friends. We feel the devs only play single player. Otherwise, glaringly obvious things like instance owner bugs, and visual puke during combat wouldn't be a thing.

They do and only the campaign. Johnathan has stated this many times. Mark is the only hope for the game but it really seems like he is a hostage at this point.

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LordKillius#0678 wrote:

I play this game with my 15 year old son. So there is always this unique perspective I get to see while sitting next to him.

My son is 16 and while he enjoys the game he finds it to be a bit too easy.

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LordKillius#0678 wrote:

Finding loot and playing the game NEED to be core. And it's not, it's a sad replication of a stock market meant to keep players spinning wheels as LONG as possible. And naturally people (my son in this case) are being repelled by what should otherwise be a great game.

Yes, that is the core of the game. Perhaps you need to stop caring about what other people are doing and play the game for yourself.

Man, maps sh*t out insane amount of loot especially from Abyss, idk what you talk about

Saying this as solo player, all i do is run 6 mod t15 maps with 3 random tablets that usually include abyss tablet.