What's up with PoE2 negativity?

People just can't rationalize "early access", because so many companies slap on that label to get money half a year earlier.
A lot of complaints are about the "endgame", that, if some statements and rumors are to be believed, was hacked together in a few months just so it's there.
We don't even have 40% of the campaign yet.
Retention numbers reflect this - if the campaign isn't finished, and the endgame isn't done, what's the point in keeping playing after you've leveled, say, 2 characters to maps?

Then there's of course the fact that it's just different from part 1, as was the intention, and a lot of people that liked part 1 bought in and now are unhappy because it's differently different than they expected or can abide.

This game so far has some good polish in early acts (still lots of jank and poor balancing, but that will change with time), then falls off. It's truly an early beta, as far as "public" betas go.
And yes, I do remember from my time in the industry that it was said that about 10% of people are vocal, tops, and if half of them complain, the majority is probably contend. Doesn't mean those 5% aren't correct sometimes, but feedback will indeed be mostly negative. Personally, I think it's pretty good for the point it's at, but there's plenty that could be improved. I'm not sure enough yet to write any of that into feedback, however.

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stormyknight#7628 wrote:

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BossOfThisGym#2062 wrote:

People who enjoy the game dont normally go to forums to say how good it is, people who are upset do in droves. There is some genuine feedback but maybe 10% of people. Steam chart player retention will tell you more than anything you read here or reddit.

Says they have lost over 35% of players and the rate is only heavily accelerating every day (its holidays AND a weekend right now) with sentiment starting to lean negatively in online reactions. Couple this with the fact POE2 is not a game that is a 1 and done, its model relies HEAVILY on players being decade long users returning every league to buy new supporter packs, you know...That thing that let them get to the point where they could make this game.

GGG just made their diablo 3 and its about as good as d3 was to d2. Not so smug now in their tweets, im sure Jay Wilson is getting a good laugh right now.

PoE2 is still maintaining 24 hour peaks that are twice as much as PoE 1 ever had. And PoE1 was free to play, this is 30 dollar buy in.

PoE2 is still top of the sales charts (excluding steam deck) this week.

Like what more do you really want lol.

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BossOfThisGym#2062 wrote:

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stormyknight#7628 wrote:

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BossOfThisGym#2062 wrote:

People who enjoy the game dont normally go to forums to say how good it is, people who are upset do in droves. There is some genuine feedback but maybe 10% of people. Steam chart player retention will tell you more than anything you read here or reddit.

Says they have lost over 35% of players and the rate is only heavily accelerating every day (its holidays AND a weekend right now) with sentiment starting to lean negatively in online reactions. Couple this with the fact POE2 is not a game that is a 1 and done, its model relies HEAVILY on players being decade long users returning every league to buy new supporter packs, you know...That thing that let them get to the point where they could make this game.

GGG just made their diablo 3 and its about as good as d3 was to d2. Not so smug now in their tweets, im sure Jay Wilson is getting a good laugh right now.

PoE2 is still maintaining 24 hour peaks that are twice as much as PoE 1 ever had. And PoE1 was free to play, this is 30 dollar buy in.

PoE2 is still top of the sales charts (excluding steam deck) this week.

Like what more do you really want lol.

PPl have this crazy expectation for everyone to be playing it everyday until release which is just dumb. Tons of ppl are just done with it already like they would be in league. 3 weeks in most ppl have stopped in a league and this has less content. Like I've played all the chars I wanted to got a couple different builds to maps. And killed arbiter on one char. This is the point where I'd stop if it was a league generally unless I was going for the challenge cosmetics. I've got no want or need to build a new char up yet nor do I have a need to just run maps to make currency. What do I need currency for? already killed arbiter, crafting is in a horrible place. When they release the other chars/weps they'll give us a fresh economy or some kind of league cause what would be the fun of learning how they work if you can just stock pile all the gear you'll need now. Than the second they release you just have all the items you'd need to steam roll to end game. GGG would get no real data on those chars progression which is the whole point of early access.

Why the negativity? Because I saw this same trajectory with the Diablo franchise, and all the people saying "don't be negative, I'm having fun" ended up pushing the game into a terrible place.

Along came PoE in 2013 and it rocked. Had some rough patches but generally you could tell the devs wanted to make a game they enjoyed.

Here we are a decade later and I'm getting Diablo 3 vibes - less skill freedom, bland passives which do not help fill gear voids, and a lot more death ambiguity.

Early access used to be joining a game a week or two before launch to get a little head start - I understood this wasn't "early access" from years before, but this is a beta test plain and simple. More than half the skills aren't in the game yet and half the acts are missing.

Feedback is helpful, especially negative if you want this game developing into an even better one. The bones of a great game are here, but it's far from done.