Congrats team, I've never wanted to play ARPG's until POE2!

I just want to reiterate, I practically have zero experience with the ARPG genre, yet I have played your game starting strictly on the seasonal HC mode, and have really been enjoying my time!! I already have 10 hours logged and I expect that number to grow quite a bit.

You have gained a fan in me, and I urge you not to listen to the loud subset of gamers in online spaces whose feedback often trends toward entitlement or frustration. I can only hope that other players who enjoy gritty, thrilling, challenging gameplay, also speak out to voice their support for your vision here.

Read on if you care to hear me elaborate.


I've only watched other people play these games, mostly friends of mine, but they've never captured my interest and my reasoning seems to align with your philosophies on where you'd like to take this game (and hopefully genre).

ARPG's in recent years look awfully boring and it seems to be due to a terrible trend where the genre as a whole has attempted to cater to over-the-top power fantasies, which don't align with the look and feel of the game world.

The enemies in modern ARPG's might as well be stuffed animals made of glitter, lining sky-blue play rooms. They are inconsequential, non-threatening, and bosses are simply piñatas dangling from the ceiling. It makes absolutely no sense to me that the genre tries to put on this edgy facade where badass high fantasy characters delve into dark, gothic architecture filled with embodiments of pure evil (demons, void-beings, etc.), and yet literally none of those creatures pose a significant threat to the player at all... I've seen gameplay of old Diablo, and it's way more grounded. Old school game design had stakes.

Games need stakes. Period. If I'm fighting the embodiments of pure evil, I better be at least a little afraid of dying. I expect to be challenged. I expect to have to fight to survive. Monsters should be intimidating!! It is so rewarding to overcome difficulties, as I've experienced in many games. It is the opposite experience entirely to instantly and effortlessly kill a room full of ants.

Please trust your gut devs! Keep the challenge alive in this game. Raise the stakes! Do not give in to the noise online. Balance the characters and weapons and abilities as much as you can. Do everything you can to discourage rigid "meta" builds, as they are quite literally the antithesis of your skill tree design!

Your skill tree is fantastic and clever - I love the concept of classes being adjacent and able to share nodes for unique play-styles! Sorcerer and Warrior being adjacent to what I assume is a paladin type class is awesome because that gives a ton of options for people to be creative and have fun!!

The loot system is great! On my HC characters I love taking extra time to try and find everything I can to give me an edge for the next fight. That is genuinely fun to me because it inherently raises the stakes. Every piece of loot I find that is an upgrade is worth the effort. The "crafting" system is also fairly easy to pick up and learn, and I love that the Stash can work as a rogue-like element to help beef out future HC characters after one dies.

I love that characters have their own relationships with townsfolk. Keep that up! It helps the world feel less 2D, and more visceral.

You also still have so many more elements to add to the game moving forward - I can't wait to see what the axe abilities are for example, or flail! Warrior is a blast to play already.

If you're curious, I'm someone who played XCOM 2 on Legend without any prior experience in that genre either. I'm a fan Dark Souls. I played the God of War remake on the hardest difficulty in my first save and killed all the valkyries. I took all the HUD elements off when I played RDR2. This is the type of gamer you have roped in and I hope you continue to rope in more of us because POE2 has the makings of a genre-defining next generation for ARPG's. Let Blizzard cater to the mercurial, FOMO-driven masses, you're building something with lasting integrity, and you’ll gain a new base of loyal, challenge-seeking players.

Much love. Keep killing it.

Come back when you have hundreds of hours in and you will understand the problem with this game.

10 hours is NOTHING. I loved POE2 when it launched... but this new seasons is full of problems and only compounded on what burned me out in seasons 1.

0.1.
1. I like to play alts. I never made it far into end game but still had fun.
2. I had 14 characters pre 0.2
3. The campaign was fun and bearable the 20th or so time I did it.
4. I thought the game was pretty slow as it was, with the exception of some really over the top builds.
5. I feel that GGG's inability to control the inflation i season 1 led to season 2's problems.

0.2 came out.

1. I will never play alts the way it is now
2. I have 5 characters that I made it to 25 with and have 0 interest in continuing since it took me around 5x more time with 5x less reward or progression
3. The campaign is a eye sore at my 500+hours. Making it slower and a requirement, is bad design.
4. The game does not reward you. Even in the 500+ hours I had on day 1 EA, I never saw 60% of the game. Now it will take me 2500+ hours to reach what I did in season 1.

No thank you GGG.

Oh, don't worry though - the micro transactions keep on coming even though the game is in a sorry state right now. Come Thursday, I will be jumping ship to another ARPG. I wish GGG luck, but they come off to me as being worse then Activision Blizzard at this point.

Come back when the honey moon period is over. Trust me, when you get to level 50+ and you are wearing level 10 gear and can't find currency to upgrade... yeah... you won't have fun because the game from level 1 is what you get up to level 100. Tell me that won't get boring fast.

"

Zedonius666#0881 wrote:

I wish GGG luck, but they come off to me as being worse then Activision Blizzard at this point.

The line is becoming very very fuzzy these days, isnt it.

" I already have 10 hours logged and I expect that number to grow quite a bit. "

you have zero idea what is even going on lol.

Does anyone here actually believe that someone with just 10 hours of play time can have such a strong conviction that the Devs should trust their gut and proceed with their vision? Does a 10-hour gamer know what the vision is? Does a 10-hour gamer know where the game was and where it is going? Has a 10-hour gamer been spending so much time on these forums that he can sound like he's been here for months at the very least?

I dunno, I don't believe it for a second.

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Zedonius666#0881 wrote:

Come back when you have hundreds of hours in and you will understand the problem with this game.

10 hours is NOTHING. ...

I have 5 characters that I made it to 25 with and have 0 interest in continuing ...

The campaign is an eye sore at my 500+hours. ...

Come back when the honey moon period is over. Trust me, when you get to level 50+ and you are wearing level 10 gear and can't find currency to upgrade...

10 hours is clearly enough for me to have gleaned what I have and compare it to the drivel online. My feedback in invaluable as a new player to this genre.

Hate to break it to you but 500+ hours since... 12/6? My dude for the love of all that's holy go play anything else, and dare I say it, go touch some grass. Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing. Time away from things will make you enjoy them more and that goes for many things in life. Take a break.

I haven't gotten to 50 obviously so I can't comment on the gear statement you made, but it just doesn't seem possible to have played for 40 levels without gaining a single new piece of gear. That being said you also stated that you only have 5 characters at 25...

I sincerely hope you enjoy playing a different game as this one doesn't sound like it's for you, but that being said I'm also surprised it took you 500 hours to find that out. Usually takes me a few. Stay strong king.

"

voodoochile78#9787 wrote:

Does anyone here actually believe that someone with just 10 hours of play time can have such a strong conviction that the Devs should trust their gut and proceed with their vision? Does a 10-hour gamer know what the vision is? Does a 10-hour gamer know where the game was and where it is going? Has a 10-hour gamer been spending so much time on these forums that he can sound like he's been here for months at the very least?

I dunno, I don't believe it for a second.

I appreciate that you clearly think my post was significant enough to be in disbelief about it, but read it again, and believe it. Don't make me quote POTC.

"

I sincerely hope you enjoy playing a different game as this one doesn't sound like it's for you,

Does anyone else believe a 10-hour gamer would whip out this line? A line that is such a common thing to say by our forum trolls.

"

voodoochile78#9787 wrote:

"

I sincerely hope you enjoy playing a different game as this one doesn't sound like it's for you,

Does anyone else believe a 10-hour gamer would whip out this line? A line that is such a common thing to say by our forum trolls.

I'm cackling. Check my Steam if you don't believe me.

Can anyone imagine him or herself picking up a game they hadn't played before, let's say the new Monster Hunter for example, playing for a mere 10 hours, and then going to the Capcom forums (if they exist) to tell the developers that they like the direction of this new Monster Hunter installment and to ignore anyone offering feedback, before finally telling someone who has been playing Monster Hunter for 20 years that the game isn't for them and that they should quit?

Can you imagine doing that, because I can't.