That casuals enjoy this game, is a conceit

Imagine my excitement to find a small ARPG streamer I watch finally giving P2 a try. She's too young to have played P1, so this was to be the gateway to the franchise.

She struggled playing blind for 10 days. Never able to kill the Act 2 boss, and quit. She played just over 40 hours April 9-19th. Keep in mind she experienced the nerfed game, as the big campaign balance patch 0.2.0e was April 10th.

She was quite annoyed by the end, and I can't imagine she'll ever play a PoE game again. My longtime dreams of her ever trying P1 are crushed. I'm sure she thinks P1 is more of the same, or not that different, and is off the menu.

Killed 2 games with 1 release for her. Sadge

The big launch numbers were purely hype. You still need to make a good game.

Yep. The stubborness with which they insist on a game design philosopy that is just not appealing to people is astounding. There is so many fundamental issues at the very core of the game that are just not addressed deliberately. Ruthless 2.0 is the vision, people are just not having it.

If someone quits the game because they can't get through a certain wall it means that the game is bad?

I really wish poe2 was that much of a hardcore game you're trying to paint, but it's really not.

Thats a good thing casuals cannot complete the game without putting in a bunch of effort. Do you want a participation trophy for booting up the game? Get real

That is why I keep saying they need to provide players with an option of a 'Beginners SSF' mode with buffed characters and a tad nerfed enemies with a higher drop rate and NO TRADING. This would be considered a true offline mode so that people can just play easily on their own.

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Slart1bartfast#0332 wrote:

Yep. The stubborness with which they insist on a game design philosopy that is just not appealing to people is astounding.

To 'most' people i could 100% agree with.

There is some who enjoy it. Hell, i'm in the bracket, yet i have an endless list of complaints, for both games. Been here since the beginning of it all, and seen many good things, and many bad... all play out.

But, this time around, i feel like GGG has attempted to reach out to a greater audience... and via hype, it worked. But, this model, it will definitely not hold 'majority' of interest to anyone outside the niche club that already eats GGG's shit for one reason or another, with a few lost, few gained, much like it always has.

At least, this is how i see things going. Business as usual. But definitely not gaining 'huge' growth with this 'design' driving the games.

They’ve got to find a way for casuals to enjoy the game without lowering the difficulty. Think Mimic Tear or summoning pools. Or an NPC ally at the Act 2 boss.

Any system that gives struggling players a way forward—without compromising the challenge—is a win. There’s room to support more types of players without diluting what makes the game great.

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hboi#6131 wrote:

Thats a good thing casuals cannot complete the game without putting in a bunch of effort. Do you want a participation trophy for booting up the game? Get real

Dude... you are a casual yourself, you just kept playing.

Having a "filter" in your game is, per se, not bad, but making the game not accessible enough is not the right approach.
The game should only have two "filters", and everything else should be made more and more accessible because it's a game and not a PhD in the medical field.
One filter is levelling up the first time and looking at the passive tree, and the second is the overall time commitment.
If you don't have a problem to "grind" in ARPG fashion and the passive tree did not scare you off - then the game is technically for you, if it's not designed like shit.

PoE2 was meant to be more accessible for new players and ppl who are not ARPG veterans, so having hundreds of thousands ppl leave your game because it's extremely unbalanced and overtuned in areas where it shouldn't be is actually missing the mark.