Why I think Leagues die so fast

Honestly, I think it's really this simple:

Because 100% of the community is placed in the same server, too much gets accomplished too quickly. If there is 100,000 people playing, it's really easy to split up farming strats/resources to make currency. If the league was split up, limited to X number of different groups, less gear gets found, less resources farmed, less bosses eliminated... overall less everything.

100,000 people can get 100% of the game completed in like 1 day with that amount of pooled resources. Maybe try limiting the amount of players who can play together to see how long it takes them do more. I mean, it's literally group SSF but instead of like 2-3 people like Zizaran/Steelmage do, do like 500-1000 people in Group A, B, C, D ect...

I love being a part of the trade community because I can't play enough to be an SSF player but, like this league, by day 2: 6-Link gear was worth 3c because of HOW many were available so early. I think trade league pools too many resources too early. The best players get bored quickly because they have 5 mirrors by day 10 and then as player count drops, it basically turns into SSF anyways because nobody is buying your sales which stops you from buying theirs and round-round it goes.

TBH I think you just described a fundamental problem with trade in arpgs. All those years of players mocking GGG's stance on "trade friction" and now here we are.

My take on the subject is that the problem is not trade being easier but the league being to shalow:

foulborn uniques and new ascendancies dont add much content, we got an absurd amount of skills to choose from yet the majority still has less than 0.2% usage.

also If GGG wanted to create long term goals there are better ways than screwing everyone with trade friction, Something that could help to extend the grind is upgrades for uniques say:

5 of a given unique = mark 2 of the same unique 5
5 x mark 2 unique = mark 3 unique 25
5 x mark 3 unique = mark 4 unique 125
5 x mark 4 unique = final version of the unique

each upgrade will improve an aspect of the unique, It could be the base item used or a flat damage or improving the unique mod. the final vertion will offer the biggest jump and or a new powerfull mod.

that should give players something to chase for a long while plus the huge demand on uniques will increase their value

Maybe the first question is why you want it to be longer?

GGG has stated if people buy packs its usually in the first two weeks of the league, so longevity is meaningless.


Your last posit doesnt make sense to me: trade is too easy, so no one is buying stuff, so no one can buy anything.

If trade is easy, people buy stuff. If no one is buying your stuff, maybe you arent pricing it well.


I personally dont have a good strat, never do uber content, and sold 50 div easy on random drops.

WHenever I paid attention to the market I could make 10 div per 20 minutes buying and reselling (look for certain elevated mods), but I never really needed that so didnt engage.

Leagues die so fast because of ruthless principles goes to them.

Game about loot if drops no loot = L
Period.

I think all leagues die relatively quickly. If it's a good league, it might stay on for a little bit longer but not too much.

Hardcore trade keeps the game alive longer.

If friction and scarcity is the ultimate factor for good retention, as your post reads to me, then why are you not playing ruthless and why is that equally dead?

The game as a whole is fundamentally balanced around a large, interconnected player market. Fragmenting that population through artificial server limitations would only accelerate league decline, as lower population environments naturally lead to reduced item availability, weaker trade liquidity, and faster player attrition. Even with a unified community, acquiring certain items can already be challenging, and further restricting the player pool would only exacerbate this issue and suppress overall engagement.

What actually causes leagues to lose momentum is not server structure, but the natural lifecycle of a league itself. The majority of players reach their personal goals within the first month, often much sooner, and then move on for a variety of reasons. Some remain longer, others take breaks or shift to different games. Path of Exile simply is not designed to function like a traditional MMORPG with perpetual incentives that demand constant logins. Once progression goals are met, disengagement is an expected and healthy outcome.

A more significant contributor to rapid burnout is the long standing issue of unchecked power creep paired with an insufficient amount of content capable of meaningfully challenging that power. When existing content is effectively trivialized within the first few days of a league, players are left with little reason to stay invested. If there were deeper, more demanding systems designed to absorb the current level of player power, engagement would naturally last longer.

Restricting player populations through server separation does not address any of these problems. Evidence from small private leagues and ssf clearly shows that players are still able to progress and consume content at nearly the same pace as those in trade leagues. The issue is not access to players, but the lack of enduring, appropriately scaled challenges to keep them engaged, or meaningful balance changes that rein in excess power and make content feel exciting and relevant again.

Well maybe the problem is exactly the fact that the game is balanced around the market.

What if that wasn't the case.

What if instead reliable methods to target farm the bottlenecking resources were introduced?

Then retention or state of the market wouldn't matter to individual players. They could simply work towards their goals without having to rely on presence of other players. If you needed more divines to craft a piece of gear you could just farm them yourself. Trade then would be an additional tool for you to take advantage of if it was still "alive" at any point of the league but not the core necessity.

That, in my opinion, would be a much better game.

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Bosscannon#3325 wrote:

That, in my opinion, would be a much better game.

Diablo 3 like loot without any trading and a full balance around finding/crafting your own stuff. Of course with the same party system and temporary item trade to keep party play intact but not mandatory.