What's something the Devs could do to help with Player Retention?

I've always had the impression they don't necessarily want players around the duration of the league.

There are players who can complete all content in 2-3 days, most less than a month.

I just enjoy playing the game for what it is and usually play the duration unless the league mechanic bores me

They are happy with their retention loop, it's good for the game that there can be some down time, it prevents players from burning out.

Personally if it don't like the league i'll mess around in standard a little or just play something else, and come back for the next league.

They also try to avoid filler content because people burn out on it fairly quickly and it can effect league launches, which is where they make most of their money.

either make evasion a viable stat or take it out of the game. Let melee classes exist in general, maybe add a modifier to abbysal mobs that will reduce ground effects in close proximity? The game is build to make evasion a useless stat and melee a useless way to play. Why is it in the game at all if its all just going to be unplayable?

The exact opposite of the overnight destroying of anyones season that didn't exploit?

After the last patch absolutely nothing, they punished any and every last player that didn't exploit.

This philosophy doesn't deserve my money.

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Phrazz#3529 wrote:

I've played leagues for years in PoE1, but I've never played for the full duration of a league. I don't really know why that should be a goal?

ya only time i played leagues to the end were ambush and mercs, with what? an 11 year gap between those 2 where i didnt hold on for a single league finish?


as people have said afaik theyve openly said they dont want people to play for the whole league. they want a drop off, you cant have a game people play 40 hours a week every week forever. they know people need breaks they want people to play, leave for as long as they need to get hungry for the game again and keep coming back for the next league. the retention they want is for us to be here in 10 years, not for us to play this particular league for 10 weeks. if we play 2 or 3 weeks i think theyre fairly happy with that, if they get a month out of us thats great.

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Snorkle_uk#0761 wrote:

the retention they want is for us to be here in 10 years, not for us to play this particular league for 10 weeks.

This, 100%.

A league isn't 4 months long because GGG wants/expects us to play for 4 months. It is 4 months to give room for developing the next league while at the same time give everyone a chance to reach their goals. If that takes two weeks or three months don't really matter to GGG, as long as you keep coming back for more.

The only thing GGG can do to improve retention is to make quality leagues that include long term goals and/or endgame mechanics to keep people busy. IMO, 3.27 lacked the endgame part to a certain degree.

And both GGG and players know that the two games aren't really helping eachother when it comes to short term retention.

Fully agree with those saying retention is/should be aimed at us returning for next leagues, not playing the full duration of each.

I play 1-4 weeks depending on what my IRL allows and then I dip.
That's a player pattern that often gets misinterpreted as disinterest or "bad league".

It's just how a lot of us approach PoE.
And the fact that PoE allows that approach, is a huge part of why I play it.

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Varramar#7277 wrote:

I'm just curious to know what the community thinks that would keep people playing the leagues past, oh I don't know the first month or two?

Keepers for example started with around 180k people playing (steam numbers being used here) and float at around 8k people a day now.

*****I don't know if they're counting people using the standalone client, I would assume not******

Either way, the retention can be felt in the economy and leaves almost no real incentive to continue playing trade league after the first month or two when everyone leaves.

Is it a loot problem? People getting bored? I'm not sure.

I don’t know what others think, but as far as I’m concerned:

1. If there was an option to skip the campaign, I’d try a lot more classes and builds.

2. Some kind of league / economy reset after 2 months.

3. Adding new challenges and rewards from time to time during the course of the league - they could be small things from the shop, like footprints or weapon effects, whatever.

4. A boost to drops and league mechanics halfway through the league. In this league drops are nerfed into the ground and mechanics are nerfed too - running maps just isn’t fun at all.

5. Maybe split the 4-month league like this:

- 2 months of the normal league
- economy reset
- 2 months of the same league but with a Phrecia-style variant.

Any of the above would keep me playing for much longer.

Making league mechanics that are fun and interesting is what's keeping people coming back imo. Merc league was a great example of this because it offered something the game never had before mercs that you could custom gear. Imo stop aiming for perfection and instead aim for unique and fun.

The temple magnified the problem of teaming up to hunt treasures this time.
If GGG does not take measures against teaming up to hunt treasures in the future, player loss will only intensify!