Thread by @NeverSinkDev

I've been observing the developments of the @pathofexile and related reddit drama recently.

The latest patches and communication on both sides was troublesome.

Here are some thoughts after playing the league for many days and the game since closed beta.

1/X

To understand any dispute, we need to understand the motivations.

I think the community has some absolutely rightful complains, such as:
- Magic find as we know is now weak
- Archnemesis is troublesome
- Beyond, harvest and some others are poor
- General rewards are low

2/X

Then again POE is a bit special. At it's core it requires change to stay relevant. Players return every 3 months, because there's the promise of new rewards, challanges, skills, bosses and tasks.

This is quite a daunting task from the game design perspective I assume.

3/X

GGG has a very talented team and they know their target group. Their goals is not and definitely not to make the game worse or to make it appear poor compared to POE2 etc.

These theories are just childish. So what are their motivations then.

Here's an educated guess

4/X

GGG has often targetted concepts, where a single mechanic outshined the rest.

Shotgunning, doubledipping, aurastackers, second wind etc. all were nerfed or reworked because they have been better than any options and thereby hindering creativity and replaybility.

5/X

The culprit here is the massive quantity bonus from league rewards was the absolute best way of farming and magic finding in maps.

Instead they tried implementing a mechanic that rewards you for fighting difficult encounters (archnemesis)

In THEORY this is good

6/X

Rare monsters have been one of the least interesting and weakest points of the game. Ultimatum has shown in perfectly well.

Archnemesis is definitely an upgrade. The fights are more noticable and have interesting rewards.

In theory.

However, this has some problems

7/X

First of all, I think GGG treats leagues a bit like "petri-dishes". Everything is wiped in the end anyway and if the experiment has not been great they'll remove/rework it.

This is a solid concept, but the problem is - the current petri-dish is not fun.

8/X

I think the real problem with archnemesis from the perspective of the community is the randomness. Players can encounter monsters with 4x damage stats or 4x defense stats.

Many problems would be addressed if a monster could have max 2 damage or defense or utility mods

9/X

These 'stacked mods' led to the game becoming much more deadly in red tier maps.

I think it's a good idea that we have deadly farmable content, but general mapping shouldn't be quite as deadly.

This is what delirium and similar mechanics are for.

10/X

This is usually true:

- Players generally can feel a problem very well, but lack experience/bird-eye perspective to solve it.

- Developers can move into the right direction, but lack the insight and micro-perspective. This leads to collateral damage.

How to adress that?

11/X

Honestly: COMMUNICATION

It likely is very well true that the game is long term WAY better off in GGG's vision.

I think the league quantity hack is eating design space and maybe organized MF groups should not find 2+ mirror worth a day.

This brings me to the main problem

12/X

I LIKE what GGG is doing.

Personally I think archnemesis (once rebalanced) will be great for the game. I think interesting encounters are good and the old meta of "beyond+headhunter" was a bit silly.

What I DON'T like is that they didn't tell about their vision.

13/X

There are ways and approaches to farming that are actually better now.

Unique prices are healthier. My filter doesn't have to hide 90% uniques by day 3 on higher strictness.

This is GOOD.

But I wish the rebalance was announced.
I wish there would've been more TALKS.

14/X

I think one of the things I personally respect GGG most is that they don't try treating their playerbase as fools.

The amount of theorycrafters, math and IT experts in this community is astounding.

I also understand that announcing these changes is scary/risky...

15/X

I also understand that announcing these changes is scary/risky.

which is why I absolutely dislike the level of communication on BOTH sides.

I think what's going on on reddit right now is ridiculous.

Doompspeaking, personal threats, insults, 9000 meme posts etc are bad

16/X

I think if we as a community want to be properly informed by GGG, this should not be happening.

At the same time, I really wish GGG would step forward and enter a discussion with @ZiggyDStarcraft @Zizaran and other knowledgeable community entities again.

17/X

The latest patch is easy to interpret as "you guys are wrong, but here are your hotfixes so that you don't quite/stop whining".

I don't HATE the current game state, but I want to understand what the goal is.

I think they put some thoughts into it.

Sadly: radio silence.

18/X

The main problem here by far is the poor communication and hidden patch notes.

The actual meta is playable. Kalandra is OK. Lightning conduit is fun.

In a world where many gamers lost faith in companies like EA and Blizzard, players are just afraid that GGG follows them.

19/X

Some thoughts on direct changes I PERSONALLY would like to see, here are some:

- More AN monsters with conversions affected by magic find to give MF a new niche
- AN monsters being unable to stack 4x damage/defense modifiers
- Revert to tainted currency nerf

20/X

- Harvest drops should be more available and better rerolls/prefix/suffix rerolls.
- Better ex slam outcomes (or some system to enhance it, eldritch/influence EXs show a good example)
- Beyond being more rewarding in general

21/X

Closing remarks:

I'd love to hear @pathofexile's vision and insights (not just patchnotes). Ideally on a more regular basis.

As a dev: criticism can be harsh. If I'd be in the shoes of some devs at GGG, I'd either avoid reddit or quite due to stress.

Let's try to be civil.