If it wants to retain more than just hardcore players, GGG’s goal should be to help the average player interact with these fantastic systems as much as possible. It’d also provide a fear of missing out, a uniting event that brings friends together, and an opportunity to look forward to that gating content via low drop rates does not provide.Īll in all, the most engaging parts of the game revolve around build customization and progression amidst the new challenges and reset economy associated with each new League. This would reduce the barriers to end-game content, since the average player would feel as if they can accomplish more with their small but consistent hours of play. Retention could also be increased by including a very limited amount of time-gated end-game content, e.g., a raid-like event. Players could be motivated to do so by implementing something like class levels to grind up for limited-time cosmetics. GGG could vastly decrease the costs associated with trying new characters and builds by adding in a league-specific milestone (or just story completion) that unlocks a faster levelling path for subsequent characters made during the league. ![]() Similarly, PoE could provide engaging and achievable goals that get the average player to go through this character-building loop more than once each league. The game could include some form of difficulty scaling - dynamic or otherwise - to create challenging gameplay across skill levels and allow more players to interact with its brilliant build-creation systems. Thankfully, I think there are some possible options for taking PoE to the next level. ![]() These will likely be significantly improved in PoE 2. Lastly, performance, visual clarity, and the general user experience are also big issues. After that, it’s just micro-optimization. Only the first 10-20 hours of gameplay provide high enough upgrade rates in terms of new items and abilities that give the feeling of a build coming together. Inevitably reduces upgrade rates relative to a game without one Ĭonverts what would otherwise be exciting loot drops into sterile currency drops Īnd makes balance even more difficult by worsening progression-rate inequalities between the small percentage of trading players and the non-trading masses.Īfter these systemic balance issues, the second major problem is the grindy end-game that lacks the engaging and varied content that most players will expect. This issue is made worse by the currency-based player-driven economy, which: There’s no such thing as one-shotting faster. ![]() ![]() This removes the engagement that results from personal build creation and, moreover, negates all sense of challenge, since these copy-pasted builds are powerful enough to one-shot content while zooming around the map spamming only one or two buttons.Īs a result and unlike Diablo 2, players don’t get to experience the addicting feeling of picking up loot and then making choices to customize the character for incremental leaps in power. If new players don’t quit after realizing that the character they just spent 20 hours on wasn’t even viable enough to finish the base campaign and that they’ll have to start from scratch, they’re pushed towards simply copy-pasting builds off the internet. The end result is a situation where the game is trivial for top-tier builds and impossible for amateur builds. It’s too complicated for new and casual players, plus the gap between good and bad builds is inherently massive. The first of these is the combinatorial skill system that makes it incredibly difficult to balance the game effectively. PoE has several problems that prevent it from retaining new players, despite boasting a tremendous amount of content for no cost.
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