[Megathread] Path of Exile

[Edge-]

Yeah this isn't transparency. This is them having said 2.26 would come in January 2025 and the end of January is here. This is complaining to your teacher that you haven't had time to start work on your project the day before it is due.

That's what's wild to me.

GGG knew they pulled everyone off PoE1 ages ago and said nothing, no warning. They knew before the holidays they'd need to push back PoE1. They knew when they came back in January that nobody had even begun work on 3.26. They knew that they had assigned nobody to 3.26 pre-production when they were dancing around 3.26 questions during the mid-month interview.

The transparency we're getting is in Jonathan admitting he's kinda a dogshit project manager, mostly. Which isn't even really a good thing. Especially since we know Jonathan actively hates PoE and doesn't play it/hasn't in years, by his own admission.

- - - Updated - - -

All of this is poor management. I am not a game developer or programmer, I have worked in the games industry where my area of expertise is project management and team lead. I would bet $5000 that this could have been avoided easily with better project management.

Also, bring back Bex. Pay the woman. Goddamnit.

Big this on both, especially since it's public knowledge Jonathan hates PoE. Him basically now being the "face" of the company speaks volumes.

Bex though...honestly the dogshit community is sorta of GGG's on making. The game always appealed to the edgelords and shit and never really tried to set limits on tone for the playerbase - hence all the uber-cringe/offensive usernames that are perfectly fine and not against rules etc. Consquently they get a lot of hardcore, toxic players in the community who are more...violently vocal. Bex was the only one who reasonably had the community respect to handle it and even she pulled back over the years - I still remember the crazy implied bomb threats over Kalandra and shit rofl.

GGG doesn't have a replacement "person" to channel frustration, moving to a more nameless community team for a lot of good reasons. But as a result, they also don't have anyone to soften these blows or really engage with the community afterwards.

As I was saying in December of last year...I feel like the Manifesto forum has been quiet for far too long and could use some updating.

[Fencers]

Also, we need Chris back. I understand Chris stepped back from the public after getting a lot of hostility for defending certain design decisions during the 'dark times' of Kalandra and Nemesis (may we never return).

But Chris was good at handling the BS and laying out the situation flatly. That isn't to say that Chris' reasoning was always welcomed, but I feel most people respected what he had to say as the absolute top of the POE vision pyramid.

[Edge-]

Also, we need Chris back. I understand Chris stepped back from the public after getting a lot of hostility for defending certain design decisions during the 'dark times' of Kalandra and Nemesis (may we never return).

But Chris was good at handling the BS and laying out the situation flatly. That isn't to say that Chris' reasoning was always welcomed, but I feel most people respected what he had to say as the absolute top of the POE vision pyramid.

apparently chris took his buyout and basically doesn't even really show up in the office anymore, and isn't really even interested in gamedev anymore. he got his black lotus money and fucked off, lol. can't say I blame him necessarily

[Fencers]

apparently chris took his buyout and basically doesn't even really show up in the office anymore, and isn't really even interested in gamedev anymore. he got his black lotus money and fucked off, lol. can't say I blame him necessarily

I feel like you are just stabbing me in the chest now.

[Edge-]

I feel like you are just stabbing me in the chest now.

well...when was the last time you remember hearing, "Hi, I'm Chris Wilson from Grinding Gear Games." that wasn't from an old video? : P

[Fencers]

well...when was the last time you remember hearing, "Hi, I'm Chris Wilson from Grinding Gear Games." that wasn't from an old video? : P

I am already crying. Please stop.

[Gorsameth]

As others have said, Chris would probably not have let Jonathan effectively kill PoE 1.

[Edge-]

https://www.pathofexile.com/private-...xdd+Thanks+GGG

There's still some space, but Pohx is running a softcore private league that starts tomorrow and runs through March. So at least PoE1 content creators are trying to support the dead game, lol.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

As others have said, Chris would probably not have let Jonathan effectively kill PoE 1.

Honestly Jonathan should step down/be replaced by some one any one who would realize that taking all the devs off your game kills your game..

[Edge-]

Honestly Jonathan should step down/be replaced by some one any one who would realize that taking all the devs off your game kills your game..

They just need to leave Mark running PoE with a small team. Literally pulling 100% of the studio onto PoE2 for the better part of 6 months and then acting all shockedpikachu your rushed game has problems and the game you abandoned is...well...abandoned is just so fucking stupid.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

They just need to leave Mark running PoE with a small team. Literally pulling 100% of the studio onto PoE2 for the better part of 6 months and then acting all shockedpikachu your rushed game has problems and the game you abandoned is...well...abandoned is just so fucking stupid.

Ya the fact that there not even in pre production is insane.

[Fencers]

Ya the fact that there not even in pre production is insane.

So many people, myself included, thought they had at least two guys working on it this whole time. LMAO

[Edge-]

So many people, myself included, thought they had at least two guys working on it this whole time. LMAO

I sorta assumed Mark was still at least splitting time between the games, at least, since he seems to be the "lead" on PoE nowadays.

[BeepBoo]

absolutely hate that they're leaving POE1 to rot, its all so stupid.

It's so stupid for a multitude of reasons, the worst of which is now POE1 heads will DEFINITELY clamor into POE2 and demand it be POE1v2. Also the fat man lies again! Who saw that coming? Jonathan starting to get a reputation... though someone had a post on reddit outlining how they've always kinda been this bad. THAT I was not aware of. I thought the community loved GGG and lauded them as someone the likes of FS or Larian... clearly not.

[Edge-]

It's so stupid for a multitude of reasons, the worst of which is now POE1 heads will DEFINITELY clamor into POE2 and demand it be POE1v2.

I mean...that's sorta what the endgame is already, lol. At least Jonathan and GGG seem aware that endgame isn't as easy and fast to build as they thought it was pre-launch and that the endgame is a fucking shitshow of a disaster right now. I just don't think they can really slow things down much, if at all, given how long they're establishing the current fairly zoomy, screen-cleary, melt-bosses endgame people are getting used to.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I thought the community loved GGG and lauded them as someone the likes of FS or Larian... clearly not.

They easily could be but they just seem to hate building good will. I don't know if it's incompetence or they really think that going "were sorry well do better" every update will win people over some how.

[Ghost of Cow]

What exactly made people think that PoE2 was going to be this slow, thoughtful, strategic, turn-based ARPG or something, anyway?

Yeah, it starts out slow, but so did PoE1 when you're level 1. Whole goal of most ARPGs is to keep optimizing a build to where it's going faster and faster through the content you're doing, when did people get this idea that it'd be slower and slower in PoE2?

[Fencers]

I watched Mathil's video this morning. I agree with him that the frustration really comes from the fact GGG's timelines are wildly unreliable.

Yeah, they get to it and usually do a great job. But when GGG say "3 weeks" they really mean "3 to 30 weeks", possibly.

[Cyclone Jack]

What exactly made people think that PoE2 was going to be this slow, thoughtful, strategic, turn-based ARPG or something, anyway?

Yeah, it starts out slow, but so did PoE1 when you're level 1. Whole goal of most ARPGs is to keep optimizing a build to where it's going faster and faster through the content you're doing, when did people get this idea that it'd be slower and slower in PoE2?

I think the problem was two-fold. First, they kept going on about meaningful, souls-like combat. Second, pretty much everything they showed was of the early game because they had not yet put the end game together (its barely passable as it currently stands). What was most surprising to me was how much fun the 1st 3 Acts were with the slower-paced combat, WASD movement, and dodge roll. Act 1 (overall) is probably some of the most fun I've had in an ARPG since Diablo 1, and the Act 3's Drowned City is almost a perfect area (in terms of enemy variety, density, and balance).

[Edge-]

I think the problem was two-fold. First, they kept going on about meaningful, souls-like combat. Second, pretty much everything they showed was of the early game because they had not yet put the end game together (its barely passable as it currently stands). What was most surprising to me was how much fun the 1st 3 Acts were with the slower-paced combat, WASD movement, and dodge roll. Act 1 (overall) is probably some of the most fun I've had in an ARPG since Diablo 1, and the Act 3's Drowned City is almost a perfect area (in terms of enemy variety, density, and balance).

This.

And A1-3 largely having that "slower" gameplay, outside of big power spikes when you get certain combos unlocked/a huge upgrade. Cruel much less so since you're powerful by then and it's clearly not well balanced at all. But then you get to maps and it feels like PoE1 again, just without insane move speed.

In other news, the Pohx Settlers league is live. Seems to be approaching the 20K cap that private leagues can have. I'm likely gonna play ice nova of frostbolts archmage since I didn't yet and that build is probably getting rekt in the next league. Thank goodness Pohx is at least doing more to keep PoE1 alive in 2025 than GGG : 3

Edit: Capped now. Pohx officially doing more to support PoE in 2025 than GGG lol.