In two weeks PoE will have less STEAM players than at the end of last leagues

I find myself hardly get into what Chris says, as there is no actual data of player populations had been provided.

"a) The ratio of steam to non-steam players can change over time based on environmental factors. At release it was about 50/50, due to heavy promotion on their front page. There are a lot more people playing on our platform than on Steam currently.:

=> Claiming that the stream population doesn't represent what is used to be is not convincing.

"c) The retention statistics for casual players and core players are very different. Casual players often disengage at some point in the four month leagues (and thankfully often return at the start of the next ones), but the core base of heavily-retained users is growing at a pleasing rate. What you're seeing in the graph above is mostly the disengagement of Steam users over the course of the four month leagues."


=> And it's also sad to say GGG expects to see a sharp curve of player population drop down as expected. Why GGG can't expect players to continuously raise after everyone enjoy more and more with the new content, and the population keep going up? Please do not plan to fail.

"f) I don't believe that the difficulty of Invasion significantly affected the above graph. The average churned player was playing Standard or Ambush, because they're the most popular leagues. While Invasion may have been too difficult, we still want to keep a decent level of challenge in future hardcore leagues."


=> Again, saying Invasion difficulty dose't affect the curve is another misleading strategy in words. This is only because that the population in Invasion is too small to impact the population curve. How Sad. As an Invasion player, the truth is i always join trade channel 2x, 3x, two weeks ago, while now I am always join trade 3, 4...etc. Same as global chat channel, it's always channel 1 now when i joined. The truth is it's a ghost league, although still people playing. but the population is just pathetic.


g) SotV is a very expert-level expansion. I felt the game needed more end-game content, and that was at the expense of adding features that players in the 1-30 bracket would love. The next expansion has a much stronger mix of content for low and high level players.

=> So many people suggests tons of ideas for months, years being ignored. and now GGG says we need more end-game content, just simply allows maps to drop like rain and allow player to set zone level in Merciless, then it's done. While GGG feels lacking of content/end-game, then you release a expansion while 99% of the player couldn't reach it? Corrupted area exploring is also a luxury to some players.

Lastly, Denying the mistake is first step of people reaction, accept it, face it, then fix it please.

May GGG all the best on game development.

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Chris a écrit :

If you have a better marketing/acquisition/retention strategy, please let me know :)

Put all your plans for Act 4 on hold. Put all new content and MTX plans on hold. Mitigate the core gameplay issues such as desync and SFL. Watch the players return. Until the big problems are fixed the exodus will continue.

PS - it seems people are using the terms "hardcore player" and "casual player" to mean: "those who like the game" and "those who don't". That way anyone who tries the game, and is disppleased, is automatically thrown on the ignore list when it comes to retention levels. It should be just the opposite. If we're talking about how much time is spent on the game then all of us were casuals at some point when we first started playing PoE. The only difference is some of you stayed.

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spiky0209 a écrit :

Written in another language

Sorry, can you rephrase in English?

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bluefalcon74 a écrit :

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Chris a écrit :

If you have a better marketing/acquisition/retention strategy, please let me know :)

Put all your plans for Act 4 on hold. Put all new content and MTX plans on hold. Mitigate the core gameplay issues such as desync and SFL. Watch the players return. Until the big problems are fixed the exodus will continue.

No. Oh man, def No. Been talked about, responded to and subsequently beaten to death. Players are not going anywhere, why would they return?

Until you accept the Lead Dev's comments as truthful there's nothing more I can say to you to remedy the exodus of general understanding from this thread.

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SnakeBasKet a écrit :

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spiky0209 a écrit :

Written in another language

Sorry, can you rephrase in English?

I assume GGG has a better English reading ability to understand, so, nty

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TheWretch a écrit :

Until you accept the Lead Dev's comments as truthful

He said nothing. Weasel words like "a lot" mean nothing. It could be 100 users more than on the Steam statistics and it would be "a lot". There are two facts that you know and can verify:

- The Steam statistics that show an extreme exodus of players.
- GGG has turned off the /online command, preventing anyone from seeing numbers.

Sorry, I'm not gullible, and I don't take anyone's word as fact if the available facts and data grossly contradict it.

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TheWretch a écrit :

Until you accept the Lead Dev's comments as truthful there's nothing more I can say to you to remedy the exodus of general understanding from this thread.

Ahahahaha!! That's a good one. Anyways, Chris asked for input, there it is. Your response is not needed.

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bluefalcon74 a écrit :

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TheWretch a écrit :

Until you accept the Lead Dev's comments as truthful there's nothing more I can say to you to remedy the exodus of general understanding from this thread.

That's a good one.

Im glad you enjoyed it :) Seriously though, why are you guys so cynical, is there a legitimate reason you guys are so skeptical of the dev's statements?

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Mivo a écrit :

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Chris a écrit :

At release it was about 50/50, due to heavy promotion on their front page. There are a lot more people playing on our platform than on Steam currently.

You're saying nothing. That may work with the easily impressed crowd, but I feel you are dodging the issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word

Turn back on the /online command.

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If you have a better marketing/acquisition/retention strategy, please let me know :)

Start by focusing your development and addressing the issues:

- desync
- client performance
- drop rates
- trading reliance
- lack of action against RMTers
- trading system upgrade

Stop making a game for yourself and 5% of your player base, and you'll have more than 5% of satisfied players and retain more than a tiny fraction of those who try out your game. The Steam retention rate is alarmingly low.

Bravo.

I feel Chris is a great idea guy. I think PoE could be something great. I don't feel he's well suited for the actual implimentation of certain aspects of the game, tho. He also seems extremely reticent to acknowledge certain truths, such as desync being universally despised and not considered a "feature" by anyone but himself. Also, his opposition to an option that would allow "casual" players to have fun with the game while playing solo/self found just like every other arpg ever made.

Whether or not you feel these issues are worthy of some suspicion is of course your opinion, but those are some of my reasons.

Aside from that, no one can deny the game is losing players. Not even Chris. All he can say is things are not that scary, which goes right along with his stance that his particular vision of the game is free from reproach from us lowly fans. That the very people who pay his salary are supposed to just sit quietly in the dark and swallow anything we're fed.

I don't think he's a bad guy. I don't even think he's necessarily lying about anything (he's choosing his words very carefully). I do think he's much more concerned about these numbers than he's letting on, tho. Obviously he's not going to voice that on the forums, as that would likely hit donations hard (donations which already started to decrease as more players leave.)