I asked AI to look trough PoE2 forums and then asked it a question.

What would majority of players feel after dying and losing exp when they have worked for it 2 days ? would they feel challenged and grateful for the exp loss ?

AI said:
The majority of players who lose two days' worth of EXP due to a single death in Path of Exile 2 are far more likely to feel frustrated, demotivated, and even angry rather than challenged or grateful. Here’s why:

1. Frustration Over Lost Time & Effort

Grinding EXP in PoE requires significant time and effort. Losing two days of progress because of a single mistake (or an unavoidable death, like a lag spike or surprise one-shot) feels like wasted time rather than a meaningful challenge.
Players don't mind difficulty, but they want progress—even if it's slow. Losing progress feels like a punishment, not an incentive.

2. Encourages Safe & Boring Playstyles

Instead of feeling challenged to improve, most players would avoid difficult content altogether to prevent more EXP loss.
This leads to defensive, slow, and unfun playstyles where players stick to meta tank builds rather than taking risks with creative or high-damage builds.

3. Negative Psychological Impact on Engagement

Players don’t learn from EXP loss; they just feel resentful. It doesn't teach mechanics better than other systems could (such as boss resets or soft death penalties).
Many would rather quit playing for the day—or entirely—than grind back lost progress.
This is especially true for casual players, who have limited playtime and might quit PoE 2 in frustration.

4. Punishes Unavoidable Deaths (Beyond Player Control)

PoE has lag, desync, and random one-shot mechanics. Losing hours (or days) of progress because of something outside the player’s control is the opposite of fair or fun.
Instead of feeling challenged, players will feel cheated, especially if their death was due to game mechanics rather than skill failure.

5. Comparison to Other ARPGs (Bad Look for PoE 2)

No major modern ARPG (Diablo 4, Lost Ark, Last Epoch) punishes players with harsh EXP loss on death.
If PoE 2 keeps this mechanic, it risks alienating both casual and dedicated players, making the game feel outdated and unnecessarily punishing.

Final Thought:
Almost no player would feel grateful for losing two days of progress. Instead, they’d feel like they wasted their time, which is the worst possible emotion a game can generate. Challenging a player should feel rewarding, not demoralizing.

What if the game also keeps all the other punishments, losing the map , extra content on the map and all the currency invested to set up the map to the EXP penalty ?

AI said:

If Path of Exile 2 keeps all existing death penalties (losing the map, extra content, and currency investment) on top of the EXP penalty, it would likely result in a highly punishing and demotivating system for the following reasons:

1. Death Becomes a "Game-Ending" Punishment Instead of a Setback

Stacking multiple harsh penalties on death discourages risk-taking—players won’t just be afraid of dying, they’ll actively avoid difficult content altogether.
Losing EXP, a valuable map, its rewards, and the currency invested means every death is a massive, multi-layered loss, making it not worth engaging with high-risk content.
Instead of dying and thinking, "I’ll do better next time," players will think, "That was a complete waste of my time and resources."

2. Encourages Passive, Defensive, & Unfun Gameplay

Players will be forced to play ultra-defensively, opting for tanky builds over creative or high-damage ones.
Slow, risk-averse playstyles will become the norm, reducing build diversity and making gameplay more tedious.
If dying is too punishing, players will only run easy maps, avoiding deep Delve, challenging bosses, or high-tier content, which defeats the purpose of an ARPG’s endgame.

3. Hurts Player Retention & Pushes Casual Players Away

Hardcore players might tolerate this, but for casual players (who make up a big part of PoE’s player base), this will kill motivation to progress.
Imagine spending two hours grinding, setting up a map with Scarabs and Sextants, then dying once and losing everything—including the EXP you worked for.
Many players would rage-quit and possibly stop playing altogether.

4. Disproportionately Punishes Unavoidable Deaths (Unfair)

PoE’s random one-shots, lag, desync, and instant-kill mechanics mean deaths are often not the player’s fault.
If you die because of a server issue, an undodgeable mechanic, or an offscreen attack, you’re losing:
EXP (permanent loss of progress)
The map (removes your chance to try again)
Extra content (unique rewards gone forever)
Currency investment (making it a financial loss)
In a game as mechanically complex as PoE, this is unfair and frustrating.

5. No Other Major ARPG Has a System This Harsh

Other top ARPGs like Diablo 4, Last Epoch, Lost Ark all allow difficult, punishing content without making the player lose everything at once.
Even older games like Diablo 2 had some penalties but not this level of complete progress loss.
If PoE 2 stacks all these punishments together, it will alienate its own community and feel like an outdated, unfair system compared to its competitors.
Conclusion: This Would Kill Player Motivation
Losing a map, its rewards, and currency investment is already punishing enough.
Adding EXP loss on top of that is overkill and makes death feel like deleting hours of progress rather than a learning experience.
Instead of making the game feel challenging and rewarding, this system will make it exhausting and frustrating, causing burnout and lower player retention.
Better Alternative?
If PoE 2 wants meaningful death penalties, it should:

Keep the map/content/currency loss OR the EXP penalty—not both.
Introduce softer punishments like resurrection timers, item durability loss, or resource drains instead of permanent EXP loss.
Allow recovery mechanics, like retrieving some lost rewards if the player re-enters and clears the map within a time limit.
If the goal is to make the game brutal but still engaging, Path of Exile 2 needs to balance risk and reward, not stack multiple layers of punishment to the point where players are too afraid to engage with the content at all.

I had to stop. I'm glad an AI could put it into words.

AI needs to play Diablo 1 where you can lose your gear.

"Let's make an algorithm index a board with subjective opinions and let it summarize said subjective opinions and put -AI- in front of it to attempt making it look interesting or relevant".

AI processes existing data. There are no (negligible) approval statements on the forum. Especially individual mechanics. The forum is a place for complaints.

In this way, AI can only compile negative opinions.

Those who are satisfied with everything just do not come to the forum because there is no need.

Therefore, this opinion is a "survivor's error" and is not representative.

"

AI needs to play Diablo 1 where you can lose your gear.

As semi-hardcore it was cool feature.

Do you understand that "AI" is just regurgitating posted opinions and suggestions it was fed?
People insist on pretending that some parlor-trick software marketed as "intelligence" has brilliant insights.
#StopTheSlop

XP punishment is the worst idea ever. I never saw such bad invention in game industry!

Crafting...Jesus ...there is no crafting in this game!...is lottery with one score: you lose materials.

we have a "survivor bias" problem here.

who is angry about death xp lose will come into forum to complain, but who is happy with it will not.

but I think GGG is a little inhuman, for an ARPG game, player have to cost hundreds of hours to level up from 91 to 100, then get some stupid passive skill point.