Why are our expectations so high, and why are players angry today?

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leto2626#2588 a écrit :

Expectation are so high because this is a company that made Path of Exile 1, a masterpiece of a game that got so many things right for an ARPG. People are disappointed because this same company worked 7 years on a game where amnesia seems to hit on the regular, unlearning what they've learned from their masterpiece.

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pierrowww87#6624 a écrit :

While I find some messages a bit too harsh or aggressive, I’m still one of the players currently frustrated with the state of the game. I want to share a few points of context that I believe are important and help explain the level of expectations I personally have for the game.

POE1 was on a fast track toward greatness. The last patches brought a ton of quality-of-life improvements while maintaining strong build diversity and increasingly deep crafting mechanics. Alternate gems, the three Atlas trees, the easier respec system, Alva trade—these were all great additions that hinted at an incredible future for the game. But the pause has been… a bit too long.

We showed up in full force and gave massive support at the launch of POE2 0.1—with over 500,000 players on Steam alone, insane streaming numbers, and YouTube videos all over the place. The kind of hype and numbers this game achieved are beyond what 95% of studios could even dream of for their titles.

But 0.1 lasted 21 weeks, which in the world of modern ARPGs feels like a small eternity. That long of a wait only raised expectations for 0.2 even higher—players figured something that took so long to cook had to be amazing. But the end result was far from perfect.

Those 21 weeks of 0.1 were also a time for players and content creators to give tons of constructive feedback. Many topics were raised, but the most common expectations could be summed up as:

A more stable game and server experience than 0.1—because if you can’t even play properly, it’s hard to enjoy anything else.

A smoother and shorter campaign (not asking for a speedrun here), with more regular and linear character progression, and less bloated acts.

Truly new endgame content (not dozens of new encounters—just one or two well-designed things to do would be great).

A healthy build diversity and balance (adjust the strong builds from 0.1 without deleting them, lift up the weak ones, and avoid adding anything completely broken).

Loot and crafting systems that allow every player to get at least a few high-tier items during the league.

A slight increase in game speed for all classes/ascendancies—not zoom-zoom POE1 levels, just a better sense of flow and speed to match enemy pacing.

From my perspective, if I had to rate each of these points out of 10, I’d give all of them a mediocre score… And the “quick fixes” patched between April 7th and 20th—while positive—mostly gave me the impression that nothing was truly ready after 21 weeks of 0.1, and that the devs are just plugging holes wherever the ship is leaking.

Personally, I’m still going to support the game and I’m excited for what’s next—but I think it’s fair to say that this league has been disappointing given the expectations, and I really hope we see a meaningful shift in direction moving forward.

Peace